Trinity: Sixty Years Later

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (quoting the Bhagavad Gita)

At 0529:45 on July 16, 1945, in the Jordana del Muerto (Journey of the Dead) the scientists of the Manhattan Project exploded the worlds first nuclear device. The world was forever changed, and the age of the atom was with us.


The Trinity explosion forever altered not only the physical landscape of the world, but the psychological as well. The project itself was perhaps the greatest scientific endeavor the world has ever seen. Robert Oppenheimer was merely the tip of the iceberg the scientific team put together was the likes of which the world had never seen. Fermi, Bethe, von Neuman, Lawrence, Einstein, Teller, Ulam, Jette, et al., are all legends in the field.

While much as been said about the motives, it is clear that the scientists were troubled by the legacy they might be leaving.

When It Went off in the New Mexico Dawn, that first atomic bomb, we thought of Alfred Nobel, and his vein hope that dynamite would put an end to wars. We thought of the legend of Prometheus, of that deep sense of guilt in man's new powers, that it reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it.
J. Robbert Oppenheimer - Giving a speech after the war.
From: The Making Of The Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes, Page 676.

For better and for worse Trinity changed the world as we know it. Soon the Russians (thanks to among others Ted Hall) would explode thier own device and the Cold War would begin in earnest.

[edit on 7/16/05 by FredT]

[edit on 7/16/05 by FredT]

Uh thats 60 years later.

Originally posted by NWguy83
Uh thats 60 years later.

As Homer would say 'DOH"