Science For All | What was the Manhattan Project?
The release of Oppenheimer on 21 July is awaited with bated breath as Cillian Murphy takes on the role of Julius Robert Oppenheimer, also dubbed as the father of the atomic bomb. While the movie is based on the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer and focuses on the Trinity test, this week’s newsletter will look at the Manhattan Project at large. In response, the US government established the Manhattan Project under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers, with the primary goal of developing nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany. On July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project conducted the Trinity test in the isolated Jornada Del Muerto Desert, about 240 km away from Los Alamos. Despite being used to create the most destructive weapon known to humans, the project also paved the way for nuclear energy and nuclear reactors, and shed considerable light on understanding how atoms work.
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