Did oppenheimer regret the atomic bomb

Often called the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” the renowned physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer led the “Manhattan Project” that created the first atomic bomb. He was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he headlined the research and design of the bomb. Who was J.R. Oppenheimer? And what were some of his major contributions to physics in general? Finally, did the scientist have any regret about the creation of the atomic bomb? Below, World History Edu explores early life, education and major works of Oppenheimer. Childhood & Early Educational Endeavors Born to German-Jewish immigrant father and a New York-born mother in New York City, Oppenheimer attended Alcuin Preparatory School and later enrolled at Harvard University, where he majored in chemistry. At this point, he had developed a strong interest in physics and wanted to pursue it. After Harvard, he set sail to England to further his studies at Christ’s college in Cambridge. In 1925, during his graduate studies, he initiated his research into atoms at the Cavendish Laboratory and later, returned to Harvard to read mathematical physics. Prior to that, he had worked as an assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a national research council fellow at the California Institute of Technology. University of Göttingen Oppenheimer came to the realization that his interest was geared towards theoretical and not experimental physics. So, he teamed up with Max Born, the director of t...

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, 721 pp. 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos By Jennet Conant Simon & Schuster, 2005, 425 pp. Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan By Tsuyoshi Hasegawa Harvard University Press, 2005, 382 pp. The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race By Priscilla McMillan Viking Press, July 2005, 384 pp. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a fascinating, complex, and extremely seductive figure, but one defined almost as much by his flaws as by his prodigious talents and achievements. As director of the Los Alamos laboratory, Oppenheimer, or “Oppie,” as his friends called him, bore major responsibility for building the atomic bomb and some responsibility for obstructing scientists desperately seeking to prevent its use. Understanding clearly what he had wrought and terrified by the future this augured, he later struggled for international control of nuclear weapons and fought to prevent development of the hydrogen bomb. His contemporaries found him compelling. His best students revered him. Many women adored him. His colleagues appreciated his quick mind, erudition, and brilliance as a theoretician, and they admired his leadership of the Manhattan Project. In the final accounting, Oppenheimer’s was a tragic life, the life of a man who succeeded as a weapons maker and failed as a peacemaker....

Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during World War II and is perhaps best known as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But he was a complicated man. As William Brangham explains, there are new assessments of his role in history. Read the Full Transcript • Judy Woodruff: Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer led what was called the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. He is perhaps best known as the father of the atomic bomb. As time has passed, more details have emerged about his life, and, as William Brangham explains, there are some new assessments of his role in history. • William Brangham: Christopher Nolan's upcoming film "Oppenheimer" tells the story of the brilliant physicist and his intense work to develop the weapons that would help America win the Second World War. Two of the bombs he and his colleagues helped create were dropped on Japan, killing several hundred thousand people, mostly civilians, but helping bring the war to a quicker end. Afterwards, Oppenheimer expressed regret about these weapons and worked to stop their proliferation. In 1954, at the height of anti-Soviet fervor, his security clearance was revoked over allegations that he had ties to communism. But almost 70 years later, long after his death, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm reversed that decision, saying: "As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer...

I think there are issues which are quite simple and quite deep, and which involve us as a group of scientists—involve us more, perhaps than any other group in the world. I think that it can only help to look a little at what our situation is—at what has happened to us—and that this must give us some honesty, some insight, which will be a source of strength in what may be the not-too-easy days ahead. I would like to take it as deep and serious as I know how, and then perhaps come to more immediate questions in the course of the discussion later. I want anyone who feels like it to ask me a question and if I can’t answer it, as will often be the case, I will just have to say so. What has happened to us—it is really rather major, it is so major that I think in some ways one returns to the greatest developments of the twentieth century, to the discovery of relativity, and to the whole development of atomic theory and its interpretation in terms of complementarity, for analogy. These things, as you know, forced us to re-consider the relations between science and common sense. They forced on us the recognition that the fact that we were in the habit of talking a certain language and using certain concepts did not necessarily imply that there was anything in the real world to correspond to these. They forced us to be prepared for the inadequacy of the ways in which human beings attempted to deal with reality, for that reality. In some ways I think these virtues, which scientists q...

‘A huge challenge’ … Cillian Murphy as J Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Photograph: Universal Pictures/AP ‘A huge challenge’ … Cillian Murphy as J Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Photograph: Universal Pictures/AP Christopher Nolan has spoken of the challenges of showing an atomic explosion without resorting to computer-generated imagery for his new film, Oppenheimer. The director’s forthcoming biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, one of the pioneers of nuclear weapons during the second world war, involves a scene recreating the first atomic detonation in New Mexico in July 1945, a month before the US dropped similar bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, hastening the end of the conflict. ‘There were huge practical challenges’ … Christopher Nolan. Photograph: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images “Recreating the Trinity test without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan told “Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on — was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself … there were huge practical challenges.” Nolan has long pioneered ambitious technical film-making while also mounting real-life stunts of considerable scale. He blew up a real Boeing 747 for 2020’s Tenet, flipped a truck for The Dark Knight and shot on top of melt...