Monte Carlo method

A 2014 paper details how Los Alamos scientists turned to ENIAC in 1947–1948 to run the first Monte Carlo simulations for nuclear weapons research, a method pioneered by Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann. The historical account is being shared and discussed again among readers interested in computing history and the origins of modern simulation techniques.

A newly circulated paper recounts how Los Alamos scientists turned to the Eniac in 1947–1948 to run some of the earliest Monte Carlo simulations, using the pioneering computer to model nuclear processes through random sampling. The episode is widely seen as a founding moment of computational science, showing how wartime computing hardware was repurposed for peacetime physics research and helped establish a technique now used across finance, engineering and beyond.