It was undoubtedly the most talented group of physicists ever assembled. Under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project was established in Los Alamos, N.M., in the 1940s. Among the first-rate physicists recruited by Oppenheimer was Enrico Fermi (below, left), who had produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in 1942. The bomb they built (below, right) was detonated in a blinding flash on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity test site in New Mexico. The sand nearby fused into a green glaze later called trinitite. Subsequent tests were conducted on the Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands, where sailors were instructed to shield their eyes from the blasts. The Manhattan team was profoundly affected by what it saw at Trinity, but Oppenheimer best captured the experience: He later said he "remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita...'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

Related Links
UC Berkeley's "Atomic Bomb"

"Atomic Bomb: Decision"

Seattle Times: "50 Years From Trinity"

"Enrico Fermi Biography"