I recommend Rhodes’ “Making of” and Dark Sun with American Prometheus and the Los Alamos Primer for people seeking a thorough initial introduction to the Manhattan Project and little bit of postscript.
Indulging myself a bit here. Essentially all elements of modern society have at least a tangential relationship with Los Alamos.
The symmetry between a nuclear detonation and what happened intellectually and culturally before and after the Manhattan Project is striking. An immense compression followed by a massive release of energy. In the bomb’s case that was an explosives and physics package that led to a good yield. In the Manhattan Project more broadly it was a remarkable concentration of human capability that impacted almost every element of hard science and culture.
Indulging myself a bit here. Essentially all elements of modern society have at least a tangential relationship with Los Alamos.
The symmetry between a nuclear detonation and what happened intellectually and culturally before and after the Manhattan Project is striking. An immense compression followed by a massive release of energy. In the bomb’s case that was an explosives and physics package that led to a good yield. In the Manhattan Project more broadly it was a remarkable concentration of human capability that impacted almost every element of hard science and culture.
Something worth learning about.