Assignment 5 - Robert Oppenheimer

Who many may consider to be the father of modern day atomic weaponry, J. Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City to German immigrants. Throughout his early studied, Oppenheimer focused his energy on ethics rather than science. After being accepted into Harvard University, he took many courses in Greek, art, literature, and the classics, but formally majored in Chemistry. It was this that led him to his developing interest in physics and thermodynamics.

After a few mishaps in the labs, his teachers told him that perhaps experimental physics and chemistry wasn't his forte and to focus his ideas on the newly developing Quantum Theories. He began studying at the University of Göttingen in 1926, becoming friends with Fermi, Teller, and Heisenberg. After obtaining his Ph. D. when he was 22, he moved out to California to teach mathematics at Caltech researching nuclear physics, quantum field theory, and theoretical astronomy.

In 1941, Oppenheimer was approached to take the helm of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret initiative in Los Alamos, New Mexico to develop a functional nuclear weapon before the Nazis did. After being appointed Scientific Director, he formed a small team to calculate the many variables involved with nuclear reactions and feared that the explosion of an atomic bomb might ignite the entire atmosphere.

On July 16, 1945, the test bomb "Trinity" was set off, sparking in the nuclear age. Many years after the war, Oppenheimer was interviewed on television and stated "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavadgita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

Although he never won a Nobel Prize, scientists hold Oppenheimer in high regard, considering him the inventor of Theoretical and Nuclear Physics.