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Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project refers to the effort to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II by the United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada. Formally designated as the Manhattan Engineering District (MED), it refers specifically to the period of the project from 1942-1946. The project succeeded in developing and detonating three nuclear weapons in 1945: a test detonation on July 16 (the Trinity test) near Alamogordo, New Mexico; an enriched uranium bomb code-named "Little Boy" detonated on August 6 over Hiroshima, Japan; and a plutonium bomb code-named "Fat Man" on August 9 over Nagasaki, Japan.

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Matter & Energy News

April 5, 2026

Scientists have taken a major step toward futuristic energy tech by building a working prototype of a quantum battery—one that can charge, store, and release energy using the strange rules of quantum physics instead of chemistry. This tiny, ...
A new breakthrough is transforming MXenes—ultra-thin, high-tech materials—into something far more powerful and precise. Researchers have developed a cleaner, more controlled way to build these materials using molten salts and iodine, eliminating ...
Fusion scientists have solved a long-standing mystery inside tokamaks, the donut-shaped machines designed to harness fusion energy. For years, experiments showed that escaping plasma particles hit one side of the exhaust system far more than the ...
Scientists have transformed a groundbreaking 2D nanomaterial called MXene into an even more powerful 1D form—tiny scroll-like tubes that are incredibly thin yet highly conductive. By rolling flat ...
A new shape-shifting material can change both its texture and color in seconds, inspired by the camouflage abilities of octopuses. By precisely controlling how a polymer swells with water, ...
Scientists have taken lasers beyond light and into the realm of sound, creating a breakthrough “phonon laser” that manipulates tiny vibrations at the quantum level. By dramatically reducing noise ...
Perovskite crystals can dramatically and reversibly change shape when hit with light, a behavior not seen in conventional semiconductors. This effect, called photostriction, can be finely tuned depending on the light’s intensity and color. ...
A new holographic storage technique uses light in three dimensions to dramatically increase how much data can be stored. It encodes information throughout a material using amplitude, phase, and ...
A new solar breakthrough may overcome a long-standing efficiency barrier. Researchers used a “spin-flip” metal complex to capture and multiply energy from sunlight through singlet fission. The result reached about 130% efficiency, meaning more ...
Scientists have created a new kind of carbon material that could make carbon capture much cheaper and more efficient. By carefully controlling how nitrogen atoms are arranged, they found certain structures capture CO2 better and release it using far ...
Researchers have uncovered a new way to generate exotic oscillation states in tiny magnetic structures—using only minimal energy. By exciting magnetic waves, they triggered a delicate motion that produced a rich spectrum of signals never seen ...
Researchers have visualized atoms in motion just before a radiation-driven decay process occurs, revealing a surprisingly dynamic scene. Instead of remaining fixed, the atoms roam and rearrange, directly influencing how and when the decay unfolds. ...

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