Trinity: An Illustrated History of the World's First Atomic Test

Trinity: An Illustrated History of the World's First Atomic Test

Explore the scientific crescendo of the Manhattan Project through newly contextualized and never-before-seen photographs from Los Alamos National Laboratory’s legacy collections―some just declassified.   Twenty-one days before the world learned of the atomic bomb through its wartime use against Japan, a team of scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer detonated the first nuclear device on a remote stretch of New Mexico desert, in an operation codenamed Trinity. Both a military proof test and an elaborate, well-documented scientific experiment, the Trinity shot on July 16, 1945, brought under the control of humankind a new fire: the energy of the atom.   In this expertly curated journey through the beginning of the atomic age, hundreds of carefully restored photographs, still frames, and once-secret documents bring new and vivid focus to a watershed moment in science and history. Written for all to understand, Trinity weaves steadily through subplots and surprises set against the evolving, looming backdrop of a world at war. It shadows the humans and hardware at work in the rugged landscape of the test operation; dissects a fiery mushroom cloud unfurling frame by frame, frozen in time; and follows soldiers, scientists, and two atomic bombs across the Pacific Ocean to Tinian Island, onto the strike planes Enola Gay and Bockscar , and to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities devastated on August 6 and 9, 1945.   Inviting readers into the clandestine spaces where a new era began―behind the cameras, the bunker doors, the gates and guard posts― Trinity strives, grieves, celebrates, and ponders. It artfully captures that extraordinary summer when scientists invented urgently in the waning months of the “before”―and the tension between violence and progress, hope and fear, that persists into the after. "The great mushroom cloud of an atomic or hydrogen bomb detonation has been called 'a thing of terrible beauty.' Indeed, at its most dramatic, Seyl’s illustrated history of the inaugural atomic bomb test, and beyond, possesses a hypnotic, terrifying majesty. The experience of reading this book is both admiring and unsettling. . . . A singular event captured in ordinary―and extraordinary―images." ― Kirkus Reviews "A history of the culmination of the Manhattan Project, documented through hundreds of carefully restored photographs, some recently declassified." ― The Bookseller, "Books Spotlight: University Presses" “Fascinating and timely. These images bring to life an important, indeed transformative, moment in modern history, with implications for politics and world affairs as well as for science and technology. Trinity is a valuable project of historical documentation.” -- Philip Ball, author of "Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics Is Different" “As the world continues to come to terms with the hope and peril of our new age, eighty years after it began, Trinity stands as a clear dividing line for humanity. We see in its receding light an age-old prophecy, that mastery of nature comes with a price.” -- Charles Oppenheimer, Founder and Co-Executive Director, The Oppenheimer Project, from the afterword Emily Seyl is a science writer and editor at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s National Security Research Center.