Mind-blowing Facts You Should Know About The Manhattan Project Before Watching Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

The cinematic documentation of the creation of the catastrophic atomic bomb and its mastermind creator will be featured on the silver screen on July 21, 2023. But here are some explosive facts you should know about the infamous Manhattan Project before watching Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

When World War II broke out—the greatest minds in America were assembled—to join a secretive committee called “the Manhattan Project.” The project aimed at creating the most fatal weapon mankind had ever witnessed—an atomic bomb. The project was headed by an ambivalent and charismatic leader J. Robert Oppenheimer—a theoretical physicist. Read on to explore some interesting facts about the nuclear age and Manhattan Project.

The Nazi state discovered nuclear fission.

In 1939, German researchers discovered nuclear fission, but the program could not achieve its goal. The Nazi government did not provide sufficient support, and the discrimination of the state against minorities compelled many influential scientists to flee the country. On the other hand, the U.S. government took immediate action to produce nuclear weapons. The U.S. military began the Manhattan Project—erecting factories to initiate the production of raw materials and hiring the best physicists in the country.

On July 16, 1945, a nuclear bomb was detonated for the first time

The detonation test was carried out under the code name, “Trinity” to pay homage to a poem composed by John Donne named Holy Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God. The detonation was executed in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert.

Albert Einstein played a key role.

The Einstein-Szilard letter was signed by Albert Einstein in 1939 and sent to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president. The letter suggested that the need for the creation of nuclear bombs was becoming increasingly vital as Germany had started gathering sources of uranium—hinting that the Nazi state was already studying the new science. After receiving the letter, Roosevelt created the Advisory Committee on Uranium. It kickstarted the U.S. government’s effort to support the research on uranium—and it later culminated in the Manhattan Project in 1942.

Oppenheimer quotes from Bhagavad Gita after the test was successful

After the test was successful, Oppenheimer quotes, “I have become death, destroyer of worlds,” from the Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred Hindu text.

Both the deployed bombs functioned in different ways

The two nuclear bombs that were deployed—Little Boy and Fat Man— worked differently. While Little Boy depended on the fission of uranium-235, Fat Man used the fission of plutonium to cause the devastating explosion.

Call it a boon or a bane—one cannot deny that the creation of the atomic bomb is a significant human achievement.