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The television show “Manhattan” aired its second season on WGN America in 2015. The show portrayed a fictionalized version of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. The second season focused on the challenges of designing and assembling the “Gadget” for the Trinity test, the security situation and espionage, and personal relationships. “Manhattan” was sadly not renewed […]

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which worked with the Atomic Heritage Foundation and other partners to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, has continued to highlight Manhattan Project history. In light of season 2 of “Manhattan” coming to an end, the Trust asked AHF staff to respond to a few questions about the […]

In the final episode of Season 2 of Manhattan, everyone converges on the Trinity site for the world’s first test of an atomic device. At the end of the ninth episode, Paul Crosley went to Frank with his suspicions that Jim Meeks was the Soviet spy on the Hill. Frank isn’t convinced until he tries […]

The Trinity test is only hours away, and Season 2 of Manhattan is primed for an explosive finish. As he prepares to leave for the Trinity site, Charlie finds a drawing his son, Joey, has left on his car windshield: “Good Luck Daddy.” Before the Target Committee meets, Frank urges Charlie to make his appeal […]

“What is this, blackmail?” Charlie Isaacs asks Frank Winter in the latest episode of Manhattan. “Let’s call this, uh, negotiation,” Frank responds. Our favorite feuding physicists are forced to work together again after a test with a (non-nuclear) replica of the implosion bomb fizzles. In exchange for helping Charlie get the project back on track, […]

The atomic spies at Los Alamos are in trouble. Pablo, the 10-year-old son of a maid on the base, witnesses someone burying a box in the desert. When the military swoops in, they find the Hershey’s wrapper inside and a coded message. Pablo says he can identify the man he saw, but to narrow the […]

As the Trinity test draws closer, the scientists of Manhattan become increasingly concerned about safety. In particular, they worry about the risky criticality experiments, known as “tickling the dragon’s tail,” they are conducting to determine the critical mass of fissile materials. One mistake could cause a nuclear chain reaction and expose them to lethal levels […]

The latest episode of Manhattan brings the story forward from June to December of 1944. We learn about the events of those six months through the eyes of Woodrow Lorentzen, the reporter who is writing the exclusive account of the project and is fixated on Frank Winter’s role in it. (Historian Alex Wellerstein has an […]

General Leslie Groves may have been the Manhattan Project’s “indispensable man,” but one could also make a strong case for J. Robert Oppenheimer. Despite having almost no administrative experience, Oppie proved to be an outstanding director of the scientific laboratory at Los Alamos. “Oppenheimer commanded not just the loyalty but the deep respect of everybody […]

“The queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard,” says Jim Meeks, sounding like a Cold War strategist. “If we are the only ones who have it, we’ll probably blow up the world. But if Stalin has a bomb in his pocket, too, the game ends in a draw. It’s a stalemate. Nobody dies.” […]