Part 7/11:
With the United States officially involved in World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. government escalated its efforts in nuclear research. The Manhattan Project was formalized, with J. Robert Oppenheimer appointed as the scientific leader at Los Alamos—a secret laboratory established in New Mexico dedicated to developing the atomic bomb.
As Oppenheimer and his team worked feverishly to solve complex theoretical problems, including both uranium and plutonium bomb designs, the scientific community was optimistic due to early successes in experiments demonstrating criticality in nuclear reactions. The goal was now clear: to create a weapon that could change the course of the war.