The Importance of Scientific Curiosity in the Manhattan Project

The motivation, at least the ostensible motivation for a lot of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project was we need to get to this before Germany does. People just wanted to see how this played out. Second was saving American lives by ending the war with Japan swiftly. And then thirdly was concerns that leaving would adversely affect a scientist's career. John Lord: I think it's kind of insulting to many of the people there who really did feel they could put an end to the war.