Manhattan Project

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The true story of Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb

What was the Manhattan Project?

Manhattan Project interactive timeline

Timeline of the Manhattan Project

First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

Discover more about the first atomic bombs

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Atomic bomb

Manhattan Project summary

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J. Robert Oppenheimer (L) & Gen. Leslie R. Groves at ground zero examine remains of a base of the steel test tower at the Trinity Test site of a nuclear bomb; as part of the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, Sep. 1945. Los Alamos National Laboratory

Timeline of the Manhattan Project

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History of Technology Timeline

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Manhattan Project: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	Atomic Research Laboratory
Date	1942 - 1945

Did You Know?

Upon hearing of the devastation in Hiroshima Einstein stated, "Woe is me".
In the aftermath of the bombings, scientists at the University of Chicago created an allegorical Doomsday Clock symbolizing the danger of manmade threats to humanity.
The plutonium-based bomb dropped on Nagasaki was named "Fat Man" and the uranium-based bomb was named "Little Boy".
The Manhattan Project led to increased research in ionizing radiation and eventually cancer treatment.

Photos and Videos

Timeline of the Manhattan Project

First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

Discover more about the first atomic bombs

J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie R. Groves

Atomic bomb: first test

Aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

The true story of Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb

What was the Manhattan Project?

Watch U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay decimate Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb in the Pacific War

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Topics

World War II research and development atomic bomb uranium-235

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

nuclear weapon: Founding the Manhattan Project

Key People

John von Neumann

John von Neumann

American mathematician

Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi

Italian-American physicist

Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman

American physicist

Harold C. Urey

American chemist

Hans Bethe.

Hans Bethe

American physicist

Teller, Edward

Edward Teller

Hungarian-born American physicist

J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer

American physicist

Willard Frank Libby

American chemist

Peierls, Sir Rudolf Ernst; Dirac, P.A.M.; Pauli, Wolfgang

Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls

British physicist

Theodore Hall

American-born physicist and spy

Leslie Groves

Leslie Richard Groves

United States general

Luis Alvarez

Luis Alvarez

American physicist

Emilio Segrè

Emilio Segrè

Italian-American physicist

William Webster Hansen

American physicist

Gordon Gould

American physicist

Joseph Rotblat

Joseph Rotblat

British physicist and philanthropist

James Franck

James Franck

German physicist

Edwin Mattison McMillan.

Edwin Mattison McMillan

American physicist

Maurice Wilkins with a model of a DNA molecule, 1962.

Maurice Wilkins

British biophysicist

Gregory Breit

American physicist