Oppenheimer is a man etched in history by his significant innovations and works. He was a maverick physicist at the forefront of atomic bomb development during WWII. He forever changed the course of history with this invention for both better and worse.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904 NYC to German immigrants who made their fortunes in the textile industry by importing textiles. Julius excelled at his studies, As an undergrad at Harvard University he took Greek, Latin, Physics, and Chemistry. He published poetry and studied philosophy as well. After graduating in 1925 he sailed to England to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory under the University of Cambridge who were the pioneers of atomic studies at the time, especially atomic structure. At the Laboratory Oppenheimer had the opportunity to collaborate with the British Scientific Community and its efforts in furthering Atomic research.
In 1920 new quantum and relativity theories were being talked about such as mass being equivalent to energy and matter being both wavelike and corpuscular. Oppenheimer’s early research was devoted to energy processes of sub-atomic particles such as neutrons and electrons and cosmic rays. He also did groundbreaking work on Neutron stars and black holes. Since the theory had been so recent the university allowed him to devote his entire career to the exploration of these theories.
After receiving his doctorate in 1927 Oppenheimer returned to California to teach physics at Berkeley at CalTech. In 1939 during the Second World War, well-known scientists such as Albert Einstein and Eugene Wigner warned the US government of the dangers the Nazis posed if they built the atomic bomb first, not just to the United States but to the world as a whole. Oppenheimer immediately started researching how to extract Uranium 235 from natural uranium compounds.
In August of 1942, the US Army was given the responsibility of organizing the efforts of US and British physicists to seek a way to harness nuclear energy for military purposes. This collective effort became known as the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer’s role in this was to establish and administer a laboratory to carry this out. In 1943 he chose Los Alamos, a plateau near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
With the joint efforts of his fellow scientists, they had their first successful explosion on July 16th, 1945 at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. After the surrender of Germany and the end of WW2. In October of the same year, Oppenheimer resigned from his post. He was under an immense amount of mental torture. He knew what his weapon was capable of doing. He knew it could kill millions, he knew he played a major part in creating a tool of mass destruction.
To ease his mental agony he turned to the Bhagavad Gita, especially after the first test. He famously quoted “ Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” This line was referenced from the part where Lord Krishna speaks this to Arjun on the battlefield of Mahabharat. Oppenheimer chose his words carefully. The direct quote above is not a mistake. He understood the weight of his creation and how he became the cause of death for so many to come.
“In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.” This excerpt said by Oppenheimer reminds us that their work goes far beyond experiments and equations, shaping the course of humanity. The sense of responsibility in his words, underlines his blissful commitment as a physicist to wield his knowledge with concern and care, forever conscious of the fact that his insights can have a profound impact on the world.
By: ADYA AGARWAL, 11H
