Few names are as closely linked with the atomic bomb as Albert Einstein's.
Mention nuclear weapons and, sooner or later, someone will bring up his famous equation, E = mc².
Over the decades, that association has fuelled one of history's most persistent misconceptions: that Einstein helped build the bomb itself.The reality is far more nuanced and, in many ways, more compelling.
Einstein never worked on the Manhattan Project, never stepped inside its secret laboratories and never contributed to the engineering that produced the first nuclear weapon.
Instead, his involvement was limited to a single decision that would weigh heavily on him for the rest of his life: signing a letter warning the United States that Nazi Germany might be racing to develop an atomic bomb.Ironically, the scientist so often portrayed as the father of the bomb spent much of his later life arguing against the very kind of weapons his name had become associated with.
