The Collaborative International Dictionary
Manhattan Project \Manhattan Project\ prop. n. (U. S. History) A former US agency that was responsible for developing atomic bombs during World War II.
Wikipedia
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District; "Manhattan" gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $ in dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissile materials, with less than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Two types of atomic bomb were developed during the war; a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon was made using uranium while a more complex plutonium implosion-type weapon was designed concurrently. For the Gun-Type weapon development uranium-235 (an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent of natural uranium) was required. Chemically identical to the most common isotope, uranium-238, and with almost the same mass, it proved difficult to separate the two. Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment: electromagnetic, gaseous and thermal. Most of this work was performed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. Reactors were constructed at Oak Ridge and Hanford, Washington, in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The plutonium was then chemically separated from the uranium. The gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so the implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and construction effort at the project's principal research and design laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project. Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite the Manhattan Project's tight security, Soviet atomic spies still penetrated the program.
The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity test, conducted at New Mexico's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Little Boy, a gun-type weapon, and Fat Man, an implosion-type weapon, were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. In the immediate postwar years, the Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads, developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories, supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy. It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947.
Manhattan Project is a 1985 song by Canadian progressive rock band Rush, named for the WWII project that created the first atomic bomb. Lyricist Neil Peart read ten books about the Manhattan Project before writing the lyrics so that he had a proper understanding of what the project was really about. This song appeared on the 1985 album Power Windows, Rush's eleventh studio album. "Manhattan Project" is the third track on the album, and clocks in at 5:07. It consists of four verses, addressing:
1) A time, during the era of World War II,
2) A man, a scientist (such as J. Robert Oppenheimer),
3) A place, Los Alamos in New Mexico,
4) A man, Enola Gay pilot and mission commander Paul Tibbets.
The chorus refers to the explosion as "the big bang", in allusion to the start of a new universe following the singular event, repeating the theme of the verses marking when and/or where "it all began". While nuclear warfare may be seen as the ultimate pinnacle of human fear, lyricist Neil Peart does not include this song as being part of Rush's Fear series. Rush performed the song live on their Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Presto, and Clockwork Angels tours.
The Manhattan Project was the code name given to the American effort to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II, with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada.
Manhattan Project can also refer to:
Manhattan Project is an album by Jamaican-born jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece featuring performances recorded in 1978 and released on the Bee Hive label.
Usage examples of "manhattan project".
Cohen began his career on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he was charged with studying the effects of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Federation of Atomic Scientists, a group composed of the younger physicists and chemists who had worked on the Manhattan Project and been terrified of what they had accomplished, was under attack from many official and unofficial quarters as unpatriotic ormuch worse in those daysdemonstrating outright friendliness with the potential enemy.
Nash was one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project which built the first atomic bomb.
I'll run it like the Manhattan Project-most of you remember the A-bomb job.
The chap that headed up the Manhattan Project didn't know a neutron from Uncle George-but he got results.
I had shuffled papers in the legal section of the Manhattan project-in civilian clothes.
I had shuffled papers in the legal section of the Manhattan project - in civilian clothes.
The only historical precedent is the Manhattan Project during World War Two.
F And so it came about that at Casablanca, the United States and Britain agreed on a major intensification of the strategic bomber offensive, and on giving top priority to the Manhattan Project, as the A-bomb program was now officially called.
There are stilt a lot of physicists alive from the Manhattan Project days-on both sides of the Iron Curtain-and some of them may well repent.
There are stilt a lot of physicists alive from the Manhattan Project days-on bot~ sides of the Iron Curtain-and some of them may well repen~ But what rotten luck.