John Else ’ s 1981 documentary film The Day After Trinity records interviews with many Manhattan Project participants , as does the Atomic Heritage Foundation ’ s website . Extending the conversation beyond science and politics , performance works such as John Adams ’ 2005 opera Dr . Atomic and Tom Morton-Smith ’ s Royal Shakespeare Company-produced 2015 play Oppenheimer serve as contemporary reminders that the Project is not an in-the-past event that ended with the first atomic bomb attacks . Television shows such as The Big Bang Theory explicitly refer to Oppenheimer , and to mention him is to refer to the Manhattan Project . The 2005 episode “ The Zazzy Substitution ” presents a comic situation in which the main character , Sheldon , collects many cats as a method to alleviate his emotional disturbance after the breakup of a relationship . He names each cat and introduces the first one as “ Oppenheimer ,” followed by names such as Fermi , Frisch , and Feynman — all important physicists who participated in the real Manhattan Project . Without Oppenheimer ’ s work on the development of the atomic bomb , he would have been just another genius among geniuses , but he probably would not be spoofed in a 21 st century American sitcom about cat-collecting physicists .
Many songs of the last 40 or so years reflect political sentiment about the Manhattan Project . Sting ’ s 1985 song “ Russians ,” written and performed during the Cold War and in the context of the understanding that the proliferation of nuclear weapons was dangerous for all humanity , reflects a popular interest in socio-political reform of the nuclear weaponry threat . Sting writes the following metaphorical lyrics ,
How can I save my little boy From Oppenheimer ' s deadly toy ?
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