How Physics Drove the Design of the Atomic Bombs Dropped on Japan
How Physics Drove the Design of the Atomic Bombs Dropped on Japan For many scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, the race to build an atomic bomb was a grim battle between life and death. There was no denying the technology's destructive force or its inevitable civilian toll. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place 70 years ago this week, scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer famously recalled his feelings upon hearing the news, quoting from a Hindu text: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." But in the grip of World War II, with German scientists furtively working on the same technology, Oppenheimer and other physicists in the U.S. were keenly focused on the task of creating the world's first nuclear weapon. And within the secret confines of Los Alamos National Laboratory, an internal battle was raging between two groups with opposing ideas for how to deliver the deadly payload. Ultimately, two types of bomb using