19380 - Oppenheimer, Los Alamos and the Bomb

Course Overview

New Mexicans know the location of Los Alamos - and of New Mexico - even when it often seems the rest of the United States does not. New Mexicans also know that the atom bomb was developed in Los Alamos and tested at Trinity site. But what they may not know is the details of the frantic twenty-seven-month effort to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans could. Why was Los Alamos chosen? How was housing constructed for the 6,000 who worked there? How were scientists gathered from Europe and transported from Lamy to Los Alamos without detection? Were there spies in Los Alamos. Yes, there were including one who fed information to the Russians. Take an intimate look at the people and town that built the bomb.