Why They Called It the Manhattan Project (2007)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/science/30manh.html?pagewanted=all

by wglb • 12 years ago

70 20 12 years ago

Shivetya• 12 years ago

Oh the reaction that would happen now should any perceived as dangerous if not truly dangerous project were to be hidden around a major metro area or within. Considering the uproar slowly evolving over Ebola, the CDC, and hospitals who treated people, it doesn't take much this day and age to generate interest or work on people's fears.

aamar• 12 years ago

I think the reaction would have been muted by the fact that the project was long gone by the time the details were widely known. And the danger of radiation was also not widely appreciated until the 50s.

I used to work a few years ago in/around some of the Columbia buildings used by the project, where the football-players-trucking-uranium-through-the-tunnels story was well-known. The story ended with: those players all died young, mostly from cancer. Maybe that part of the story is harder to confirm; it was left out of the OP.

ctdavies2• 12 years ago

This article doesn't even mention Fermi! Anyway, I thought most people already knew the Manhattan Project began in Manhattan.

lutusp2• 12 years ago

This article doesn't even mention Fermi!

Or Leó Szilárd, who had the original idea for nuclear fission, supposedly while crossing a street:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd

Quote: "The stoplight changed to green. Szilárd stepped off the curb. As he crossed the street time cracked open before him and he saw a way to the future, death into the world and all our woes, the shape of things to come."

A somewhat hyperbolic description, but still.

lobster_johnson3• 12 years ago

Hyperbolic? Well, it is right at the beginning of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and it's Rhodes' hook used to introduce the bigger story.

But even so, he's not wrong. Szilard did have (or claimed to have) a sudden epiphay, which according to Rhodes was significantly informed by H. G. Wells' "The World Set Free", which does foretell nuclear war and "a way to the future, death into the world" etc.

heeton• 12 years ago

As an aside, I know someone who runs a cocktail bar called the Manhattans Project - http://manhattansproject.com/

He's also a developer and physics geek, so a lot of the drinks end up with fantastic nuclear program puns.

The FatManhattan etc.

If you're in London, UK, you should definitely join his mailing list and go along to an event (they happen every month or so).

ctdavies2• 12 years ago

As an aside, the Manhattan cocktail was invented for Churchill's mother.

pointpointclick• 12 years ago

My grandparents worked in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during the war. A couple interesting reads:

City Behind a Fence: http://www.amazon.com/City-Behind-Fence-Tennessee-1942-1946/...

Girls of the Atomic City: http://www.amazon.com/The-Girls-Atomic-City-Untold/dp/145161...

moioci• 12 years ago

" But General Groves feared that would draw undo attention."

Geez, the NYFT used to have copy editors. Dismayed to see that this goes back to 2007. I wonder if they were using voice recognition.

vedosity• 12 years ago

I'm loving all the history of the atomic bomb and related articles, but I'm curious. Is this just a trend on HN right now or is something I'm not aware of going on?

peter3032• 12 years ago

There is a dramatic series made just for WGN-TV called Manhattan. Its about life in Los Alamos during the bomb development times. Its about spies, counter-spies, bored horny housewives and bomb development. it was more interesting in the beginning, but has bogged down in subplots.

omnibrain• 12 years ago

Is Feynman cracking safes in it?

peter3032• 12 years ago

The recent non-fiction best seller "Radiance" covers Manhattan and its before and after. I didnt realize how many of these people I crossed paths with at one time.

jhallenworld• 12 years ago

The Twilight Zone is on Amazon Prime Instant Video at the moment.. They sure were worried about the H-bomb in 1959.

excalq• 12 years ago

I actually work for a tech startup in the Chambers Street building that was the original HQ of the Manhattan Project. It kind of blew our minds when we found out!

Animats• 12 years ago

The Manhattan Engineering District HQ was, for some time, on the 67th floor of the Empire State Building. Or so says "Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project", Cynthia C. Kelly, ed. But that's a 2006 book, and the remark lacks a footnote. An earlier source is needed.

Why They Called It the Manhattan Project (2007)

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