MODERN MARVELS® draws on government files, archival footage and the memories of many surviving team members to tell the extraordinary story of THE MANHATTAN PROJECT. It's an in-depth portrait of one of the most impressive scientific, engineering and manufacturing projects in human history, made all the more compelling because of its ethical implications. In just 28 months, the United States created a nationwide industry that consumed $30 billion in today's dollars and one-tenth of the nation's electricity, and delivered the deadliest weapon that mankind had ever conceived. Yet when the scientists and dignitaries gathered in that remote desert nearly 60 years ago, few had any real idea of what they had created.

Among the people interviewed for this program are General Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, the past and present directors of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the official Manhattan Project photographer.