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The man known to history as Robert Oppenheimer
was born on the 22nd of April 1904 as Julius
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Robert Oppenheimer in New York City.
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He quickly became known primarily by his middle
name and is typically referred to today as
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Robert Oppenheimer or J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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Robert was born into an affluent Jewish family
in New York City.
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His father Julius had been born in the Hesse-Nassau
province in the territory of the Kingdom of
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Prussia in what had just become the united
German Empire months prior to his birth in
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May 1871.
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At a time of growing Anti-Semitism across
Western and Central Europe, Julius Oppenheimer
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left Germany in 1888 at 17 years of age bound
for the United States.
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Though virtually penniless, he prospered in
America and by the time Robert was born in
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1904 he had risen to become a wealthy executive
at one of Manhattan’s leading textile manufacturers.
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Robert’s mother was Ella Friedman, a woman
of Jewish heritage as well, who had been born
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in New York in 1870 to a family of German
Jews who had headed for America a generation
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before Julius Oppenheimer.
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She was a painter from whom Robert inherited
some of his aesthetic views on the structure
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of existence and the universe.
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Ella and Julius would have one other child,
a boy named Frank who was born eight years
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after Robert in 1912 and who would follow
in the steps of his older brother by becoming
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a physicist.
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Robert’s youth was a privileged one.
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By the mid-1900s his father had become a substantial
figure within New York business circles and
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in the early 1910s they moved into a large
apartment on West 88th Street in Manhattan
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overlooking the Central Park Reservoir in
one of the most affluent areas of New York
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City at the time.
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There the family had original works by Vincent
Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso among others on
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the walls.
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Robert attended the Ethical Culture School
followed by the Alcuin Preparatory School,
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two of New York’s best educational establishments
in the early twentieth century.
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By the time he was five he was already interested
in minerology, a hobby inherited from his
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German grandfather.
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Such was his aptitude, that at eleven years
of age he was admitted to the Mineralogical
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Club of New York City.
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His precociousness extended into his secondary
school years and he finished his education
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at Alcuin in a year and a half less than the
standard time, having taken two grade years
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in twelve months and being fast-tracked through
the eighth grade.
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By this time his interests had developed beyond
minerology into the harder sciences, particularly
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chemistry, but it was eventually physics which
would prove his calling in years to come.
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In 1922 Oppenheimer began studying at Harvard
University at the age of 18.
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Robert initially intended to focus on studying
chemistry but soon switched to physics, yet
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his earlier interest in chemistry and his
eclectic inquisitiveness would serve him well
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in later years during a period when scientists
were becoming all too specialised in specific
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fields.
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While studying at America’s oldest college,
he was deeply influenced by the teachings
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of Professor Percy Bridgeman, an experimental
physicist on the staff at Harvard at the time.
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This was also a period when students at Harvard
and other elite universities in America still
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studied a very wide range of subjects and
Oppenheimer delved deeply into history and
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the Greek and Latin classics, which were still
central to many western curricula in the 1920s.
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Reflecting on his years at Harvard in later
life Oppenheimer noted that he spent most
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of his time in the library and read voraciously.
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He even attended more classes than it was
necessary for him to.
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The result in 1925, was that Oppenheimer graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude after
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just three years at Harvard, a distinction
which usually took four years to attain, but
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which Oppenheimer, following an emerging pattern,
completed in less than the standard time.
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Even before he graduated from Harvard, Oppenheimer
had already been accepted to continue his
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studies at Cambridge University in England.
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This was the great centre for the study of
physics in Britain at the time, a reputation
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it has held and cultivated since Isaac Newton’s
days there in the late seventeenth century.
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The year that Oppenheimer spent at Cambridge
between the fall of 1925 and the summer of
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1926 was influential in his development, as
he was exposed there to the teachings of Lord
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Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand-born physicist
who is typically understood to be the father
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of nuclear physics today.
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For instance, it was Rutherford who first
discovered and explained what nuclear half-life
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and the radiation associated with it were,
an achievement which Rutherford was awarded
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a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for in 1908.
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Towards the end of his first year at Cambridge,
Oppenheimer, whose abilities were beginning
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to attract considerable attention amongst
European physicists, accepted an offer from
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the German physicist Max Born to study under
him at the University of Gottingen in Germany,
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one of Europe’s great centres of learning.
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There Oppenheimer studied with a number of
contemporaries who would become giants of
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the study of theoretical physics during the
twentieth century, notably Werner Heisenberg,
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Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller, several of
whom Oppenheimer would work alongside during
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the Manhattan Project in the midst of the
Second World War.
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Remarkably, Oppenheimer was awarded his PhD
in physics in the spring of 1927, less than
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a year after arriving in Gottingen.
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The internal examiner, James Franck, who had
won the Nobel Prize for Physics two years
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earlier in 1925, is famously said to have
expressed relief when the oral examination
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or viva voce concluded, stating that Oppenheimer
had easily defended his doctoral work and
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had seemed to be ready to begin questioning
Franck.
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The great promise which Oppenheimer showed
as a theoretical physicist as he acquired
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his PhD around the same time he turned 23,
was most clearly demonstrated in a paper which
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he and Born co-authored on the ‘Quantum
Theory of Molecules’ in 1927 and which laid
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out what has come to be known as the Born-Oppenheimer
Approximation.
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This pertains to the field of molecular dynamics
or how molecules move and interact.
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The approximation which Born and Oppenheimer
demonstrated, showed that the wave functions
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of nuclei and electrons within a molecule
are different, owing to the fact that nuclei
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are considerably heavier than the electrons.
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This means that the co-ordinates of the nuclei
are relatively fixed in place, whereas the
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lighter electrons are impacted on to a greater
extent by wave functions and their co-ordinates
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are consequently more dynamic.
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The approximation was reached by the pair
to a great extent owing to Oppenheimer’s
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dual interests in chemistry and physics, as
the theory which they presented employed elements
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of quantum chemistry and molecular physics.
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In terms of its practical applicability the
approximation was important in allowing scientists
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from the late 1920s onwards to separate the
motion of a nuclei and an electron.
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The individual who worked this out with Max
Born and who acquired his PhD at Gottingen
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was a curious figure.
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Oppenheimer was a mix of a distant scientist
and a relatively jovial individual, slipping
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from introversion to extroversion as occasion
sometimes demanded or as his mood was inclined.
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A chain-smoker, he was perennially surrounded
by a cloud of smoke throughout his adult life,
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a habit which would contribute substantially
to his premature death in his early sixties.
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Individuals who knew him during his years
at Harvard, Cambridge and Gottingen recalled
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a person who was a strange mix of intelligence
combined with a striking naivety at times,
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often making poor judgements and decisions
and being prone to exaggeration.
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As the years went by, he developed an arrogant
streak, but this was tempered by intellectual
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generosity to those who studied and worked
with him and those he taught in later years.
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A striking aspect of his personality was his
interest in eastern philosophy and mysticism,
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being particularly interested in Hinduism
and Confucianism, even going so far as to
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learn Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism,
so that he might read the ancient texts of
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this faith in the original.
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This interest in religion and mysticism was
not an eccentric pastime.
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For Oppenheimer, the study of physics was
an entry point into understanding the mystical
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nature of the universe and existence and his
broader intellectual outlook was one of open
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curiosity rather than a quest for hard scientific
data.
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There was, though, also an unstable and erratic
side to Oppenheimer.
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His behaviour at Harvard was sometimes questioned
by fellow students and teachers.
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In 1926 while he was at Cambridge he allegedly
doused an apple with some illness-inducing
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chemicals and left it in the office of his
tutor, Patrick Blackett, with whom he had
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had a difficult relationship, before heading
off to France on holiday.
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Evidently this action and perhaps others besides,
saw him briefly threatened with being suspended
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from his studies at Cambridge.
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A close friend of his in the 1920s, Francis
Ferguson, who later went on to become an acclaimed
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theorist of stage performance and drama, claimed
that Oppenheimer attacked him and tried to
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strangle him once when he told him he was
engaged to be married.
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Underlying all of this erratic behaviour,
was a strange mix of an individual who could
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be appallingly arrogant and fell out with
a great many colleagues over the years as
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a result, but who many biographers have concluded
was also a deeply insecure individual.
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The root of this may have been Oppenheimer’s
position as the son of a German-Jewish émigré
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to America at a time when Anti-Semitism was
common across the western world.
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He was a constant outsider, or at least felt
like one, and is known to have suffered frequently
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from bouts of depression.
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He was, in short, something of an enigma.
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After completing his studies at Gottingen
and publishing several more papers from the
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research he had undertaken in England and
Germany, Oppenheimer returned to the United
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States, briefly holding fellowships at Harvard
and the California Institute of Technology,
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punctuated by return visits to Europe to work
for a few months at the University of Leiden
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in the Netherlands and at Zurich in Switzerland,
where Albert Einstein had carried out much
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of his earliest and most ground-breaking work.
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In Leiden he acquired his nickname Oppie from
a bawdlerised Dutch rendering of his name.
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It was not until 1929 that Oppenheimer settled
back in America permanently, having been presented
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with numerous job offers from US universities.
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He accepted two and became an associate professor
in physics at both the University of California
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at Berkeley and the California Institute of
Technology or Caltech.
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For the next thirteen years, between 1929
and 1942 he would hold positions at both institutions,
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teaching during the fall and winter semesters
at Berkeley before spending the spring term
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lecturing at Caltech in Pasadena.
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During the 1930s Oppenheimer became famous
within the physics community in the United
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States for his teaching methods and the finest
physicists of the mid-twentieth century in
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America trained under him at Berkeley and
Caltech at the School of Theoretical Physics
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which he founded.
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Within this there was usually a cohort of
a dozen or so advanced graduate students and
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research fellows who worked closely with Oppenheimer
on some of the most relevant questions in
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the field of theoretical physics at the time.
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During busier times in term they would often
meet daily, with Oppenheimer quizzing them
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on their progress and offering suggestions
thereon.
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Mostly, as several biographers who knew him
during those days later recounted, he inspired
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those he taught, conveying to them the idea
that they were at the forefront of answering
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some of the most important questions facing
humanity at the time.
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Yet it was an eclectic academic environment
and when not discussing physics, Oppenheimer
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and his colleagues were often seen to be reading
Plato in the original Greek or learning Sanskrit.
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Hans Bethe, who knew Oppenheimer during these
days, later recalled that Robert was largely
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aloof from the wider world in the late 1920s
and 1930s in California, only learning of
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the Wall Street Crash of late 1929, months
after it had happened.
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There were impressive scientific breakthroughs
made by Oppenheimer and his students at Berkeley
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and Caltech during the 1930s.
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In 1930, for instance, Oppenheimer wrote a
paper which effectively predicted the existence
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of the positron or antielectron as an antiparticle
of the electron, although its existence was
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not fully proven until 1932 by Carl David
Anderson, a student who worked with Oppenheimer
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at Caltech.
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Following on from this, Oppenheimer worked
closely with Wendell Furry, to work out the
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modern form of the electron-positron theory
and how the two interacted with each other.
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Perhaps his most important work though was
a giant effort with Melba Phillips, one of
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Oppenheimer’s first doctoral students at
a time when female physicists were all too
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rare in the United States.
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Together they proposed the Oppenheimer-Phillips
Process in 1935, a type of deuteron-induced
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nuclear reaction in which the neutron half
of a deuteron fuses with a target nucleus,
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ejecting a proton in the process.
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This proved that some elements can become
radioactive if bombarded by deuterons and
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that a nuclear interaction can occur at lower
energies than had previously been understood.
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This, and many other breakthroughs by both
Oppenheimer and his students at Berkeley and
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Caltech, made California one of the world’s
great centres of theoretical physics in the
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mid-twentieth century.
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Oppenheimer’s personal life was somewhat
chaotic during this period.
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He had been diagnosed with a mild case of
tuberculosis in the late 1920s, for which
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condition he sought out the dry desert air
of Arizona and New Mexico in the years that
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followed, eventually buying a ranch in New
Mexico.
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In the mid-1930s, he began a relationship
with Jean Tatlock, a psychiatry student who
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was the daughter of John Strong Tatlock, an
eminent Old English scholar and expert on
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the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
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Ten years Robert’s junior, Jean was a troubled
young woman with severe depression and a conflicted
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sexuality.
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Their relationship was tempestuous but continued
through to 1940, even after Oppenheimer began
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seeing Kitty Harrison, a botanist and physicist
at Caltech who eventually divorced her second
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husband, Stewart Harrison, in November 1940
and married Robert the following day.
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It remains unclear to this day if Oppenheimer
continued to periodically see Tatlock in the
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early 1940s prior to her taking her own life
in January 1944.
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Robert and Kitty would subsequently have two
children, a boy named Peter who was born in
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May 1941, as Kitty had been pregnant already
when they married, and a daughter named Katherine
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after her mother, who was born in 1944.
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Oppenheimer’s life, like that of virtually
every individual across Europe, North Africa,
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North America and much of Asia, was hugely
interrupted in the autumn of 1939 by the outbreak
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of the Second World War.
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The conflict came about as a direct result
of the ascent to power in Germany of the Nazis
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led by Adolf Hitler early in 1933.
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A rabidly anti-Semitic nationalist and fascist
organisation, the Nazis had made their twin
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goals to crush the Jewish people in Germany
and to initiate a new war in Europe to overturn
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the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which
had brought the First World War to an end
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and to build a new German Third Reich or empire
which would dominate the continent.
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Oppenheimer was very familiar with the Nazis.
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As a Jew himself, albeit a non-observant one,
he had become politically involved for the
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first time in his life during the mid-1930s
when he began setting aside 3% of his salary
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to help German Jews who were trying to flee
Germany in the wake of the anti-Jewish Nuremburg
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Laws which were introduced from 1934 onwards.
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The Nazis’ anti-Jewish policies had become
more extreme from 1936 onwards and particularly
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so in 1938, as Germany began annexing neighbouring
states, firstly Austria and then Czechoslovakia.
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With the invasion of Poland in September 1939,
Britain and France declared war on Germany,
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but public opinion in the United States was
not yet wholly in favour of intervention,
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in what was deemed to be a European war.
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Therefore, America would remain officially
neutral for the first two years of the conflict,
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though the administration of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was providing extensive support
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in the shape of war material to Britain, from
the war’s inception.
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Oppenheimer’s life and his place in history
would be changed forever by the events of
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December 1941.
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By that time, the United States still remained
neutral in the Second World War, despite the
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desperate situation in Europe, with the Nazis
conquering Poland in the autumn of 1939, Denmark
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and Norway the following spring and then the
Low Countries and France in the summer of
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1940.
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With many other states like Italy, Hungary
and Romania allied with the Nazis and invasions
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of Britain’s colonies in North Africa and
Russia afoot from the summer of 1941 onwards,
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it seemed that Germany was destined to dominate
Europe.
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It was in this context, that the Empire of
Japan, an ultra-nationalist state bent on
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creating an Asiatic and Pacific empire, one
which already included Korea, Manchuria and
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much of eastern China by the early 1940s,
decided to pre-emptively attack the United
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States without declaring war.
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The attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii and
other American territories such as the Philippines
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on the 7th of December 1941, pulled the United
States into the Second World War.
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Within days the US was at war with Germany,
Italy and the other Axis states as the entirety
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of the Northern Hemisphere ended up at war.
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Oppenheimer would soon be catapulted to the
centre of America’s research efforts during
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the conflict.
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This occurred in the context of efforts by
Nazi Germany to acquire a weapon of mass destruction
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as a means of winning the war swiftly.
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In the 1920s and the 1930s Germany had been
home to some of the world’s leading scientists
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and so was well placed to develop a nuclear
weapon.
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Nuclear fission, for instance, had been discovered
by a team led by Otto Robert Frisch and Lise
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Meitner in Berlin in 1938.
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Various experiments were initiated by the
Nazis the following year to begin using this
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breakthrough to develop a nuclear weapon.
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Some of these focused on developing a nuclear
reactor, while others favoured the theory
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of using heavy water to produce an atomic
weapon, research which was carried out in
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Nazi-occupied Norway throughout the war.
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Already in August 1939 President Roosevelt
in Washington D.C. had received a letter from
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the Hungarian nuclear physicist, Leo Szilard,
and Albert Einstein, alerting the US government
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to the threat posed by these Nazi experiments.
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Little effort was made to respond to this
in 1939 or 1940, but with the entry of the
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US into the war at the end of 1941, fresh
consideration was given to America commencing
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its own research in this area.
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Oppenheimer would technically be in charge
of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Second
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World War, but this was all under the umbrella
of the Manhattan Project, a research and development
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programme initiated by the US government in
1942 with the ultimate aim of developing a
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nuclear bomb.
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The name comes simply from the fact that the
team of individuals who were in charge of
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the wider project, had their first headquarters
where they met in 1942 on the island of Manhattan
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in New York City.
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Eventually it grew from 1942 onwards to employ
approximately 130,000 people across the country.
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They worked on various elements of the project
in many states and regions.
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For instance, a large team working in Chicago
throughout the war, which included Oppenheimer’s
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old colleague from Gottingen, Enrico Fermi,
and Leo Szilard who had co-authored the letter
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to Roosevelt in 1939 warning the president
about the Nazi nuclear programme, developed
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the first working nuclear reactor there.
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Another team at the Hanford Site in Washington
state, were charged with producing plutonium
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from uranium as a raw material for any future
nuclear weapon and a similar project was underway
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in Tennessee.
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There were even teams of individuals operating
under the rubric of the Manhattan Project
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in Europe carrying out espionage to try to
uncover what the Nazis were working on.
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Oppenheimer would oversee the most critical
research team of all those involved in the
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Manhattan Project, as director of the Los
Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico.
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He was very nearly not picked for this position.
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The individual who oversaw the Manhattan Project
was Major General Leslie Groves.
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Groves is not exactly a household name today,
but he has the distinction of having been
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in charge of both the Manhattan Project, which
created the first nuclear weapon and also
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overseeing the construction of the Pentagon
as the headquarters of the US military and
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department of defence.
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Oppenheimer was suggested to Groves in 1942
as a possible candidate to lead a team of
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theoretical physicists and scientists as part
of the Manhattan Project, but Groves was initially
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sceptical, favouring the idea of appointing
someone who had been awarded a Nobel Prize
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in Physics and would consequently have enough
academic gravitas to lead a team of some of
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the most eminent minds of the day.
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He was eventually persuaded that Oppenheimer
had a track record of getting the best out
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of people he worked with.
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He contacted Oppenheimer and after interviewing
him came to the conclusion that he was well
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suited for the post.
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In the weeks that followed in the early winter
of 1942, Oppenheimer scouted out a suitable
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location for the establishment of a research
centre, somewhere remote and away from any
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urban centres, where secrecy would be ensured
and a nuclear weapon could be tested in due
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course.
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He eventually settled on Los Alamos in New
Mexico where a research facility was erected
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on the site of an old school.
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This was subcontracted to the University of
California through the War Department so that
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Oppenheimer had some degree of autonomy in
hiring and firing as director of the Los Alamos
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Laboratory.
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Although there would be more hiring than firing.
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At its height, there were well over 5,000
people employed at Los Alamos, far more than
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Oppenheimer had initially anticipated.
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00:24:13,010 --> 00:24:17,910
The team that Oppenheimer assembled at Los
Alamos, included some of the finest scientists
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00:24:17,910 --> 00:24:20,510
of the first half of the twentieth century.
307
00:24:20,510 --> 00:24:25,740
One was John Hasbrouck van Vleck, a physicist
and mathematician who had been at Harvard
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when Oppenheimer arrived there in 1922.
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00:24:28,890 --> 00:24:35,490
He was subsequently awarded a Nobel Prize
in 1977 for his work on electronic magnetism.
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Van Vleck made significant contributions to
the gun design which would be used in the
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bomb used over Hiroshima.
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A colleague of Oppenheimer’s from Berkeley,
Robert Serber, acted as an organising physicist
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at Los Alamos and would eventually name the
bombs used in the first test explosion as
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00:24:52,850 --> 00:24:59,330
well as against Japan, as ‘Thin Man’,
‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ after characters
315
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from detective movies and novels such as The
Maltese Falcon.
316
00:25:03,580 --> 00:25:09,090
Hans Bethe was a German-born theoretical physicist
who would later be awarded a Nobel Prize in
317
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1967.
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He was central to calculating the critical
mass of the bombs designed at Los Alamos.
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00:25:15,340 --> 00:25:22,190
Finally, Edward Teller was a Hungarian-born
Jew who was recruited to the Los Alamos Laboratory.
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He had studied in Germany around the same
time as Oppenheimer in the late 1920s but
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had subsequently immigrated to the United
States.
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Teller had already worked at Fermi’s reactor
centre in Chicago before being sent to New
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Mexico.
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00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,559
Teller was arguably Oppenheimer’s closest
colleague at Los Alamos.
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Beyond these, were hundreds of other engineers,
metallurgists, chemists and military experts
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involved in the research teams at Los Alamos,
working on a wide range of finer details about
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00:25:53,230 --> 00:25:57,230
how the first atomic weapon could be constructed.
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00:25:57,230 --> 00:26:03,510
The task which confronted this team of physicists
and other engineers and scientists was daunting.
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00:26:03,510 --> 00:26:07,690
When they assembled at Los Alamos they had
little to work on other than a theoretical
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knowledge of how a nuclear chain reaction
could be produced.
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But what must be remembered in an age when
we know what a nuclear explosion looks like
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and the destruction that it results in, is
that Oppenheimer and his colleagues at Los
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Alamos were not just trying to build a nuclear
weapon, but also to predict what would happen
334
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when one exploded.
335
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:34,899
Thus, there was an enormous amount of experimentation
and theoretical speculation throughout 1943
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and 1944.
337
00:26:37,059 --> 00:26:40,390
Throughout it all, Oppenheimer worked exhaustively.
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As Hans Bethe recollected years later, “his
uncanny speed in grasping the main points
339
00:26:46,100 --> 00:26:51,770
of any subject was a decisive factor; he could
acquaint himself with the essential details
340
00:26:51,770 --> 00:26:53,920
of every part of the work.
341
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He did not direct from the head office.
342
00:26:55,950 --> 00:27:00,890
He was intellectually and even physically
present at each decisive step.”
343
00:27:00,890 --> 00:27:05,940
Yet the incredibly arduous work schedule which
Oppenheimer followed at Los Alamos also took
344
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a toll on his health.
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He was always a thin person, but during the
work in New Mexico he lost another twenty
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00:27:13,210 --> 00:27:19,760
pounds, eventually weighing as little as 110
lbs or less than eight stone.
347
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:25,799
During the course of 1943, research efforts
at Los Alamos began to focus on a prototype
348
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codenamed ‘Thin Man’.
349
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This was a plutonium gun-type weapon, which
would work more like an artillery gun, to
350
00:27:33,179 --> 00:27:36,540
detonate, rather than an implosion type bomb.
351
00:27:36,540 --> 00:27:41,621
The research into producing this was extremely
complex from a logistical perspective, with
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00:27:41,621 --> 00:27:46,970
the polonium which was used in the initiator
having to be obtained from ores in Ontario
353
00:27:46,970 --> 00:27:52,450
in Canada and then manufactured at a separate
facility in Tennessee, which was also part
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00:27:52,450 --> 00:27:57,390
of the wider Manhattan Project, or at the
Hanford site in Washington state.
355
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However, more complex still was the design
issue.
356
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In order for the gun-type weapon to work,
a plutonium bullet which would be fired off
357
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inside the bomb would have to be accelerated
to a speed of 3,000 feet per second or over
358
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:18,789
3,200 kilometres per hour or else the nuclear
fission would begin before the rest of the
359
00:28:18,789 --> 00:28:22,630
mechanics of the bomb were ready for a successful
explosion.
360
00:28:22,630 --> 00:28:27,770
This was ultimately the undoing of the ‘Thin
Man’ design, as it was realised during the
361
00:28:27,770 --> 00:28:33,840
course of 1944 that the gun barrel needed
to produce this speed, would be far too large
362
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to be employed in a bomb of a kind which could
be transported on board a B-29 Flying Superfortress,
363
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the newly-designed heavy bombers which were
to be used to transport any nuclear bomb developed
364
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by the US government.
365
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:53,170
This, along with issues relating to the use
of plutonium in a gun-type bomb, saw the ‘Thin
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Man’ design abandoned in April 1944.
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With the abandonment of the ‘Thin Man’
design, Oppenheimer redeployed many of the
368
00:29:02,250 --> 00:29:07,529
scientists and engineers who had been working
on it to another design called ‘Little Boy’.
369
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This was a simplified gun-type fission bomb,
but unlike the ‘Thin Man’ it was intended
370
00:29:12,980 --> 00:29:18,750
that uranium-235 would be used instead of
plutonium for the nuclear fission that would
371
00:29:18,750 --> 00:29:20,400
create the explosion.
372
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:24,600
Simultaneously, a third type of design was
being progressed.
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The ‘Fat Man’, as it was known, would
use plutonium but was designed as an implosion-type
374
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bomb.
375
00:29:31,370 --> 00:29:36,650
The design team for it was led by an American
physicist by the name of Seth Neddermeyer.
376
00:29:36,650 --> 00:29:41,410
Oppenheimer continued to favour the gun-type
design even as the ‘Fat Man’ was being
377
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furthered during the course of 1943 and 1944.
378
00:29:44,910 --> 00:29:50,289
Oppenheimer’s brilliance as an overseer
at Los Alamos, was seen in his decision to
379
00:29:50,289 --> 00:29:57,620
bring John von Neumann, a Hungarian-born mathematician
and physicist to Los Alamos in 1943 to review
380
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the design.
381
00:29:59,100 --> 00:30:04,159
It was von Neumann who suggested a spherical
shape and shaped charges which would reduce
382
00:30:04,159 --> 00:30:09,580
the amount of plutonium needed and make the
assembly of an implosion-type bomb more practical
383
00:30:09,580 --> 00:30:11,250
and achievable.
384
00:30:11,250 --> 00:30:16,330
Over the next several months, metallurgists
at Los Alamos had to try to solve the problem
385
00:30:16,330 --> 00:30:22,250
of how to cast plutonium into a sphere, but
this was eventually overcome when a plutonium-gallium
386
00:30:22,250 --> 00:30:27,649
alloy was devised, one which was pressed into
spheres and coated with nickel.
387
00:30:27,649 --> 00:30:31,000
The design process was nearing completion.
388
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,549
As 1945 dawned at Los Alamos, Oppenheimer’s
teams were coming close to completing both
389
00:30:36,549 --> 00:30:40,390
the design of the ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat
Man’.
390
00:30:40,390 --> 00:30:45,400
Consequently there were two plausible candidates
for a successfully built nuclear weapon.
391
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:50,860
In the end both would be completed at roughly
the same time, as design problems were worked
392
00:30:50,860 --> 00:30:56,460
out in the spring of 1945 and the required
levels of enriched uranium and plutonium were
393
00:30:56,460 --> 00:31:00,330
produced in the sites in Washington state
and Tennessee.
394
00:31:00,330 --> 00:31:04,940
The latter were enormous undertakings given
the technology available to the Manhattan
395
00:31:04,940 --> 00:31:10,110
Project, as it was extremely costly and time
consuming to enrich these to become fissile
396
00:31:10,110 --> 00:31:13,290
substances in the mid-1940s.
397
00:31:13,290 --> 00:31:18,149
Other elements which needed to be resolved
were engineering problems for the most part.
398
00:31:18,149 --> 00:31:23,620
For instance, the ‘Fat Man’ bomb was being
assembled using a huge array of approximately
399
00:31:23,620 --> 00:31:30,480
1,500 bolts in 1944, an impractical amount
in order to develop a working bomb.
400
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:36,110
By the time it was completed in the early
summer of 1945, Oppenheimer’s team had reduced
401
00:31:36,110 --> 00:31:38,720
this to just 90 bolts.
402
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:43,399
Other technical issues concerned how the bomb
would descend when dropped from a height and
403
00:31:43,399 --> 00:31:50,080
throughout 1944 and 1945 tests were done to
assess how a bomb of the size and structure
404
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:54,500
of the ‘Fat Man’ and ‘Little Boy’
would fall through the air.
405
00:31:54,500 --> 00:32:01,000
All of this came together during the course
of the spring of 1945 and by midsummer Oppenheimer
406
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,960
was able to deliver the head of the Manhattan
Project, Major General Leslie Groves, the
407
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:10,210
news that they were ready to conduct a test
detonation.
408
00:32:10,210 --> 00:32:15,330
The Trinity nuclear test was carried out in
the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico
409
00:32:15,330 --> 00:32:18,070
on the 16th of July 1945.
410
00:32:18,070 --> 00:32:24,620
Fittingly, the desert’s name translated
from the Spanish means ‘Dead Man’s Route’.
411
00:32:24,620 --> 00:32:29,710
Oppenheimer revealed in correspondence with
Groves in 1962, that he codenamed the test
412
00:32:29,710 --> 00:32:34,250
‘Trinity’ as he had been reading the religious
poetry of the seventeenth-century English
413
00:32:34,250 --> 00:32:38,549
poet, John Donne, around the time that he
came up with the name.
414
00:32:38,549 --> 00:32:44,380
The device which would be used during the
test was a ‘Fat Man’ bomb, using plutonium
415
00:32:44,380 --> 00:32:46,159
and of an implosion-type.
416
00:32:46,159 --> 00:32:51,360
For the purposes of the test the bomb in question
was christened ‘The Gadget’.
417
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:57,299
In order for the test to be carried out safely,
a location was chosen which was highly remote,
418
00:32:57,299 --> 00:33:01,690
almost entirely unpopulated and otherwise
isolated.
419
00:33:01,690 --> 00:33:06,620
There was only one building on the proposed
blast site, the McDonald Ranch House which
420
00:33:06,620 --> 00:33:11,740
had been built there by a German migrant in
1913 and which had been forcefully vacated
421
00:33:11,740 --> 00:33:17,980
in 1942 by the McDonald family after the US
government took over the region under the
422
00:33:17,980 --> 00:33:20,120
remit of the Manhattan Project.
423
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:24,820
The test was a carefully planned thing, as
the plutonium which was to be used, had cost
424
00:33:24,820 --> 00:33:29,669
billions of dollars to produce in today’s
money, such were the torturous methods involved
425
00:33:29,669 --> 00:33:33,110
in enriching uranium and plutonium at the
time.
426
00:33:33,110 --> 00:33:35,130
Much hinged on its success.
427
00:33:35,130 --> 00:33:39,700
As Groves noted at the time, he didn’t want
to explain to a Congressional committee why
428
00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:45,190
he had blown up a billion dollars’ worth
of plutonium in the desert for no reason.
429
00:33:45,190 --> 00:33:50,320
The Trinity test was carried out near dawn,
on the morning of the 16th of July.
430
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:55,610
Observation shelters were established in three
different places to the north, south and west
431
00:33:55,610 --> 00:34:00,029
of the blast site, each approximately nine
kilometres away from where the bomb would
432
00:34:00,029 --> 00:34:01,139
be detonated.
433
00:34:01,139 --> 00:34:06,660
Goggles were provided to prevent against harmful
ultraviolet wavelengths, while the distance
434
00:34:06,660 --> 00:34:12,129
was considered safe enough in terms of the
radioactive half-life which would be produced.
435
00:34:12,129 --> 00:34:18,060
Many of the observers that morning were scientists
and included Oppenheimer, Teller, Bethe, Enrico
436
00:34:18,060 --> 00:34:20,620
Fermi and John von Neumann.
437
00:34:20,620 --> 00:34:23,409
Some believed that the bomb would not work.
438
00:34:23,409 --> 00:34:26,950
Others were concerned about exactly how destructive
it could prove to be.
439
00:34:26,950 --> 00:34:33,829
They had their answers at 5.29am when ‘The
Gadget’ exploded, releasing explosive energy
440
00:34:33,829 --> 00:34:37,940
equivalent to 25,000 tonnes of TNT.
441
00:34:37,940 --> 00:34:43,440
This created a crater a third of a kilometre
wide and melted the sand across the launch
442
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:47,050
site, turning it into a light green glass-like
rock.
443
00:34:47,050 --> 00:34:52,070
The observers nine kilometres away did not
hear the immense noise from the shock wave
444
00:34:52,070 --> 00:34:57,970
for 40 seconds after the detonation, but by
that time, they were witnessing a growing
445
00:34:57,970 --> 00:35:04,090
fireball which changed colour from purple,
green and orange eventually to white.
446
00:35:04,090 --> 00:35:10,270
Then it coalesced into a mushroom cloud, one
which eventually spiralled twelve kilometres
447
00:35:10,270 --> 00:35:11,760
into the sky.
448
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:16,640
The shock from the explosion was felt nearly
one-hundred kilometres away, while those at
449
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:21,940
the observation shelters nine kilometres away,
later recollected that there was a brief period
450
00:35:21,940 --> 00:35:27,609
of immense heat like they were standing in
front of an open oven for a few seconds momentarily,
451
00:35:27,609 --> 00:35:29,630
when the bomb detonated.
452
00:35:29,630 --> 00:35:35,240
Oppenheimer’s supposed words as he watched
the Trinity text explosion have become somewhat
453
00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:36,980
infamous in modern times.
454
00:35:36,980 --> 00:35:43,080
He is alleged to have quoted from the Bhagavad
Gita, one of the holiest texts in Hinduism,
455
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:48,070
one which was written in the second half of
the first millennium BC and the title of which
456
00:35:48,070 --> 00:35:51,240
approximates to ‘The Song by God’.
457
00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:58,320
The Gita is a 700-verse scripture which primarily
revolves around Prince Arjuna and his guide,
458
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:03,710
the Hindu deity Krishna, on a wide range of
moral and religious matters.
459
00:36:03,710 --> 00:36:08,770
It is widely and mistakenly believed that
Oppenheimer quoted a line from the Gita, in
460
00:36:08,770 --> 00:36:15,619
which another Hindu god Vishnu says, “I
am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
461
00:36:15,619 --> 00:36:20,890
Although the line would have been a fitting
utterance that morning in New Mexico, in reality
462
00:36:20,890 --> 00:36:23,099
Oppenheimer never said this.
463
00:36:23,099 --> 00:36:27,550
Instead, recalling the event twenty years
later, he said that another line from the
464
00:36:27,550 --> 00:36:33,050
Gita ran through his head, one in which it
is stated, “If the radiance of a thousand
465
00:36:33,050 --> 00:36:37,860
suns were to burst at once into the sky, that
would be like the splendour of the mighty
466
00:36:37,860 --> 00:36:38,860
one.”
467
00:36:38,860 --> 00:36:45,040
On reflection in 1965, he thought the other
line would have been more fitting, but despite
468
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:50,020
the myth that has developed, Oppenheimer never
actually uttered the words, “I am become
469
00:36:50,020 --> 00:36:52,010
death, the destroyer of worlds.”
470
00:36:52,010 --> 00:36:57,530
However, for what in retrospect should have
been a sobering moment, the general reaction
471
00:36:57,530 --> 00:37:02,580
in the observation shelters was one of glee
that the Manhattan Project had succeeded.
472
00:37:02,580 --> 00:37:06,150
Oppenheimer, it was later noted, was jubilant.
473
00:37:06,150 --> 00:37:10,200
The ramifications of their success, though,
would become all too clear within a matter
474
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,390
of weeks.
475
00:37:12,390 --> 00:37:16,690
Within weeks of the Trinity test explosion,
the atomic bomb would be used as a weapon
476
00:37:16,690 --> 00:37:17,950
of war.
477
00:37:17,950 --> 00:37:23,069
By that time, the conflict in Europe had come
to an end, as the Allies had streamed into
478
00:37:23,069 --> 00:37:28,359
Germany from both east and west in the spring
of 1945, leading to Hitler taking his own
479
00:37:28,359 --> 00:37:34,220
life in Berlin in late April and the Nazis
surrendering just over a week later.
480
00:37:34,220 --> 00:37:40,170
However, the Empire of Japan had indicated
no willingness to surrender and Japanese honour
481
00:37:40,170 --> 00:37:45,380
systems and military culture seemed to suggest
an invasion of the Japanese islands would
482
00:37:45,380 --> 00:37:49,020
be necessary to bring the war in the Pacific
to an end.
483
00:37:49,020 --> 00:37:53,710
The US government had calculated that this
could result in millions of deaths as the
484
00:37:53,710 --> 00:37:56,599
Japanese would fight to the bitter end.
485
00:37:56,599 --> 00:38:02,250
Consequently, the decision was quickly taken
to utilise the new atomic bomb as a demonstration
486
00:38:02,250 --> 00:38:07,340
to the Japanese government of the new weapon
which was available to the administration,
487
00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:12,030
which was now headed by President Harry Truman,
who had succeeded to the White House following
488
00:38:12,030 --> 00:38:15,530
President Roosevelt’s death in office in
mid-April 1945.
489
00:38:15,530 --> 00:38:21,330
The result was the bombing of the Japanese
city of Hiroshima with one of the ‘Little
490
00:38:21,330 --> 00:38:25,099
Boy’ bombs on the 6th of August 1945.
491
00:38:25,099 --> 00:38:31,070
In Los Alamos that evening, Oppenheimer was
triumphant and seemed to regret the fact that
492
00:38:31,070 --> 00:38:35,140
the weapon had not been available to use against
the Nazis in Germany.
493
00:38:35,140 --> 00:38:41,890
However, this mood quickly gave way to disillusionment
three days later when the US dropped a second
494
00:38:41,890 --> 00:38:46,160
bomb, of the ‘Fat Man’ type, on the city
of Nagasaki in Japan.
495
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:51,470
Surely, Oppenheimer and his colleagues concluded,
this was not acceptable.
496
00:38:51,470 --> 00:38:55,920
After all, the Japanese had not been given
enough time to process the implications of
497
00:38:55,920 --> 00:39:01,790
the first bomb and to decide to surrender,
which they did six days after the bombing
498
00:39:01,790 --> 00:39:03,290
of Nagasaki.
499
00:39:03,290 --> 00:39:06,369
With that the war came to an end.
500
00:39:06,369 --> 00:39:11,990
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain
the only two occasions in world history when
501
00:39:11,990 --> 00:39:15,140
nuclear weapons have been utilised in warfare.
502
00:39:15,140 --> 00:39:18,349
They are accordingly enormously controversial.
503
00:39:18,349 --> 00:39:24,390
Today most analysts of the events of August
1945 tend to take the same view as Oppenheimer
504
00:39:24,390 --> 00:39:30,210
and his colleagues did, that the use of the
first bomb on Hiroshima was somewhat justifiable,
505
00:39:30,210 --> 00:39:35,410
though imminently regrettable at the same
time, as a means of forcing the Japanese to
506
00:39:35,410 --> 00:39:41,640
surrender and in the process potentially saving
millions of lives, by avoiding a land invasion
507
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:47,280
of the Japanese archipelago, but most are
agreed that the bombing of Nagasaki just three
508
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:50,200
days later was unwarranted.
509
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:54,630
More broadly, the ethical implications of
the work Oppenheimer and his colleagues carried
510
00:39:54,630 --> 00:39:59,250
out as part of the Manhattan Project during
the war have been questioned.
511
00:39:59,250 --> 00:40:01,560
There are two sides to this.
512
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:06,420
On the one hand the development of nuclear
weapons has introduced an existential threat
513
00:40:06,420 --> 00:40:12,099
to humanity’s survival in modern times,
but on the other hand, the nuclear deterrent
514
00:40:12,099 --> 00:40:17,010
has ensured that the world’s superpowers
and large states have avoided major wars ever
515
00:40:17,010 --> 00:40:18,010
since 1945.
516
00:40:18,010 --> 00:40:24,150
For centuries, Europe’s states had been
endlessly at war with one another.
517
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:30,160
That all changed once it became apparent that
direct conflict could result in mutually assured
518
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:31,170
destruction.
519
00:40:31,170 --> 00:40:37,160
Ironically the impact of the development of
nuclear weapons has been to foster a ‘nuclear
520
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:43,060
peace’, but the risks remain profound in
a world where politics are becoming more antagonistic
521
00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:47,210
and destabilised during the twenty-first century.
522
00:40:47,210 --> 00:40:52,609
With the end of the war, Oppenheimer’s reputation
was at an unprecedented height within American
523
00:40:52,609 --> 00:40:54,530
academic circles.
524
00:40:54,530 --> 00:40:59,859
There were accordingly new opportunities open
to him and he decided to leave Berkeley and
525
00:40:59,859 --> 00:41:04,470
head to the east coast to take up a position
as Director of the Institute for Advanced
526
00:41:04,470 --> 00:41:11,150
Studies at Princeton in New Jersey in 1947,
an esteemed centre for the study of physics
527
00:41:11,150 --> 00:41:17,590
in the United States, which included Albert
Einstein, Niels Bohr and Paul Dirac as former
528
00:41:17,590 --> 00:41:20,109
charter members or visiting fellows.
529
00:41:20,109 --> 00:41:25,200
Under Oppenheimer’s leadership, it became
a centre for emerging physicists and when
530
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:30,369
he left Berkeley a half a dozen of his more
promising graduate students left also, to
531
00:41:30,369 --> 00:41:32,030
study at Princeton.
532
00:41:32,030 --> 00:41:37,590
In New Jersey he continued the methods he
had developed in California in the 1930s,
533
00:41:37,590 --> 00:41:42,520
producing an environment of energetic discussion
and research, often at the expense of his
534
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:48,580
own research, Oppenheimer choosing to write
and publish very little himself at Princeton.
535
00:41:48,580 --> 00:41:53,490
As a result, the Institute became the leading
centre for the study of physics in the United
536
00:41:53,490 --> 00:41:57,920
States in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
537
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:02,380
Many of the most important physicists of the
second half of the twentieth century passed
538
00:42:02,380 --> 00:42:07,660
through the Institute during Oppenheimer’s
tenure, notably Yoichiro Nambu, a Japanese-American
539
00:42:07,660 --> 00:42:14,190
who in 2008 would be co-awarded the Nobel
Prize for his role in discovering the spontaneous
540
00:42:14,190 --> 00:42:21,619
broken symmetry in subatomic physics and Murray
Gell-Mann, who won the Nobel Prize in 1969
541
00:42:21,619 --> 00:42:24,990
for his work on elementary particles.
542
00:42:24,990 --> 00:42:30,160
As well as his work at Princeton, Oppenheimer
continued to hold a number of government positions
543
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:36,849
throughout the late 1940s and into the 1950s,
while also having security clearance to view
544
00:42:36,849 --> 00:42:43,440
classified documents and material relating
to the United States’ evolving nuclear programme.
545
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:49,089
Notable in this respect, was his membership
of the newly established Atomic Energy Commission,
546
00:42:49,089 --> 00:42:55,180
which had been founded in 1947 as a commission
headed by the United Nations, itself a newly
547
00:42:55,180 --> 00:43:00,329
created body designed to foster world peace
in the aftermath of the war.
548
00:43:00,329 --> 00:43:06,170
The Energy Commission was charged with regulating
the proliferation of nuclear materials and
549
00:43:06,170 --> 00:43:08,870
the development of nuclear weaponry.
550
00:43:08,870 --> 00:43:13,950
While the United States was for several years
the only nation with access to nuclear bombs
551
00:43:13,950 --> 00:43:20,330
after 1945, it was only a matter of time,
now that the world had seen that it was possible
552
00:43:20,330 --> 00:43:26,150
to develop such weapons, before other nation
states began building their own bombs or trying
553
00:43:26,150 --> 00:43:27,599
to develop them.
554
00:43:27,599 --> 00:43:32,440
Oppenheimer and several of his former colleagues
from the Manhattan Project were central to
555
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:40,520
efforts in 1946 and 1947 to establish restrictions
on nuclear proliferation which are still in
556
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:42,150
force today.
557
00:43:42,150 --> 00:43:47,910
As the first chairman of the Commission Oppenheimer
tried to discourage a nuclear arms race between
558
00:43:47,910 --> 00:43:53,690
the United States and the Soviet Union in
the context of the developing Cold War, but
559
00:43:53,690 --> 00:43:59,560
these efforts were in vain, and a major nuclear
arms race developed once the Soviets conducted
560
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:05,200
their first successful test of a nuclear weapon
in 1949.
561
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:11,500
As news of the Soviet acquirement of a nuclear
weapon reached the US in 1949, debate began
562
00:44:11,500 --> 00:44:17,760
within the government of President Harry Truman
about the development of a hydrogen or thermonuclear
563
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:23,020
bomb, a far more powerful nuclear weapon than
the atomic bombs which had been developed
564
00:44:23,020 --> 00:44:29,180
under the rubric of the Manhattan Project
and used against Japan in 1945.
565
00:44:29,180 --> 00:44:33,050
Oppenheimer and a great many other scientists
who had contributed to the work at the Los
566
00:44:33,050 --> 00:44:40,910
Alamos Laboratory between 1942 and 1945 were
opposed to such a measure, arguing that such
567
00:44:40,910 --> 00:44:46,599
a weapon could not be used in any practical
sense in warfare, without causing immense
568
00:44:46,599 --> 00:44:52,359
damage and potentially triggering a nuclear
war, which would wipe out much of life on
569
00:44:52,359 --> 00:44:53,550
the planet.
570
00:44:53,550 --> 00:44:59,020
In their petition to the government in late
1949 they stated that “the extreme danger
571
00:44:59,020 --> 00:45:05,720
to mankind inherent in the proposal [to develop
thermonuclear weapons] wholly outweighs any
572
00:45:05,720 --> 00:45:07,050
military advantage.”
573
00:45:07,050 --> 00:45:14,380
Nevertheless, Truman pressed ahead and greenlit
the new programme in January 1950.
574
00:45:14,380 --> 00:45:20,750
Nearly three years later, in November 1952,
the first hydrogen bomb was tested on an atoll
575
00:45:20,750 --> 00:45:22,230
in the Pacific Ocean.
576
00:45:22,230 --> 00:45:28,609
‘Ivy Mike’, as the bomb was named, produced
an explosion equivalent to over ten million
577
00:45:28,609 --> 00:45:35,910
tonnes of TNT and was 450 times more powerful
than the atomic bomb which the US dropped
578
00:45:35,910 --> 00:45:39,569
on Nagasaki in 1945.
579
00:45:39,569 --> 00:45:44,870
Despite the reservations expressed by Oppenheimer
and many others, the Cold War was heading
580
00:45:44,870 --> 00:45:48,850
into the era of mutually assured destruction.
581
00:45:48,850 --> 00:45:53,780
As much as he had been absolutely central
to the Manhattan Project and a senior government
582
00:45:53,780 --> 00:45:59,530
scientist for many years, Oppenheimer fell
foul of the government in the early 1950s
583
00:45:59,530 --> 00:46:01,880
during the Second Red Scare.
584
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:06,940
These were years when the Cold War with the
Soviet Union was deepening following the division
585
00:46:06,940 --> 00:46:12,980
of Germany into a western-aligned West Germany
and a communist East Germany, along with the
586
00:46:12,980 --> 00:46:20,240
formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
and the Warsaw Pact as a rival military alliance,
587
00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:24,320
while the Korean War pitted the western and
communist blocs against each other for the
588
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,470
first time in a major proxy war.
589
00:46:27,470 --> 00:46:32,760
In this environment America became wracked
with what were initially legitimate concerns
590
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:38,771
about communist organisations within the United
States, acting as a fifth column for the Soviet
591
00:46:38,771 --> 00:46:45,380
Union within America, but this soon gave way
to intense and unfounded paranoia about the
592
00:46:45,380 --> 00:46:51,349
motives of anyone associated with socialist
politics or even groups such as the American
593
00:46:51,349 --> 00:46:53,309
Civil Liberties Union.
594
00:46:53,309 --> 00:46:59,390
The Second Red Scare, which is termed as such,
to distinguish it from the First Red Scare,
595
00:46:59,390 --> 00:47:05,869
which struck America in the late 1910s following
the Russian Revolution of 1917, gathered pace
596
00:47:05,869 --> 00:47:14,740
from the late 1940s and was at its most intense
between 1950 and 1954 as Senator Joseph McCarthy
597
00:47:14,740 --> 00:47:20,970
undertook extensive efforts to identify and
bring to trial, anyone even remotely suspected
598
00:47:20,970 --> 00:47:23,380
of communist sympathies.
599
00:47:23,380 --> 00:47:27,830
Oppenheimer would soon come under suspicion
during the Second Red Scare.
600
00:47:27,830 --> 00:47:33,400
Oppenheimer’s associations with socialist
and left-wing political movements and civil
601
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:40,150
liberties organisations in America stretched
back to the mid-1930s when, after being largely
602
00:47:40,150 --> 00:47:46,260
apolitical throughout his youth, he began
to finally take an interest in political affairs.
603
00:47:46,260 --> 00:47:50,710
This led him to join a number of left-wing
and progressive movements at a time when socialist
604
00:47:50,710 --> 00:47:55,420
parties and organisations were seen as the
logical opposition to the growing fascist
605
00:47:55,420 --> 00:48:02,530
tide across Europe, particularly so from 1936
onwards, when the Soviet Union and other communist
606
00:48:02,530 --> 00:48:08,790
parties supported the Republicans against
the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.
607
00:48:08,790 --> 00:48:13,350
It should be noted, however, that Oppenheimer
never actually joined the Communist Party
608
00:48:13,350 --> 00:48:18,089
of the United States, though, a great many
individuals who were very close to him were
609
00:48:18,089 --> 00:48:24,420
active members, including Jean Tatlock with
whom he was involved romantically from 1936
610
00:48:24,420 --> 00:48:28,319
onwards, his wife Kitty and his brother Frank.
611
00:48:28,319 --> 00:48:33,319
Other movements which Robert was involved
in, such as the American Civil Liberties Union,
612
00:48:33,319 --> 00:48:40,180
were also considered radical between the 1930s
and 1950s, but are now viewed as the torch-bearers
613
00:48:40,180 --> 00:48:45,350
of the civil rights movement which ended Segregation
after nearly a century.
614
00:48:45,350 --> 00:48:50,950
All of this ensured that Oppenheimer was viewed
with some suspicion by the authorities, a
615
00:48:50,950 --> 00:48:56,090
development which was compounded by his father’s
birth in Germany once the United States entered
616
00:48:56,090 --> 00:49:02,059
the Second World War, though this was a complete
oxymoron as Oppenheimer’s Jewish background
617
00:49:02,059 --> 00:49:06,570
would have made him a persona non grata to
the Nazi regime in Berlin.
618
00:49:06,570 --> 00:49:10,099
Nevertheless, suspicions abounded about Oppenheimer.
619
00:49:10,099 --> 00:49:13,910
He was even under surveillance throughout
America’s involvement in the Second World
620
00:49:13,910 --> 00:49:19,280
War, a bizarre period during which he was
one of the most senior figures involved in
621
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:26,119
the Manhattan Project but the FBI simultaneously
had a file open on him.
622
00:49:26,119 --> 00:49:33,150
These issues coalesced by 1949 and that year
Oppenheimer was forced to testify before the
623
00:49:33,150 --> 00:49:38,720
House Un-American Activities Committee about
his political associations.
624
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:43,670
During this, he admitted to ties to the Communist
Party and that many of his more prominent
625
00:49:43,670 --> 00:49:50,049
students at Berkeley in the 1930s had also
been official members of the party, but stated
626
00:49:50,049 --> 00:49:52,740
he had never been a member himself.
627
00:49:52,740 --> 00:49:57,359
Not much more came of the interrogation at
this juncture, but four years later in the
628
00:49:57,359 --> 00:50:04,339
early winter of 1953, the accusations against
Oppenheimer were resurrected and on this occasion
629
00:50:04,339 --> 00:50:11,200
the FBI were convinced, wrongly as it turns
out, that Oppenheimer was a Soviet asset operating
630
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:13,180
within the US.
631
00:50:13,180 --> 00:50:17,280
Such was the level of paranoia which pertained
within America at the time of the Second Red
632
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:18,360
Scare.
633
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:24,349
In mid-December 1953, Oppenheimer’s security
clearance for the US government was revoked
634
00:50:24,349 --> 00:50:28,430
and he was advised to resign from his government
positions.
635
00:50:28,430 --> 00:50:33,890
This Oppenheimer refused to do and demanded
a hearing, one which was held behind closed
636
00:50:33,890 --> 00:50:37,380
doors in the late spring of 1954.
637
00:50:37,380 --> 00:50:43,369
During this, Oppenheimer was completely undermined
by his old colleague, Edward Teller, who testified
638
00:50:43,369 --> 00:50:47,841
that he had found Oppenheimer’s behaviour
questionable at times during his time as director
639
00:50:47,841 --> 00:50:49,880
of the Los Alamos Laboratory.
640
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:54,620
With this betrayal, Oppenheimer was stripped
of his security clearance and cast into the
641
00:50:54,620 --> 00:50:59,109
political and social wilderness in the mid-1950s.
642
00:50:59,109 --> 00:51:04,510
The years following his security hearing and
the revocation of his security clearance were
643
00:51:04,510 --> 00:51:06,450
difficult ones for Oppenheimer.
644
00:51:06,450 --> 00:51:10,000
The reaction within the academic community
was mixed.
645
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:14,150
Most of his colleagues defended Oppenheimer,
but the bureaucrats and administrators who
646
00:51:14,150 --> 00:51:19,970
ran the American universities were often less
sanguine, with many cancelling lectures and
647
00:51:19,970 --> 00:51:22,880
appearances which Oppenheimer was scheduled
to give.
648
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:27,870
Oppenheimer’s own confidence was dented
and he refrained from overt involvement in
649
00:51:27,870 --> 00:51:33,030
numerous initiatives launched by figures like
Einstein to warn the government and American
650
00:51:33,030 --> 00:51:37,830
society about the dangers of excessive nuclear
proliferation.
651
00:51:37,830 --> 00:51:43,190
Instead he spent an increasing amount of time
away from the continental United States, relocating
652
00:51:43,190 --> 00:51:48,170
to the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, a
US overseas territory.
653
00:51:48,170 --> 00:51:53,440
Here he purchased an estate on what was then
known as Gibney Beach on the island of Saint
654
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:58,660
John, but which has since become known colloquially
as Oppenheimer Beach.
655
00:51:58,660 --> 00:52:05,089
He spent extended periods here from 1957 onwards,
though there were many institutions and organisations
656
00:52:05,089 --> 00:52:09,400
within America that continued to invite him
to guest lecture.
657
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:15,089
Yet the 1950s were notably lean years for
him from a research perspective, during which
658
00:52:15,089 --> 00:52:17,910
he barely published anything.
659
00:52:17,910 --> 00:52:23,690
By the late 1950s there were concerted efforts
underway to rehabilitate Oppenheimer abroad.
660
00:52:23,690 --> 00:52:30,180
For instance, in 1957, the French government
awarded him the Legion D’Honour in recognition
661
00:52:30,180 --> 00:52:33,000
of his wartime service to the Allied cause.
662
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:38,510
In 1962 he was made a foreign member of the
Royal Society in Britain.
663
00:52:38,510 --> 00:52:43,770
By that time there was an increasing awareness
at home in America that the Second Red Scare
664
00:52:43,770 --> 00:52:49,910
had been utterly excessive in its prosecution
of individuals who had been only vaguely associated
665
00:52:49,910 --> 00:52:56,369
with the American communist movement and had
no real ties of any kind with the Soviet Union.
666
00:52:56,369 --> 00:53:03,250
Accordingly in 1963, President John F. Kennedy
moved to rehabilitate Oppenheimer by awarding
667
00:53:03,250 --> 00:53:09,760
him the Enrico Fermi Award, an award which
had been created in 1956 by the US Department
668
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:15,460
of Energy and named in honour of Enrico Fermi,
the Italian-American scientist who had developed
669
00:53:15,460 --> 00:53:20,950
the world’s first nuclear reactor in Chicago
in 1942, as part of the early stages of the
670
00:53:20,950 --> 00:53:26,390
Manhattan Project and who had died prematurely
of stomach cancer in 1954.
671
00:53:26,390 --> 00:53:31,309
The award had been bestowed on several individuals
who had worked at the Los Alamos Laboratory
672
00:53:31,309 --> 00:53:40,720
under Oppenheimer between 1943 and 1945, including
von Neumann, Bethe and Teller in 1956, 1961
673
00:53:40,720 --> 00:53:42,630
and 1962 respectively.
674
00:53:42,630 --> 00:53:49,210
Hence Oppenheimer’s receipt of the award
in 1963 was belated but a welcome acknowledgement
675
00:53:49,210 --> 00:53:54,790
of the government’s mistake in persecuting
him as part of the Red Scare.
676
00:53:54,790 --> 00:53:59,299
Oppenheimer did not live long to enjoy having
his reputation partially restored.
677
00:53:59,299 --> 00:54:05,320
Two years after he was awarded the Fermi Award
he was diagnosed in late 1965 with throat
678
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:10,869
cancer, an illness which was undoubtedly caused
by his lifelong chain smoking.
679
00:54:10,869 --> 00:54:15,100
This was a time when many forms of cancer
which are treatable today were effectively
680
00:54:15,100 --> 00:54:16,470
a death sentence.
681
00:54:16,470 --> 00:54:22,059
Thus, while Oppenheimer underwent aggressive
chemotherapy in an effort to prolong his life,
682
00:54:22,059 --> 00:54:28,370
he fell into a coma early in 1967 and died
at home in Princeton on the 18th of February.
683
00:54:28,370 --> 00:54:31,359
He was 62 years of age.
684
00:54:31,359 --> 00:54:35,720
While his reputation had been only partly
rehabilitated by the bestowal of the Enrico
685
00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:43,020
Fermi Award in 1963 and many political figures
continued to view him suspiciously, the academic
686
00:54:43,020 --> 00:54:48,339
community clearly demonstrated its respect
for Oppenheimer at a funeral service which
687
00:54:48,339 --> 00:54:54,250
was attended by over 600 colleagues from within
academia, the scientific community and the
688
00:54:54,250 --> 00:54:58,800
military, a great many of whom had worked
with Oppenheimer at Los Alamos.
689
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:03,040
His ashes were later deposited in the waters
off St John’s Island in the Caribbean in
690
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:04,040
an urn.
691
00:55:04,040 --> 00:55:08,700
In the decades since, his reputation has been
fully rehabilitated.
692
00:55:08,700 --> 00:55:13,960
By way of contrast, Edward Teller, who testified
against Oppenheimer at his closed doors hearing
693
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:21,119
in 1954, was spurned by many within the American
scientific community for decades to come.
694
00:55:21,119 --> 00:55:27,010
In 1967 Oppenheimer was posthumously nominated
for the third time for the Nobel Prize for
695
00:55:27,010 --> 00:55:28,010
Physics.
696
00:55:28,010 --> 00:55:34,349
He had previously been nominated in 1946 and
1951, but he had not received the accolade
697
00:55:34,349 --> 00:55:37,740
on those occasions, nor did he in 1967.
698
00:55:37,740 --> 00:55:42,650
There has been considerable attention given
over the years as to why he did not receive
699
00:55:42,650 --> 00:55:48,410
the Nobel Prize given his extensive accomplishments,
but there would seem to be clear reasons why
700
00:55:48,410 --> 00:55:49,890
he did not.
701
00:55:49,890 --> 00:55:55,750
Firstly, Oppenheimer did not publish extensively,
unlike someone like Albert Einstein who published
702
00:55:55,750 --> 00:56:01,420
over 300 scientific papers during his lifetime
and many books later in his life.
703
00:56:01,420 --> 00:56:06,481
By way of contrast, Oppenheimer published
just five academic papers after the Second
704
00:56:06,481 --> 00:56:07,750
World War.
705
00:56:07,750 --> 00:56:12,799
Furthermore, while he contributed to numerous
fields of inquiry within physics, he did not
706
00:56:12,799 --> 00:56:18,540
make the kind of theoretical or applied breakthrough
in any one specific area which would have
707
00:56:18,540 --> 00:56:20,790
warranted a Nobel Prize.
708
00:56:20,790 --> 00:56:26,130
The Nobels are not awarded for a lifetime’s
work, but generally for a specific scientific
709
00:56:26,130 --> 00:56:27,130
accomplishment.
710
00:56:27,130 --> 00:56:32,900
Einstein, for instance, won his primarily
for his work on the photoelectric effect.
711
00:56:32,900 --> 00:56:38,079
Hence Oppenheimer was deemed not to have warranted
a Nobel Prize for his individual contributions
712
00:56:38,079 --> 00:56:43,770
to science, though some have speculated that
his work on gravitational collapse was worthy
713
00:56:43,770 --> 00:56:44,829
of one.
714
00:56:44,829 --> 00:56:49,730
His primary accomplishments throughout his
career lay in collaborative work and overseeing
715
00:56:49,730 --> 00:56:52,950
teams of physicists and other scientists.
716
00:56:52,950 --> 00:56:58,240
It was this which made him the ideal individual
to head the Los Alamos Laboratory during the
717
00:56:58,240 --> 00:56:59,730
war.
718
00:56:59,730 --> 00:57:04,430
Robert Oppenheimer is one of the most important
theoretical physicists in history.
719
00:57:04,430 --> 00:57:10,950
His research and work between the 1920s and
1960s added substantially to our understanding
720
00:57:10,950 --> 00:57:16,460
of the universe, notably the manner in which
the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation transformed
721
00:57:16,460 --> 00:57:22,789
our understanding of molecular dynamics from
1927 onwards and how the Oppenheimer-Phillips
722
00:57:22,789 --> 00:57:28,960
Process allowed for a deuteron-induced nuclear
reaction after Oppenheimer and Melba Phillips
723
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:32,160
provided an explanation for this phenomenon
in 1935.
724
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:36,780
But he will forever be remembered for his
role in the Manhattan Project as director
725
00:57:36,780 --> 00:57:38,990
of the Las Alamos Laboratory.
726
00:57:38,990 --> 00:57:43,940
In this capacity, Oppenheimer might be said
to have been the lead physicist in US efforts
727
00:57:43,940 --> 00:57:47,829
to develop an atomic bomb during the Second
World War.
728
00:57:47,829 --> 00:57:52,270
Whatever the existential and moral implications
of the introduction of such weapons into the
729
00:57:52,270 --> 00:57:57,770
world might be, there is no doubt that this
research was considered necessary in the context
730
00:57:57,770 --> 00:57:59,670
of the times.
731
00:57:59,670 --> 00:58:03,400
Oppenheimer was clearly troubled by what he
and his colleagues had unleashed into the
732
00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:09,080
world and spent much of the post-war period
arguing against the development of even more
733
00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:11,690
deadly weapons of mass destruction.
734
00:58:11,690 --> 00:58:17,270
It was in part owing to this, that he found
himself persecuted and prosecuted by the government
735
00:58:17,270 --> 00:58:22,790
he had worked for in the early 1950s and cast
into the wilderness as a result of the Second
736
00:58:22,790 --> 00:58:24,240
Red Scare.
737
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:27,190
His legacy, though, is alive and well today.
738
00:58:27,190 --> 00:58:33,740
An eccentric man who viewed the physical universe
in mystical terms, Oppenheimer should surely
739
00:58:33,740 --> 00:58:38,319
be remembered as one of the great scientists
of modern times.
740
00:58:38,319 --> 00:58:40,730
What do you think of Robert Oppenheimer?
741
00:58:40,730 --> 00:58:45,789
Was he the most significant individual involved
in the Manhattan Project and should he have
742
00:58:45,789 --> 00:58:47,619
been awarded a Nobel Prize?
743
00:58:47,619 --> 00:58:53,079
Please let us know in the comment section,
and in the meantime, thank you very much for
744
00:58:53,079 --> 00:58:53,369
watching.
80618
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