The Manhattan Project was the largest government sponsored research and development project of its time.  Some things worth noting, in light of the present US government attitude toward science: It's hard to overstate the role played by immigrant scientists in this story.  Szilard, Einstein, Fermi, Wigner, Teller, von Neumann, and many more. I was trying to remember when the Manhattan Project became publicly known in any detail.  It turns out, within three days of the US bombing of Nagasaki, the