The Atomic Bomb & the Secret City

For centuries, humans have been fascinated by the mysteries of the deep sea. The history of submarines is one of extraordinary invention, daring exploration and deadly warfare. From the first experimental underwater vessels of the 17th century to the devastating U-boats of the Fi ...  Show more

Bread cut with sawdust. Horses boiled to the bone. Men trading pet dogs and mice for scraps.In the brutal winter of 1914 to 1915, the grand Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemyśl came under siege. Cut off by Russian armies and doomed by the vanity of their own generals, the garris ...  Show more

In 1939 Franklin D Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein, warning him that the Nazis might be developing nuclear weapons. America has to act fast.

What follows is the creation of a secret city in the rural area of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Aroun ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the race to build an atom bomb in the USA during World War Two. Before the war, scientists in Germany had discovered the potential of nuclear fission and scientists in Britain soon argued that this could be used to make an atom bomb, against which ...  Show more

In Spring of 1943, hundreds of scientists and technicians moved to a remote location in the mountains of New Mexico to work at a secret laboratory. Under the guidance of their leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, they rushed to figure out how to channel the power of an atomic chain rea ...  Show more