Symbolic manhattan project's "Parable of Penicillin"

There can be absolutely no doubt about the 'concreteness' of the the atomic Manhattan Project.

Indeed one can argue the specific 1940s term "Manhattan Project" has today morphed into a general shorthand for any sort of immense national effort devoted to one specific end.

The concept seemingly attaches itself to any proposal that potentially involves hundreds of billions of dollars, tens of thousands of scientists and hundreds of thousands of other employees,working in dozens of massive institutions and plants.

Particularly when directed by a broad national consensus that the work needs to be done right and done now --- and hence done big.

Seemingly nothing could be further from this use of the term than Henry Dawson's little Manhattan project, running in the exact same years as the atomic project, in fact operating on the same campuses of the same NYC university.