Word: bomb
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...from a cheap supermarket paperback, “American Prometheus” is an exhaustive 600-page biography of the fascinating J. Robert Oppenheimer ’25, remembered by history as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Journalist Kai Bird and Tufts professor Martin J. Sherwin track the scientist from childhood to death, thoroughly charting his rise and fall through interviews, letters, and transcripts. After following Oppenheimer’s path for a quarter-century, the authors will return tonight to their subject’s alma mater, speaking...
Questions of dual loyalty aside, Oppenheimer willingly agreed to direct the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb in 1942. Edward Teller suggested that such a device might ignite the hydrogen in the atmosphere and wipe out mankind. But Oppenheimer dismissed Teller’s calculations...
...community was created in the high-altitude desert of Los Alamos, N.M., and hundreds of scientists were shipped in. A physics Dream Team was assembled: Teller, Hans Bethe, and Richard Feynman, among others. The heavy responsibility of overseeing these great minds and building the bomb wore away at Oppenheimer. Two years in, he only carried a gaunt 115 pounds on a 5-foot-10-inch frame, and his four-to-five pack-a-day cigarette habit did not help his health. These chapters in the book center on the physicists’ lives while leaving the scientific aspects...
...bomb neared completion, the scientists began to wonder about the morality of unleashing it on humanity. While many had qualms, Oppenheimer actually supported the use of the bomb in order to demonstrate to the world that the U.S. possessed such a capability. He feared that keeping the weapon a secret would guarantee its widespread use in future wars. Oppenheimer, influenced by Niels Bohr, idealistically envisioned openly sharing nuclear information with the Soviets to avert an arms race. He feared atomic war and nuclear terrorism. Oppenheimer used the fame that came out of the Manhattan Project to press these issues...
...homosexual tendencies.” The FBI wiretapped his phones. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) member Lewis Strauss rabidly pursued Oppenheimer’s downfall too after Oppenheimer humiliated him during a Senate hearing. And finally there was Teller, “the father of the hydrogen bomb,” whose pet project Oppenheimer vehemently opposed...