Jump to:
home
|
search
|
phonebook
|
banner navigation
|
site navigation
|
main content
|
footer navigation
Home
Phone
Library
Subscribe
Low-bandwidth
Low-bandwidth version of this page
History @ Los Alamos
Photo of
TR-018-004.2_8x10
From the
Trinity:
The Trinity Test
gallery
People
Heritage Series Videos
Laboratory Directors
Project Y Staff Badge Photos
Image Galleries
Reading Rooms
World War II
Origins
The war in Europe, combined with scientific discoveries of the neutron and fission, resulted in the U.S. creating the Manhattan Project and the Los Alamos Laboratory, known as Project Y.
Birth of Modern Physics
LANL Site Selection
Oppenheimer's Plan
Wartime Lab
The mission to build the atomic bomb brought scientists from around the globe to the small mesa-top town of Los Alamos.
Life in Los Alamos
Military Personnel
British Mission
Spies
Building the Bomb
Trinity
On July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb exploded one hundred feet over the southern New Mexico desert at a location known as the Trinity Site.
Trinity Site Selection
The Trinity Test
Victory
On August 6, 1945, a uranium bomb known as Little Boy exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Fat Man, a plutonium bomb, was detonated over Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, and fighting ended on August 14, 1945.
The End of World War II
The New Era
The Cold War
Weapons
During the Cold War, Lab scientists worked to make nuclear weapons smaller and more efficient and increase their destructive power.
Hydrogen Bomb Development
Test: atmos.
The United States conducted atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans as well as at the Nevada Test Site.
Nevada Test Site
Crossroads: The First Test Series
Test: under.
Worldwide concern about radioactive fallout from atmospheric tests led the United States and Soviet Union to ratify the Limited Test Ban Treaty and begin underground testing in 1963.
JULIN: The Last Test Series
Arms Control
Atomic bombs altered the nature of warfare and seemingly gave humanity the capability of destroying itself. Arms control treaties became an increasingly important means of controlling the development and proliferation of atomic bombs.
Arms Control Treaties
Research
Energy
Los Alamos has long been a leader in energy research. In addition to the Fenton Hill Hot Dry Rock Project, the Lab has been awarded more than $30 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding for myriad scientific endeavors related to renewable and alternative energy, nuclear physics, and fossil fuels.
Hot Dry Rock
Defense
Defense research included work on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the production of replacement pits for the nation's nuclear stockpile, high-resolution imaging for understanding weapon performance, and prevention of the theft or illicit transport of nuclear materials.
Stockpile Stewardship
Nonproliferation
Computing
Lab scientists invented the Monte Carlo Method of computing, used to design the first atomic bomb. In 1948, work began on the MANIAC computer, one of the first electronic, digital computers. In 2008, the Roadrunner Supercomputer became the first to break the "petaflop" barrier.
Supercomputing
Basic Science
Basic science is the heart of all discoveries, and Los Alamos researchers have made many breakthroughs that have changed the world and how we view it. Scientists throughout the world from different fields of study unite to make Los Alamos one of the world's premiere research institutions.
Astrophysics
