Manhattan Project — Bunk History

Marker at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.

Nolan’s Oppenheimer Treats New Mexico as a Blank Canvas

There is no acknowledgement in the film of the existence of downwinders from the test, in New Mexico or elsewhere.

by Kelsey D. Atherton via Source New Mexico on July 28, 2023

Still from the film 'Oppenheimer.'

‘It’s Really First-Class Work’

Watching 'Oppenheimer' with the author of a definitive account of the Manhattan Project.

by Richard Rhodes, Alec Nevala-Lee via The Atlantic on July 27, 2023

Senator Brien McMahon and J. Robert Oppenheimer. April 26, 1954.

The True Story Behind Oppenheimer’s Atomic Test—And How It Just Might Have Ended The World

It turns out there was an "unlikely" chance the first atomic bomb could have ignited the atmosphere — which didn’t stop the Manhattan Project.

by Kelsey Piper via Vox on July 19, 2023

Oppenheimer movie poster.

The Race to Make Hollywood’s First Atomic Bomb Movie

Before Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer," the world nearly got Ayn Rand’s "Tribute to Free Enterprise."

by Greg Mitchell via Literary Hub on July 17, 2023

Ernest Wilkins and an atom.

The Unsung African American Scientists of the Manhattan Project

At least 12 Black chemists and physicists worked as primary researchers on the team that developed the technology behind the atomic bomb.

by Farrell Evans via HISTORY on May 17, 2021

The Nuclear Fail

Physicist and writer Leo Szilard was vital to the creation of the atomic bomb. He also did everything he could to prevent its use.

by Emily Harnett via Hazlitt on July 30, 2018

'Atomic Bill' and the Birth of the Bomb

Reconsidering the journalistic ethics of a New York Times reporter who chronicled the Manhattan Project from the inside.

by Mark Wolverton via UnDark on August 9, 2017

The Best Intentions

The Manhattan Project scientists tried to advocate for nuclear de-escalation-instead, they unwittingly abetted the Vietnam War.

by Sarah Bridger via Slate on September 4, 2015

Poems of the Manhattan Project

John Canaday's poems look at nuclear weapons from the intimate perspectives of its developers.

via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on September 30, 2014

David Dobson with scientific equipment.

Nuclear Proliferation and the “Nth Country Experiment”

A mid-1960s “do-it-yourself” project produced “credible nuclear weapon” design from open sources.

by William Burr via National Security Archive on January 23, 2025

A collage of a Teflon pan frying an egg, surrounded by nuclear bombs and the molecular structure of Teflon.

The Long, Strange History of Teflon

First discovered in 1938, Teflon has been used for everything from helping to create the first atomic bomb to keeping your eggs from sticking to the pan.

by Rudy Molinek via Smithsonian on August 20, 2024

Boats carry Hanford Journey attendees down the Columbia River in Washington toward Hanford reactors.

Indigenous Celebration of Hanford Remembers the Site Before Nuclear Contamination

At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.

by B. 'Toastie' Oaster via High Country News on August 1, 2024

Tourists at the Trinity site in New Mexico.

Trinity Fallout

The U.S. government’s failure to recognize nuclear Downwinders in New Mexico is part of a broader failure to reckon with the legacies of the Manhattan Project.

by Nora Wendl via Places Journal on June 18, 2024

Frank Oppenheimer holding prism up to face

The Atomic Bomb, Exile and a Test of Brotherly Bonds: Robert & Frank Oppenheimer

A rift in thinking about who should control powerful new technologies sent the brothers on diverging paths.

by KC Cole via Knowable Magazine on March 5, 2024

‘View of Grave Creek Mound’; engraving by Ebenezer Mathers, 1839.

The Plunder and the Pity

Alicia Puglionesi explores the damage white supremacy did to Native Americans and their land.

by Ian Frazier via New York Review of Books on January 18, 2024

A few people are gathered at the Atoms For Peace bus, a mobile exhibit about nuclear power operated for a time by the Atomic Energy Commission. c. 1947.

‘Atoms for Peace’ Was Never All That Peaceful—And the World Is Still Living With the Consequences

The U.S. sought to rebrand nuclear power as a source of peace, but this message helped mask a violent history.

by Tommy Song via Made By History on December 8, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves

Beyond Tortured Genius: Science and Conscience in Two Rediscovered Oppenheimer Films

"The Day After Trinity" and "The Strangest Dream" evacuate the mythical tropes of the tortured genius biopic that Hollywood loves to rehearse.

by Lauren Carroll Harris via Literary Hub on August 31, 2023

A miner carries a sack of ore at the Shabara mine near Kolwezi.

First They Mined for the Atomic Bomb. Now They’re Mining for E.V.s.

Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo face few protections in the global rush for metals in energy transition—a toxic legacy from mining nuclear weapons.

by Roger Peet via The New Republic on August 30, 2023

Reviewing the Oppenheimer Reviews

Christopher Nolan's blockbuster has generated a torrent of historical commentary about the birth of nuclear weapons. Is there something missing from the conversation?

by Kathryn Ostrofsky on August 25, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Why the Fascination with Oppenheimer?

J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project scientists are a rare example of weapons designers who have gone down in history.

by Ryan Dahn via Physics Today on August 17, 2023

Cillian Murphy in the movie "Oppenheimer."

‘Oppenheimer’ Doesn’t Show us Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That's an Act of Rigor, Not Erasure

The movie has no interest in reducing the atomic bombings to a trivializing, exploitative spectacle, despite what some would want.

by Justin Chang via Los Angeles Times on August 11, 2023

Major General Groves and J. R. Oppenheimer view the base of the steel tower used for the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1945.

A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public

Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.

by Fred Kaplan via Slate on August 8, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Cry Baby Scientist": What Oppenheimer the Film Gets Wrong about Oppenheimer the Man

The so-called "father of the bomb" helped bring us prematurely into the age of existential risk.

by Haydn Belfield via Vox on July 22, 2023

Actor portraying Oppenheimer.

The Real History Behind Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'

The "father of the atomic bomb" has long been misunderstood. Will the new film finally get J. Robert Oppenheimer right?

by Andy Kifer via Smithsonian on July 18, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Hollywood Movie Aside, Just How Good a Physicist was Oppenheimer?

A-bomb architect “was no Einstein,” historian says, but he did Nobel-level work on black holes.

by Adrian Cho, David C. Cassidy via Science on July 17, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

J. Robert Oppenheimer Cleared of “Black Mark” Against His Name After 68 Years

Manhattan Project physicist was infamously stripped of his security clearance in 1954.

by Jennifer Ouellette via Ars Technica on December 25, 2022

Illustration of John von Neumann surrounded by mathematical formulas, by Valentin Pavageau

John von Neumann Thought He Had the Answers

The father of game theory helped develop the atom bomb—and thought he could calculate when to use it.

by Samanth Subramanian via The New Republic on March 8, 2022

The physicist Klaus Fuchs standing in a group of people.

Why Scientists Become Spies

Access to information only goes so far to explain the curious link between secrets and those who tell them.

by Rivka Galchen via The New Yorker on January 5, 2022

The picture is a photo collage of three men against the background of an atomic bomb explosion. Pictured from left to right is Ed Hall, Ted Hall, and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal.

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.

by Dave Lindorff via The Nation on January 4, 2022

a picture depicting the FBI agent entering Miller's house

How the FBI Discovered a Real-Life Indiana Jones in, of All Places, Rural Indiana

A 90-year-old amateur archaeologist who claimed to have detonated the first atomic bomb was one of the most prolific grave robbers in modern American history.

by Josh Sanburn via Vanity Fair on October 19, 2021

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