The Manhattan Project
WHAT WAS THE MANHATTAN PROJECT AND HOW DID IT COME ABOUT?
Initiated in the summer of 1942, the Manhattan Project was the codename for the US-led research project into developing the world's first atomic bomb.
The possibility that such a weapon could be created had first become apparent following the discovery in 1938 of nuclear fission by scientists based in Berlin. Fearing the Nazis would soon harness the breakthrough for their own ends, renowned physicist Albert Einstein signed a letter written by his colleague, Leo Szilard, urging US president Franklin D Roosevelt to fund new research into uranium – the heaviest naturally occurring element in the periodic table. The discoveryrevealed that when a neutron particle impacts the isotope uranium-235, it splits and triggers an exponential chain reaction, unleashing a huge amount of energy. Persuaded by the letter, Roosevelt authorised the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Uranium, which was later subsumed into the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) in June 1940.
