During World War II, as Allied forces sought to combat the Axis powers by conventional military means, recent advances in nuclear science led the U.S. military to organize the Manhattan Project—a massive government-run program to invent an atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project operated facilities across the country that employed more than 100,000 workers. Most crucial to the program's success was the top-secret laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico. There, surrounded by a wire fence manned by armed guards, many of the world's greatest scientists wrestled with their consciences while racing to build the most destructive bomb the world had ever known. Their invention of the atomic bomb not only changed the course of the war, but also gave humanity a frightening new weapon capable of destroying the planet. In this new title, read how the development and use of the bomb greatly affected the course of World War II and the history of the world.