News Archive

Around the world, Marie Curie is recognized as one of the most brilliant scientists of the past 200 years. In recognition of the transformative discoveries of Marie Curie and other French nuclear scientists, the Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF) has launched a new online educational program called “France and the Atomic Age” on its “Ranger in […]

The Atomic Heritage Foundation has more than 500 interviews with Manhattan Project veterans and their families on “The Voices of the Manhattan Project” website. Here are some excerpts in which veterans and their family members recall and reflect on the bombing of Nagasaki. Fred Olivi, co-pilot of Bockscar: When I looked down, I could not […]

For Black History Month, the Knoxville News Sentinel published two in-depth articles on African-American scientists in the Manhattan Project, Bias kept black scientists out of Oak Ridge’s atomic bomb work and 15 African-Americans who were hidden heroes of the Manhattan Project. Written by Brittany Crocker, the articles describe the contributions the scientists made to the project, the discrimination they faced […]

“It was an entirely different world,” Eulalia “Eula” Quintana Newton remembered, describing life in the northern Rio Grande valley before the coming of the Manhattan Project. “Our lives changed entirely.” The Manhattan Project, the top-secret World War II effort to build an atomic bomb, had a profound impact on the communities of northern New Mexico. […]

This July marks the 70th anniversary of Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The purpose of the operation, which included two shots, “Able” and “Baker,” was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval warships. The tests were the first nuclear detonations conducted […]

A great deal has already been written about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the United States’ most beloved presidents. It comes as no surprise, then, that in order to tread new ground in the field of FDR scholarship, Nigel Hamilton’s new book hones in on a very specific subject. Commander in Chief: FDR’s Battle with […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Archives recently provided the Atomic Heritage Foundation with hours of video, thousands of photographs, and numerous audio recordings related to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. These materials document some of the pivotal moments and people behind the making of the atomic bomb. AHF has posted a number of […]

On a recent trip to the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, Bill Lightfoot came across something surprising. On display was one of the firesets, or electronic fuses, that his father, William F. Lightfoot, worked on for the Raytheon Company during the Manhattan Project. Bill Lightfoot remarks, “I had been told by a Raytheon rep […]

For the anniversary of Manhattan Project scientist Louis Slotin’s fatal criticality accident, historian Alex Wellerstein has a discerning article in The New Yorker, The Demon Core and the Strange Death of Louis Slotin. He also published an article on his blog, The Blue Flash, with additional information he uncovered while researching the piece. On May […]

With President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, interest in the atomic bombings and the debate over them has spiked in the past month. The Atomic Heritage Foundation is currently developing new articles on the Manhattan Project and World War II to educate students, scholars, and members of the general public. The new content will provide historical […]