In several of the advances of oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s latest film, the protagonist is a shadowy figure who is the center of a story focused on the scope of his invention and its future impact. The plot explores the context of the development of the first nuclear weapons on American soil.
Particularly in the creation of the manhattan project and the later trinity test, which demonstrated the power of the atomic bomb. A decisive contribution at the end of the Second World War which became, almost immediately, a universal threat. Between both things, oppenheimer it is both a tribute and an exploration of the personality of its creator, a mystery to many of his biographers.
the script of oppenheimeralso written by its director, adapts the book American Prometheusby Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. The chronicle, winner of the pulitzerdelves into Oppenheimer’s achievements and the research conducted on him by fbi. Which shows that the expert was haunted by the shadow of his creation for the rest of his life. Above all, because of the possible consequences of a virtually unstoppable weapon with the power to destroy the world.
However, the context that surrounded the physicist was much more complex than one might suppose due to his involvement in such a controversial historical event. As a brilliant man full of ethical contradictions, he is the epitome of the contemporary scientist. The paradigm of the endless discussion about the moral limits in the world of knowledge. Something that is part of his extensive legacy.
Oppenheimer and the most important investigation in the country
During the year 1930, the American theoretical physicist was a professor at the University of California, in Berkeley. Oppenheimer was a leading promoter of science and traveled around the US as an educator. His intention was to get a new generation interested in the pure sciences, as there had been a decline in student admissions in these disciplines at the country’s leading institutions.
However, in 1927, he was already immersed in the research that would lead him to the creation of the first nuclear weapon. That year, he would publish, together with the German mathematician Max Born, the premise of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation. A theory that would earn him immediate international recognition and an important professional relationship with several of the best-known scientists in his area. Circumstances that would lead him to be the main candidate to lead the most ambitious project in North America in the following decade.
As curious as it may seem, despite his relevant public personality, oppenheimer he was a private and reclusive man. A practicing Jew, he had faced anti-Semitism during his college days. What made him suspicious of power figures and, especially, public opinion. Something that would affect his behavior when he found himself at the center of the controversy after the explosion of the first two atomic bombs in Japan.
The famous Manhattan Project
The origins of the initiative date back to 1942, when the president Franklin D Roosevelt began a scientific program dedicated to weapons exploration. For the American leader, it was a national priority that was above other sections of internal security.
In May of that year, oppenheimer was summoned as adviser by the National Defense Investigative Committee. In June, he was already a full part of the Army’s plan to develop an entirely new weapon. The long-term program, which included from the field investigation to the final resolution, would be known as manhattan project.
It would be baptized with that name because the first meetings of what would later be the group of scientists were held in New York. According to the historian Robert S. Norris, a utility building in the city served as a base for the Army Corps of Engineers. And it was considered natural that research related to mechanical structures should have the same headquarters. So the place would be the base of operations for the first meetings of the experts and the subsequent development of plans for false cities for field tests. Over time, the location would become part of its core purpose naming.
A form of destruction never seen
oppenheimer became the director of the military laboratory built in Poplars. For almost two years, his work was eminently theoretical and was related to the arduous investigation prior to the detonation of the trinity test. The latter would take place in Alamogordo, New Mexicoon July 16, 1945, and would include the detonation of a plutonium device.
The results were surprising for those involved, but for oppenheimer they were a revelation. Drawing from hundreds of hypothetical calculations, the reality of the devastation that the nuclear bomb could cause overwhelmed him. However, the journey towards its military use was unstoppable. That first test would result in the technology that allowed the detonated devices to be created on hiroshima and nagasakiin Japan in 1945.
From that first and forceful demonstration of military power comes a mythical phrase from the scientist. According to his own confession, after checking the scope of the explosion, Oppenheimer thought of a phrase that would allow him to summarize his horror: “Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.” It’s about an appointment The Bhagavad Gitawhich recounts a conversation between the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer, the god krishna. The tragic story is related to the predestination to destruction. Something that would haunt him after verifying the tragic firepower that his research brought to the world.
Oppenheimer in fight against injustice
According to the book Robert Oppenheimer and the American Centuryof David Cassidy, the mass murder in Japan morally destroyed the physicist. So he refused to go back to work for the US government and tried to purge the blame from him through various conferences in which he spoke on the subject. One of them took him to Japan in 1960, where he admitted his regret and regret to a group of colleagues who left the room without looking at his face.
At that time, he was also involved in a bitter struggle against the government of his country. In 1949, he publicly confronted the possibility of the publication of the hydrogen bomb based on the nuclear fusion (H-bomb). In addition, he had to deal with the problems associated with his wife’s belongings. Katherine Oppenheimer to the communist partywhich put his name on the watch list of J. Edgar Hoover.
Finally, he left the public scene during the wave of hunting down sympathizers of the American left. His unwillingness to lie or deny his ties to members of the Communist Party sparked an alleged national security crisis. Which led to a hearing in the AEC (United States Atomic Energy Commission) in 1954. Stripped of all his political and university privileges, Oppenheimer disappeared from the public scene.
Always in the midst of controversy and accused of causing indelible damage to humanity, the scientist died on February 18, 1967. His memory would be vindicated in the following decades and he would be considered a martyr to unjust persecution. Even so, he is still a dark personality whose legacy is not fully understood.