How Los Alamos built Oppenheimer’s bomb.
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Los Alamos quickly became the centerpiece of the Manhattan Project — the United States’ successful attempt to develop a nuclear bomb. But why was Los Alamos selected, and how did that relate to the selection of the subsequent testing site? The above video tells the story of Oppenheimer’s selection of the site and the unique culture that was built there.
Los Alamos was more than a lab — it was a secret city, built for the express purpose of atomic development. Housing top scientists, their families, and support staff, this island of research led to a century-changing technological development.
Further Reading
Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb (https://history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-10/)
This logistical history of the Manhattan project provides great non-scientific background on the Manhattan Project, including the selection, distribution, and construction of key sites around the country, as well as a guide to the bureaucracy that surrounded it.
The Manhattan Project: Making the Bomb (https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1330716)
This Department of Energy history covers similar ground with additional information on the Army Corps of Engineer’s role.
Manhattan District History: Nonscientific Aspects of Los Alamos Project Y (https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4555247)
This document provides a fine-grained look at the nitty gritty of Los Alamos, from prices at the commissary to accommodations for the residents.
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I can say this is one of the worst video Vox has peoduced.
Lots of unnecessart details and the storytelling skill is confusing…….
Please review it and make another
There is nothing to be proud of here. This is indicative of a very sick minded society. 😢 The bombs built and used on others killed human beings and all forms of life. Why?
The U. S. Government didn't want Japan to have Hawaii, yet they got it anyway through consumerism. Meanwhile, those bombs used killed innocent people, including newborn babies. The effects of the soil from those testings in this country are still cancerous 75 years later.
How can ANYONE be okay with this?
I just saw the movie today it changed my perspective forever on what around uncertain future is. Oppenheimer opposed the use and development of nuclear weapons like the H bomb I cannot imagine how horrible he felt for him creating one of the first and only things that could actually destroy mankind once you watch the movie and think deep about its gonna change your perspective on nuclear weapons forever. At the end of the movie, when he was speaking to Albert Einstein, he said something that would forever hunt me. "I believe we already destroyed the world," as he said that it showed the uses and destruction of ICBMs that he didn't wanna be see or developed, but it happened. It sent a chill down my spin. I can not express how much that movie changed me. Because once you watch it and think you deeply about everything behind it or what it represents. You'll be hunted or changed, but if you ignore it, you will be without even knowing, and that's the most terrifying part.
It would’ve been nice if this story was a little more nuanced and talked about the city that was bulldozed, the people that were uprooted and the diseases they caught because of the the experiments and lack of care for their lives.
Interesting information
The part at the end with the song/poem is just… wow! So eery.
among the most haunting episodes yet!
No mention of Hispano displacement and eradication of farmland owned by the people who lived there within a days notice. Los Alamos is just one of many places the war department deemed sacrificial at the time, with no regard for the people and lives uprooted or destroyed for these aims.
Why isn’t this video talking about the Hispanic people that lived near the site?
I went to Los Alamos last year for research and got to tour the current lab stretch. The calm and beauty of the radius and the neighboring towns really resonated with why Oppenheimer must’ve chosen Los Alamos and not just because of its remoteness (so remote I couldn’t use uber eats at the hotel i stayed at). Aside from the awesome (rare and exclusive) opportunity to see the current works involving isotopes, the hikes provided extraordinary views. Would truly love to be back but in a vacation manner. After this film, many will surely want to visit and hopefully with respect.
Great background, well done as always, Vox!
That's so many sites, I hope radioactive contamination wasn't just an afterthought.
Phil!
Excellent!
Such a good video. Hits just the right beats. For example, highlighting (but not belaboring) the fact that more than 20% of Los Alamos women were having babies (far, far above the national average). The Nolan film and great pieces like this prepare Americans (and Westerners, in general) to confront the increasingly unavoidable and increasingly unstable situation in Russia.
Almost sounds like Hamilton from VICE
is that area in NM habitable today? wouldn't it be destroyed by radiation?
The other secret city was Oakridge TN
Something about this reminds me of that Don't Worry Darling movie
Just watched the movie today, such scary prophecies which most of them already happened. The only thing that hasn't happened yet is the scene at end of the movie. Man's creations for what purpose may that be, will be destroying our own existence. 😱
Smart, gorgeous, memorable. Congrats Phil.
I wonder how this bright minds were when they were kids what
Made them pursue that career how did they ended it up doing all this
3:54 bro really said "i know a spot"
No mention of the indigenous communities that lived there and where and to this day, are still harmed by the consequences of this project?
Vox is maybe the best information YouTube channel!
media dramatize these research labs to make them perfect for conspiracy theories 😂😂
Make video about 75 hard chalange
The Canada and french connection. We don't like to include ourselves, but Canada played a significant part in the research and supply of some of the uranium/plutonium for nuclear projects. This included labs from McGill/ McMaster/Cambridge and many more universities who had experiments in Montreal, Chalk-River and many more. This was truly an allied effort. Canada was part of pioneering much of the work from Rutherford from early 1890's.
These are the results of athiest materialism and aimless science
You tried too hard to make this creepy.
It’s almost as if the internet is pumping out all this information and material on Oppenheimer akin to a digital nuclear bomb.
I wonder if don't worry darling uses this concept as a red herring
Why no mention of the HORRIFIC removal of the Hispanic farm owners (and disposal of livestock), who'd been on their farms for centuries?
Lovely channel
building atomic bombs should be illegal on the world… the P.O. Box 1663 anthem is pure evil.
Man, that red on white every time certainly was a choice.
OPPIE OPPIE OPPIE