2023-07-20 04:30:00
Born in Manhattan regarding April 22, 1904, Julius Robert Oppenheimer is an eminence in the field of physics of the last century, whose theoretical contributions were and will be remembered for his controversial participation in the ‘The Manhattan Project’conceived by the United States to develop nuclear weapons and counteract the power of the so-called Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) during World War II.
Before becoming a distinguished scientist, Oppenheimer studied philosophy, literature, and languages. Despite his multifaceted inclinations, he graduated with honors from Chemical around 1925 and during this period he began to manifest a growing interest in experimental physicsespecially following taking a subject on thermodynamics taught by Professor Percy Bridgman.
His training as a postgraduate student continued in Europe, at the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory, the name given to the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge.
Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project
Later, as director of the Manhattan Project, he dedicated all his dedication to nuclear research, without suspecting that the explosion of the two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would change his existence forever.
One month before the invasion of Nazi Germany on Poland, on August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein and Léo Szilárd wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt in which they warned regarding the dangerous possibility of Germany developing nuclear weapons.. This request addressed to the White House was the turning point for the United States to urgently shape the investigation that would supposedly prevent a catastrophe of unknown magnitudes.
The team of physicists who collaborated with Oppenheimer was made up of true prodigies in the world of physics, five of whom would later be recognized with the Nobel Prize: Emilio Segrè, Isidor Rabi, Felix Bloch, Edwin McMillan and Hans Bethe.
Edward Teller, known as the creator of the hydrogen bomb, was another member of the distinguished and controversial staff.
The first test of the atomic bomb
It was during the early morning of July 16, 1945, at 5:29 a.m., when Oppenheimer’s life took a radical turn.
The scientist witnessed in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the bright pre-mushroom fireball during the test called ‘Trinity’ (code name given to the detonation of the nuclear device).
After the shocking experience, the physicist verified before his eyes that the world would never be the same once more. At that time, the eminent father of the atomic bomb is said to have uttered somber lines from the Hindu epic Bhagavad Gita: “Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer, an eminence with “his hands stained with blood”
Unfortunately, the dark premonition would be confirmed the first week of August 1945, the disastrous events occurred. Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
The pride Oppenheimer had felt following the New Mexico tests metamorphosed into an inevitable guilty feeling.
As part of a visit to President Harry S. Truman, Oppenheimer He admitted that he was sorry to have “blood on his hands”.
Oppenheimer, investigated for ‘links to communism’
In 1953, Oppenheimer was accused of having had ties to communism and having covered up a group of ‘would-be communists’ during his stay in Alamogordo.
The Federation of American Scientists supported Oppenheimer, despite the fact that the scientist’s ups and downs with communism were never fully clarified.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award from the Atomic Energy Commission, and years later, in 1966, the scientist died of throat cancer.
This Thursday, July 20, ‘Oppenheimer’ premieres, the story of the scientist made into a movie
‘Oppenheimer’ arrives this Thursday, July 20, at the cinematographic screen by the director Christopher Nolanauthor of productions that received 11 Oscars and 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations.
Nolan’s creative repertoire includes films such as Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy.
Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) interpretará a Robert Oppenheimerthe theoretical physicist haunted by the devastating scope of his research.
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