From 1939 to 1945, the scientists behind the Manhattan Project raced to develop the first nuclear weapon. The results would change history. On July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project proved to be a success: The shock-wave of the first-ever-detonated atomic bomb rippled from inside an empty desert in New Mexico all the way out to
In three centuries the heresies of two bankers became the basis of our modern economy. When the Venetian merchant Marco Polo got to China, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, he saw many wonders—gunpowder and coal and eyeglasses and porcelain. One of the things that astonished him most, however, was a new invention,