Modern Marvels: The Manhattan Project

This week, I watched an episode of the Modern Marvels series concerning the Manhattan Project. Obviously, this was of interest for me because it is related to the subject my documentary is dealing with. The program did a very impressive job of creating an interesting and seemingly factually accurate detailing of events. As implied by the name, this program mostly focused on the actual Manhattan Project, which was the creation of the atomic bomb. One of its greatest strengths was the ability to explain the science in lay-mans terms. From the small amount of science I do know, I would agree with the episodes ability to simplify the science with out taking away from the meaning. Previously, I was aware that Little Boy was the first and only Uranium bomb because there was not enough U-235, the radioactive isotope. However, I did not realize that to obtain enough U-235 for Little Boy three different, giant facilities worked to isolation the isotope. Additionally, the episode did a great job of putting into perspective how risky the mission to drop Little Boy was considering the only atomic bomb to be successfully tested was a Plutonium bomb. For all the training the men of the Enola Gay underwent to make sure there mission went perfectly according to plan, they put a great deal of faith in the accuracy of the scientists calculations.

The strengths of this episode of Modern Marvels is its ability to make a technically very complicated event in our history comprehensible to the average viewer. Furthermore, it provided a great number of interviews from people that are highly respected to have authority on the events. Many scientists and engineers from the Manhattan project were interviewed as well as authors that have studied the project in depth. Significant to my current interests, the episode did include some clips from interviews with Tibbets. While it is not clear where the information for the narrative comes from, the use of such experts does create for a rather credible film.