All language subtitles for American Genius Series - S01E07 - Oppenheimer vs Heisenberg

Chain reaction.

Aid funds as uranium.

And you've got an
instrument of unimaginable to.

When can we expect
delivery of your first super bowl

average age is defined
by its innovations

the greatest advances.

Are born out of fear struggles.

Between rivals.

Werner Heisenberg.

And Robert Oppenheimer.

Are on the front lines
of a new battlefield

where a war gentlemen
the everyday men are dying.

Striving to unleash
the destructive power.

Of the atomic bomb.

Race between Heisenberg
and Oppenheimer.

Will take war to a new frontier

will have only enough
uranium for a single bar

and change the world forever.

That both sides.

Victory is the only option.

No matter what the cost.

In the years following
world war one

the German economy is in ruins.

For young Germans
like verner Heisenberg.

Country's defeat a shattering.

Eisenberg like many German
youth was definitely a patriotic

he really believe that Germany
should be strong and the Germany

to recover.

Heisenberg pours himself
into his chosen field.

A new science called
quantum physics.

Quantum physics is
the physics of the atom.

Where we have
bizarre concept like

how can something disappear
and reappear someplace else

how can you be two
places at the same time.

But that's what
electrons do all the time.

As.

Heisenberg publishers of paper.

That describes the
limitations of what we can know

about how particles behave
at the subatomic level.

It's called the
uncertainty principle.

And it will forever change.

Our quantum
physics is understood.

In nineteen thirty three

Heisenberg received
the nobel prize.

Making him one of the
youngest winners of all time.

He is now one of Germany's
most important scientists.

Just as a new party is
coming to power in the country.

National socialists.

Consider.

The physical phenomenon.

On a nano skeptic scale.

Five thousand miles away

Heisenberg's work has captured the
attention of another young physicist.

Where the action.

Is on the order of
the planck constant.

Robert Oppenheimer

is an ambitious
college professor.

Who also dreams of
making his Mark on the world.

He was born to a
fairly well to do family of

Jewish immigrants from Germany.

Extremely intelligent
extremely capable.

He's ambitious and
Oppenheimer's salvation in physics

was being exposed the quantum
mechanics and eisenberg.

Oppenheimer sees Heisenberg
subatomic world as a new frontier.

Right for discovery.

Especially when he gets
word of a singular breakthrough.

Team of Germans claim they've
turned quantum theory into action.

And of split.

The uranium atom.

Oppenheimer doesn't
believe it's possible.

Until his team.

Recreates the experiment.

And they see for themselves.

A nuclear reaction releases more
energy than a chemical reaction.

As much as fifty
million times more.

The splitting of the arab.

Releases a little
tiny bit of energy.

But.

If you split a huge
number of atoms.

At the same time

you release an unprecedented
amount of of energy.

The question on the table was

could that be done.

Discovery means it could be possible to
create a weapon of unimaginable power.

Oppenheimer sees it
as a harrowing revelation.

And he's not the only one.

Idea of creating a nuclear
bomb is a theoretical question.

Both Oppenheimer Heisenberg know

it won't stay that way for long.

Hitler has rebuild Germany
into a fearsome power.

And has begun his
conquest of Europe.

Many German scientists
have already left the country.

But Heisenberg stays.

Never before had the honor.

Of addressing the
nobel prize winner.

The Ana is mine.

My superiors.

Concerned.

About your association
with your physics.

You mean Einstein.

Einstein.

Bore plug.

Is the know was illness.

That you are a

wide do.

Everything do is

to clients a good of Germany.

Both one sibling
order to the world.

Nice or science

he was so gatherings.

I wouldn't speak
on Craig's fewer.

Him about your case.

Heisenberg was a patriot
but he was not a Nazi.

That left him with
a serious conflict.

After a year of questioning

the Nazis finally accept
Heisenberg's loyalty.

In nineteen thirty nine.

Heisenberg sets on
for the united states.

To meet with some of the
brightest minds in nuclear physics.

He went to discuss
the latest discoveries.

And so

just before the outbreak of the

second one world war in Europe.

We find Heisenberg at a
conference in the united states.

About this brand new and interesting
discovery called nuclear fission.

It's a gathering of the most renown
around physicists in the world.

With the Nazis aggressively
marching through Europe.

There are meeting is no
longer just about science.

You have a moment professor.

Of course.

At your paper and twenty seven.

An uncertainty.

That made me a
theoretical physicist.

The great.

Even when Einstein
the question Layla.

Unpredictable
and noble universe.

Couldn't agree more.

I hope america will
be seeing more of you.

Nowadays it seems very unlikely.

Of course you'd be
welcomed with open arms.

Welcome to.

Work against my homeland.

To save the world from Hitler.

I have seen once in a
lot can do to Germany.

Thank you doctor.

For your hospitality.

Heisenberg said basically

no no I'm not going to defect.

He wasn't

ready in fact he
never was ready to

throw over his.

Patriotism.

For Germany.

By pledging allegiance
to Adolf Hitler.

Werner Heisenberg has just become
one of the most dangerous men on earth.

Atomic physicist
burner Heisenberg.

Will stay in Nazi Germany.

As Europe now we rubs.

Hitler takes Poland.

France and england declare war.

Within months

the Nazis are planning
invasions across the continent.

And exploring the possibility
the of a nuclear bomb.

Chain reaction.

Create sans as uranium.

And you've got an installment
of unimaginable power.

One she knew you could get

all this energy.

Out of the nucleus.

You could imagine building a

nuclear bomb unbelievable
destructive force.

Said the high
government response.

Is basically

this looks really like
something important.

Let's move on it.

So.

When can we expect delivery
of your face Superbowl.

As a.

Principal is simple.

The process is not.

Thousand problems
that have to be answered.

Some questions we.

Just begun to see.

I'm sure your next
one part will be more.

Optimistic.

Nazis order Heisenberg
to get to work.

Heisenberg waste no time.

In america the nuclear
effort has barely begun.

Until Albert Einstein.

The most famous
physicist in the world.

Writes a letter to
president Roosevelt.

Albert Einstein change
the course of history.

He talked about a super weapon

being created by
Germany's finest physicists.

A device which will wipe
out entire city harbert.

Franklin Roosevelt
took this seriously.

In October nineteen forty one.

Roosevelt initiates
a top secret plan.

One thousand two hundred
and fifty tons of uranium

or have been shipped
from the Belgian Congo

to new York city.

Where nuclear scientists
are already base detested.

Operation is dubbed.

The Manhattan project.

Made a lot of people tonight but
don't be afraid all that's missing.

Is a star scientists
the to lead the effort.

Here we are.

The three glasses
of them are low least.

As a well-paid professor at the
university of California Berkeley.

Robert Oppenheimer's and
joined the perks of academics.

Despite his carefree lifestyle.

Oppenheimer once more.

Oppenheimer.

Is ambitious.

He's always wanted to
be seen as this real genius

as like as a guy who could
accomplish great things

and Oppenheimer
really wants that he really

wants that accomplishment.

Science.

And knowledge.

Energy of a charged
atomic oscillator

theoretically associated with
the electromagnetic wave itself.

Represents the minimum
amount of energy required

to form an
electromagnetic field.

Army colonel Leslie groves is
in search of a scientific leader.

For the Manhattan project.

Chapters nineteen
and twenty thank you.

Dr.

Leslie groves.

That a moment of your time.

As groves didn't get
along with most scientists.

Bros is very graphic and.

Huh he has a very hard time

imagining how he is going to wrangle
a bunch of theoretical physicists

he can't just order
these people around

so when groves is looking
for the chief scientist

that person who's
going to be in charge of

he's looking for someone
scientists will listen to.

Dr if the president
were to ask you

what the three greatest challenges to
producing a nuclear device what would you say.

Mr president.

Number one.

Unknown amounts of
uranium or have to be mind.

Then processed in factories
production on an industrial scale.

In the end we need the
uranium highly refined.

To.

We need to figure out how
to pull off a chain reaction.

Then how to control it.

In a self.

Chain reaction we
need to go critical.

Oppenheimer had
never run anything

more complex than a seminar.

But groves left that interview

believing that nobody a

understood as clearly
as Oppenheimer

what had to be done

to produce an atomic bomb.

Now j Robert Oppenheimer
is in charge of an undertaking.

That is among the most ambitious
and fateful of the twentieth century.

But he's already
years behind his rival.

Werner Heisenberg has the lab.

The uranium.

And the determination
okay lot at.

Nazis and a to comic bomb.

In nineteen forty two.

As war spreads across
Europe and the pacific.

Robert Oppenheimer
and verner Heisenberg

are fighting on a
new kind of battlefield.

Now that the uranium
atom has been split.

The nuclear age has begun.

And united states and Germany
are in a race to build an atomic bomb.

The Americans are really afraid
that the Germans will get a bomb first.

They know the Germans
have uranium they

or the Germans of eisenberg.

The Nazis have already captured twelve
hundred tons of uranium from Belgium.

Key to the bomb is to
split those uranium atoms.

And create an
uncontrolled chain reaction.

It's not that each
little reaction

release is very much energy

is that if you chain them
together a has exponential growth.

If you could make

a lot of uranium atom
split up the same time.

It would release a tremendous amount
of energy enough to destroy an entire city.

For now.

It's just a theory.

Unless verner
Heisenberg can prove it.

Didn't know whether
you could produce a

chain reaction.

Measure that.

Had to show that

with an experiment.

A lot at.

Slowly now.

Heisenberg builds a small
nuclear reactor called a pile.

A the lower.

Neutron source is
placed in the center.

Surrounded by layers of
heavy water and uranium.

If you can detect more
neutrons then he started with.

It will be proof.

That he split the
nucleus of multiple atoms.

First step in creating
an atomic chain reaction.

The at an excessive
of a ten percent.

That they have an
access of of a ten percent.

This was a crucial experience.

Needed to prove that a
chain reaction was possible.

Before you went through the
truly enormous industrial process

of pulling out of
natural uranium

the very rare part
of it that will blow up.

Heisenberg's
experiment is a beginning.

And for now.

Only one thing is certain.

The Nazis or on the path
towards an atomic bomb.

While the Americans
are just getting started.

By late nineteen forty two

as Europe suffocates under
the crushing grip of the Nazis.

The Americans can only speculate
about Germany's nuclear ambitions.

But they are determined to
beat the Germans to the bomb.

This is a spot in my opinion.

Al.

Is there are enough area.

You tell me.

General Leslie groves and his
new recruit Robert Oppenheimer.

Need a better base of operations
that Manhattan's whole stuff here.

They need somewhere isolated.

And away from prying eyes.

Oppenheimer wanted
a place that was private.

General grows wanted a place
where could put up a bunch of

barbed wire fences
and keep everybody

locked away from
the rest of the world

to keep this program secret.

Oppenheimer convinces
groves he has the answer.

Isolated town in new Mexico
is known since he was a boy.

Is thirty miles
northwest of Santa felt.

It's called los Alamos.

They both went out and surveyed the area
around los Alamos were there was a building.

That they could use
as a base of operations.

Welcome.

I know you're all wondering why we brought
you here to the middle of the desert.

Gentlemen.

The goal of this project is to
produce a practical military weapon.

In the form of a bomb.

In which the energy is released

by a fast neutron
chain reaction.

In this tent

we have some of
the smartest man.

In the world.

We're at war gentlemen.

Everyday men are dying.

Hundred thousand
soldiers civilians.

That is why I'm calling on you.

Let's end this war.

Thank you.

Oppenheimer will lead the
country's greatest minds.

In the attempt to
build an atomic bomb.

Clock is ticking fast.

This is the ultimate raised.

At everyone understands.

If Germany gets
the atomic bomb first.

All better on.

As america fights bloody battles
on the opposite sides of the globe.

Robert Oppenheimer seeks
to bring the war to an end.

The by unleashing
the power of the atom.

At our current rate

we'll have only enriched and
up uranium for a single bomb.

One

is not enough.

Oppenheimer realizes
uranium alone won't be enough.

So he focuses his attention
on another radioactive element.

Plutonium.

Unlike uranium

plutonium can be created
in a nuclear reactor.

What it is far more
difficult to detonate.

If you put a target
of plutonium here

and a bullet for Tony I'm
here no matter how fast

you push them together.

They will begin
to fizzle as a call it.

Before it hits the target.

Unless they can
solve the problem.

There plutonium
bomb will never work.

In nineteen forty two

Werner Heisenberg
became the first scientists to

produce excess nutrients
in a nuclear reactor.

But that was with only a
small number of atoms.

His goal now is to create
a massive chain reaction.

One becomes to

to becomes for for becomes eight

and within about
eighty generations.

You get enough energy
out of enough uranium atoms

to blow up the city.

Oxygen as a call

it quickly.

But that next step
is not only difficult.

It's dangerous.

This.

Heisenberg and his scientists
narrowly escaped death.

At his laboratory is destroyed.

But when rumors about the
incident spread to the united states.

There is a new feared

that the Nazis are closer
to making an atomic bomb.

Than ever before.

Sure is that confirmed.

Yes.

There were no
satellites in those days.

We didn't really have any
spies in Germany either.

Was one of the few clips.

That it was enough to
make everyone very nervous.

Pressure on oppenheim
or is increasing.

Americans have discovered a way to
manufacture plutonium for the bomb.

But he still needs
to find it triggered

to detonated.

It was a disaster at los Alamos.

Oven timer seriously considered.

Resigning.

As director.

He was so depressed.

Because he did not see how.

They were going to be
able to use plutonium.

I think behind every
great genius you have that

vision that picture
that send you forward.

Robin hymer he had a picture.

Before the war he was
working on black holes.

And he realized want to start
suddenly collapsed under gravity.

It can

burst into a gigantic
supernova and a black hole.

So why not squeeze it
imploded reach critical mass

and then he would explode.

That is the secret.

Of the plutonium by.

Implosion.

It's the answer

Oppenheimer and his
team have been waiting for.

Implosion is the idea
where you have a

solid ball plutonium.

And you put high
explosives ' and ' all around it.

And what you want to do is have all those
explosives go off at exactly the same time.

Which is really difficult.

Scientists at los Alamos.

Reach a monumental breakthrough.

Oppenheimer and his team.

Can only hope.

They're not too late.

This was everyone's
night nightmare.

Germany could be close
to losing the war and with a

couple of atomic bombs.

Could turn the
last into a victory.

In the secret desert lives
of the Manhattan project.

Robert Oppenheimer
and his team discovered

that implosion is the
key to a plutonium bomb.

There's not enough.

It's a revelation that could
change the race against the Nazis.

Now.

They need to make it work.

They reorganize

the entire los Alamos labs
around the implosion problem.

They pull and experts from
other wartime projects they

developed new
calculation methods.

This becomes the the major
problem for los Alamos the of.

The Americans are
feeling the pressure.

Reports of Heisenberg's
explosion of trickled into los Alamos.

There was no way of knowing

what the Germans were doing

and therefore you had to do the
next best thing which is to extrapolate

from where they were
the last time we looked.

And there was that pressure.

That urgent.

With the just a few
pieces of information.

With is lab in ruins.

Heisenberg is
summoned to Berlin.

Wait.

In line a part time.

High lines of steps feel that we
have to take another to your plans.

Have been a complete
waste of our time

and money.

I personally debriefed the fia.

On your progress.

What should tell him now.

With the war going
badly for the Germans.

The pressure on Heisenberg

is more intense than ever.

In December nineteen forty four.

Heisenberg travels
to neutral Switzerland.

To lecturer a small group of
colleagues at of physics seminar

and the American
see an opportunity

to ensure the Nazis
and never get the bomb.

There was no CIA during the second
world war but there was it's predecessor.

And by that mean.

An early organization
there was primarily military

and one of its operatives
was very curious man named

of bird.

Moe berg is a former major league
baseball player for the Boston red sox.

Is that leads us to a.

Interaction and he's also a spy

who speaks fluent German

the interactions that's
distant independent

which leads to a finite
cost his assignment to.

Determine whether Heisenberg
is making progress on a bomb

to isolate.

Those.

Components.

Almost

he years affected.

Kill him.

What he's listening for
is less about the science.

Is looking for a loose comment or
eisenberg says or when the war soon or

we've got a

secret that you guys will
soon learn and understand.

The same companies may
to become an integral part.

Of the future it.

Perkins thinking of
Heisenberg gives me any hint.

That he's working
on a Bob program.

I can just shoot him right here.

Thank you for coming
ladies and gentlemen.

Bill.

Sound you.

Italy our superiors.

Is until he wants a
bomb need mental

at to follow me.

For.

Berg left thinking they must
not have anything up their sleeve

he doesn't shoot at me
doesn't feel the need.

Mo berg's instincts are right.

Despite his initial success
and splitting uranium atoms.

The accident at his lab
was a major setback.

At Heisenberg has made
little pro aggress since.

In the spring of nineteen
forty five things start

to go very poorly for
Nazi Germany in the work.

Berlin is being bombed.

Soviets our on the horizon.

Heisenberg continues his
experiments in southern Germany.

Nazis never invest
the massive resources.

Needed to bring
the atom bomb to life.

Hitler didn't trust
her scientists.

He didn't take them seriously.

So he didn't get about
the German program

was

behind the April if you
will from the beginning.

On may third
nineteen forty five.

Heisenberg along with
Germany's top scientists.

Are captured by the allies.

Work for the Nazis

is over.

But is one of the
world's top physicists.

Eisenberg is considered
a valuable asset.

Eventually send him and

number of other German scientists
to a manor house in england

to be detained and monitored to

find out whether they know much
about making nuclear weapons.

Airlines are relieved to learn

that the Nazis were still years
away from making an atomic bomb.

Americans took a luck and thought
oh my god this is all the further they got.

We got this far in the
summer and nineteen forty two.

After two years of toil in
the new Mexico desert.

Robert Oppenheimer
is only hours away.

From the most important moment.

In his life.

By July and can forty five they
eventually have enough material

to make one uranium bomb

and to plutonium bombs but there so uncertain
about whether the plutonium bombs were

work that they
have to test one first.

Nuclear device is
nicknamed the gadget.

A massive dark grey
sphere with five thousand

pounds of explosives
surrounding the plutonium.

And wired with
precision detonators.

This real.

Forward.

To simulate the weapon
being dropped from a bummer.

Intelligent.

Gadget

will be lifted onto a one
hundred foot steel tower.

The stress is enormous say
feel that they have theoretically

designed it exactly right but what
about one little connection and one of the.

Hundreds of wires that are
connected to this miracle monster

are they going to work.

But Oppenheimer and his team may have
a bigger worried than the bomb not working.

What happens

if it does.

They realize that
there was a possibility

that they hadn't figured
out all the consequences

of basically igniting a small
star on the surface severe.

After spending three years

and over two billion dollars.

Robert Oppenheimer
has built an atomic bomb.

And is now ready to test it.

Oppenheimer is
great worried that night.

Was that the
implosion would work

in the bottom would fizzle.

You never quite know what
the physical world is going to.

Teach you when you do something
that's never been done before.

As an explosion is ten thousand
times hotter than the surface of the song.

An equal to twenty
thousand tons of tnt.

Oppenheimer has built the
most destructive weapon.

World has ever known.

I

Just three weeks after the test.

And American plane.

Carries an atomic bomb.

Into Japan.

In effort to end the war.

Once and for all.

Dropped on Hiroshima.

A military bit.

We run the country
against the dirt.

In order to shorten
the agony of walk.

It's amazing is Heisenberg's
as they have to just be lying

there's no way they
could have pulled this off.

There's no way they could have built a bomb
it's too hard we already did all the math

on that and we concluded that
nobody not even the united states

could make an atomic
bomb during world war two.

Three days later

a second bombs
dropped on Nagasaki.

Effectively ending
the second world war.

In view of the later alteration

Heisenberg is never held responsible
for his actions during the war

and is returned to Germany.

To help rebuild the country.

Even though
Heisenberg had obviously.

Collaborated with the Nazis during the
war people decided that science in Europe.

Needed to be restored.

And Heisenberg becomes
this international figure of.

Peaceful science.

For the rest of his life.

Eisenberg will claim that he intentionally
hindered his work for the Nazis.

The go on to enjoy is
celebrated career in academia.

I

One question to you by do you
want to study a quantum physics.

Oppenheimer is dubbed
the father of the atomic bomb.

At he's haunted by the visions of
the devastation the bomb has wrought.

And worse.

The read now poses to the world.

Heisenberg becomes this
international figure of peaceful science.

And Oppenheimer

is kind of a pariah.

That's the dilemma
of the atomic.

Killed an enormous
number of human beings.

And yet somehow
and this is true.

It put it into a world scale.

Probably forever.

It is apparel.

And hope.