April 22, 2024, marks the 120th anniversary of Oppenheimer's birth. After the release of the film "Oppenheimer" directed by Nolan, the father of the atomic bomb was brought back into the public eye, and his popularity has not diminished to this day. This article attempts to retrace his unique upbringing, personality formation, and in-depth humanistic feelings, aesthetic tastes, and inner torment and loss, starting from several important nodes, re-examining Oppenheimer's scientific contributions, examining his unique role in the Manhattan Project, the injustices he suffered, and his impact on the future.
This article commemorates the 120th anniversary of Oppenheimer's birth.
Written by | FANG Zaiqing (Institute of History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
In July 2023, the release of the film "Oppenheimer" directed by Christopher Nolan set off an "Oppenheimer fever" around the world that continues to this day1). The book of the same name, Oppenheimer, the inspiration for the film, has since been at the top of the bestseller list for a long time. Film reviews and book reviews have sparked interest in this "extraordinarily remarkable and complex man", a "scientist who played an important role in the future destiny of mankind"3).
Oppenheimer ushered in the nuclear age. Whether it is the manufacture of nuclear weapons or the peaceful use of nuclear energy, there are too many uncertainties for mankind. Today is the 120th anniversary of Oppenheimer's birth, a day to remember. This article attempts to retrace his unique upbringing, personality formation, and in-depth humanistic feelings, aesthetic tastes, and inner torment and loss, starting from several important nodes, re-examining Oppenheimer's scientific contributions, examining his unique role in the Manhattan Project, the injustices he suffered, and his impact on the future.
1
J. Robert Oppenheimer Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904, in New York City, United States, to a wealthy family of German Jewish immigrants. His father, Julies Oppenheimer (1871-1937), was born in Germany and came to the United States at the age of 17, did not speak English but was a successful importer of textiles before the age of 30, and his mother, Ella Friedman (1869-1931), a descendant of German Jewish immigrants, was born in Baltimore and was a painter of great talent and "very sensitivity, high artistic taste." "Ella is slender, but her right hand is congenitally deformed. To disguise this deformity, Ella always wears long-sleeved clothes and a pair of suede gloves with a rudimentary prosthetic device in her right glove with a spring attached to an artificial thumb" 4). Oppenheimer's parents loved each other very much, but their personalities were completely different. Julius is outgoing and talkative, while Ella is dignified and elegant, but gives the impression of arrogance and indifference to the first acquaintance. "The diligence and self-discipline she showed in her studio and at home was incredible" 5). Oppenheimer was often ill as a child, so his mother behaved somewhat overprotective. Afraid of germs, she didn't let Oppenheimer stay with the other children. She never allowed him to buy food from street vendors, and Ella did not take him to the barber shop for a haircut, but called the barber to her house" 6).
When Oppenheimer was five or six years old, his mother insisted that he learn the piano, and he obediently practiced every day, but he had no enthusiasm at all, and even his heart was full of disgust. After practicing for almost a year, Oppenheimer fell seriously ill. Only then did his mother relent, and agreed not to let him practice anymore. This makes Oppenheimer one of the few great physicists who doesn't know how to play any instrument.7).
This overprotective and coercive love had a potentially negative impact on Oppenheimer's heart, making him want to flee at every opportunity, preferably to a place completely different from the environment in which he was raised.8) In 1931, his mother died at the age of 61, and he was very sad. When others comforted him that his mother loved him very much, he responded softly muttering, "Yes, I know." Maybe she loves me too much" 9). In addition to knowledge, his social skills are almost nil. He didn't learn how to relate to his peers. In order to better integrate Oppenheimer into his peers, his parents sent him to summer camp at the age of 14. But this event left a lifelong shadow on him.
Oppenheimer was so happy to attend the camp that he wrote to his parents about the "shock" he endured there (some people told erotic stories) as well. After receiving the letter, the parents hurried to the summer camp to report the matter to the camp director. The supervisor announced that he would severely punish those who told pornographic jokes. Oppenheimer, who was seen as an informer, was forcibly taken to the camp's ice cellar one night by the boys, stripped naked and beaten. The boys, in order to humiliate him, even splashed green paint on his ass and genitals. Oppenheimer endured such a brutal humiliation with a silent stoicism, and he did not flee from camp or complain. "Beneath Oppenheimer's fragile exterior lies a stoic heart that comes from stubborn pride and a strong will, a personality that will continue throughout his life" 10). He recognized the cruelty of the world. There is a huge gulf between the world he pursues and reality. He endured these humiliations in silence and was determined to pursue his intellectual paradise.
After graduating from high school, he entered Harvard University in 1921. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in just three years, while also taking courses in philosophy, literature, and physics, and was passionate about writing. By the time he graduated from college, his interest had shifted to physics. On the recommendation of Professor Percy Bridgman (1882-1961)11, he continued his studies at the University of Cambridge in the mecca of experimental physics. Here he suffered his first big "failure". The work in the lab frustrated him, and sometimes he collapsed on the floor in anger and rolled back and forth. It is said that at one point he even tried to poison his mentor Blackett (Patrick Blackett (1897-1974) with a poisoned apple.12). For this, he was almost expelled from the university. With the intervention of his parents, the school promised to keep his student status, but stipulated that he must see a psychiatrist regularly. In the process, Oppenheimer learned psychoanalysis13). Through introspection, travel, and reading novels, he was able to recover from a near-collapse of mental condition.
Fig.1 Max Born, Oppenheimer's doctoral supervisor at the University of Göttingen. Born was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954
Oppenheimer's fortunes turned around when Max Born (1882-1970), the founder of quantum mechanics, made an academic trip to Cambridge in the summer of 1926. The conversation with Oppenheimer made a deep impression on Born. Warm and patient, the enthusiastic and patient Born invited Oppenheimer to continue his studies at the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he taught. At that time, the University of Göttingen was the stronghold of theoretical physics. Born was surrounded by young people who laid the foundations of the edifice of quantum mechanics, such as Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), Wolfgang Paul (1900-1958), and Pascual Jordan (1902-1980). Oppenheimer's active mind and knack for grasping the heart of the problem soon grasped the essence of quantum mechanics and contributed to its perfection. Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. in just nine months under Born's supervision. The "Born-Oppenheimer approximation" (Born-Oppenheimer approximation), which he and his mentor Born, is still widely used in molecular structure research, condensed matter physics, quantum chemistry, chemical reaction kinetics and other fields because it is very accurate in most cases and greatly reduces the difficulty of quantum mechanical processing.
It must be noted that Oppenheimer's time in Göttingen was not all smooth sailing, and the "Petition affair" caused him to experience a lot of turmoil in his heart. It's just that, due to his experience in Cambridge and psychoanalytic treatment, he already has a lot of immunity, and this time he has withstood the test, although his heart is not without injuries.
The story of the "petition incident" is roughly as follows: While leaving Cambridge, Oppenheimer submitted two papers to the Cambridge Philosophical Society. When he arrived in Göttingen, he was pleased to learn that the Cambridge Philosophical Society had published these two papers. He became self-confident and enthusiastically participated in various seminars. At Born's Seminar, he often interrupted others, even Born. Often, before Born was finished, he would get up from his seat, walk to the blackboard, and confidently demonstrate the solution to the problem under discussion. Born himself was more tolerant of this, believing that "he was very talented". But Oppenheimer's way of asserting his superiority embarrassed the students, and they wrote a petition asking Born to stop the arrogant "prodigy"14). Faced with this unpleasant situation, Born wanted to avoid talking directly about it with Oppenheimer. He summoned Oppenheimer into his office, put the petition on the table, and walked away under the pretext of talking. Born thought that this was a way not to hurt Oppenheimer's self-esteem, and it did make Oppenheimer stop from this, but it also left the seeds of discord between teachers and students. It stands to reason that Oppenheimer should be grateful for helping Oppenheimer in his most difficult time and introducing him to the temple of quantum mechanics. But then Born discovered that there was a knot between Oppenheimer and him. Born complained that Oppenheimer did not publicly acknowledge his pioneering work in quantum mechanics. After serving as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Oppenheimer invited almost all the world's famous physicists to visit the institute, but did not extend an invitation to Born. This cannot but be said to be a regrettable thing.
In addition, Oppenheimer also has his own opinion on the "Born-Oppenheimer approximation" that puts Born's name in front. He believed that the core of the paper was the five-page paper he submitted, and Born's role was to refine its mathematics and expand it into a paper of more than 30 pages and publish it. Oppenheimer did not dare to resist the mentor's approach, but he did not agree with it in his heart. With this in mind, we may be able to understand the reasons behind some seemingly strange things.
Although Oppenheimer's aggressive and aggressive style has since reined in, in his bones, there has not been much substantive change. On May 11, 1927, Oppenheimer defended his doctoral dissertation with honors. Professor James Franck (1882-1964), one of the members of the defense committee, breathed a sigh of relief afterwards: "I had come out at a good time, or he would have started asking me questions"15).
Fig.2 Oppenheimer at Berkeley. His intellect and charisma attract students from all over the world
By the time he returned to the United States from Europe with his Ph.D., he was already a promising young physicist with the latest knowledge. He chose to teach at both the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer had his own considerations. At Caltech, he has many colleagues who can exchange ideas, and Berkeley is a virgin piece of physics that has yet to be cultivated, and he can make a big difference. Later, he focused on teaching physics at Berkeley, where he gathered a large number of talented students who would later become the backbone of theoretical physics in the United States. They idolized Oppenheimer and imitated his mannerisms and behaviors, which became a major landscape in Berkeley at that time.
The 30s of the 20th century was Oppenheimer's most explosive period in physics. He made a series of important discoveries, and co-discovered the "Oppenheimer-Phillips-Process" in nuclear physics. Oppenheimer's most cited paper was his 1939 book "On Constant Gravitational Attraction" by his student Hartland Sweet Snyder (1913-1962). This article gave an early description of gravitational collapse into a black hole in general relativity, predicting the existence of black holes, although they did not use the term "black hole" at the time16). As early as 1930, Oppenheimer predicted the existence of positrons in an article, which was later made by Paul Dirac (1902-1984). Oppenheimer also predicted the existence of neutrons, mesons, and neutron stars, all of which were later confirmed.
If it weren't for the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer would have continued his academic interests, and he would have become a great physicist, and winning the Nobel Prize would have been a matter of course.
It has also been argued that Oppenheimer's work would have hardly won the Nobel Prize even without the later Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer was a quick thinker and always had great ideas. His shortcomings are that he is not patient enough to persevere, and he is not careful in his mathematical calculations. His critics thought he "couldn't sit on the cold bench" (kein Sitzfleisch). He never wrote a long thesis. As Murray Gell-Mann (1929-2019 (17) puts it, "The result of his work is made up of short, brilliant ideas." But he can inspire others and have a profound impact. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize four times, but won none18).
Much of Oppenheimer's scientific research was conducted before the Manhattan Project. When he arrived at Los Alamos in 1943, he was 39 years old. Later, when he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he also had the idea of pursuing another scientific career. The young physicist Freeman Dyson (1923-2020) told him that it was impossible to keep up. He listened to Dyson and gave up his academic pursuits, because he really couldn't keep up. Oppenheimer himself was a competitive man, and restlessness was part of his character, according to Dyson, which led to the tragedy of his life: "That restlessness drove him to great things, to fulfill his mission at Los Alamos, but also to stop and rest or reflect"19).
2
In late 1938, German chemists Otto Hahn (1879-1968) and Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980) discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission in Berlin, but they did not understand the underlying principles. It was only with the help of Lise Meitner (1878-1968), an Austrian-Jewish physicist in exile in Sweden, and her nephew Otto Frisch (1904-1979) that they understood the principle. The news deeply disturbed many Jewish scholars in exile in the United States, especially the three Hungarians, Leo Szilard (1898-1964), Eugen Wigner (1902-1995), and Edward Teller (1908-2003). They believed that it was possible for Hitler's Germany to develop an atomic bomb in the short term. Szilard then approached Einstein, hoping to use his immense social fame to warn the U.S. government of impending danger. The letter signed by Albert Einstein on August 2, 1939, took several turns and reached US President Roosevelt a few months later. The President agreed, in principle, that the United States should develop its own atomic bomb as soon as possible.
Until the summer of 1941, the United States did not really launch atomic bomb research. At this time, Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls (1907-1995), from Birmingham, England, submitted a secret memorandum. They calculated that uranium-235 with a very small amount of fission uranium isotope would have an explosive power equivalent to thousands of tons of TNT, that is, an atomic bomb could theoretically be made. This memorandum eventually attracted the attention of the American side, and the National Academy of Sciences proposed a large-scale effort to create nuclear weapons. On December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt established the S-1 Committee to direct the study. This was the predecessor of the Manhattan Project.
Oppenheimer was not initially involved in the Manhattan Project. In the spring of 1942, at the suggestion of Nobel Prize winner Arthur Compton (1892-1962), Oppenheimer was involved as a "quick-fracturing coordinator" to study the problems of neutron diffusion (the behavior of neutrons in a chain reaction) and hydrodynamics (how explosions caused by a chain reaction behave). In June 1942, Oppenheimer organized a "summer seminar" at the University of California, Berkeley, with physicists such as Hans Bethe (1906-2005) and Edward Taylor. They concluded: a bomb based on nuclear fission is possible. It was at this symposium that Oppenheimer stood out and recognized his multifaceted excellence in physics peers.
Fig. 3 Oppenheimer (wearing a jacket and tie) at the 1946 Los Alamos Symposium
At this time, the research was scattered in different parts of the United States, such as the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, Columbia University in New York, and the University of California, Berkeley. The head of the military, General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970), was approaching well-known physicists who might be engaged in atomic bomb research to find the most suitable scientific director. Oppenheimer, who was initially underestimated, eventually became the obvious choice for the scientific director of the Manhattan Project.
Fig.4 Oppenheimer with General Groves, the military chief of the Manhattan Project (1942)
Groves is a man who executes orders very well and can achieve his goals. It was under his leadership that the Pentagon was built. After he built the Pentagon and became famous, he wanted to retreat bravely, but the military ordered him to be in charge of the Manhattan Project, and he had to obey. After the Manhattan Project, he really retired and turned into business in his later years, which he did very successfully.
Groves was a 20-year-old West Point graduate, weighed twice as much as Oppenheimer, and had a rude, resolute personality that was completely different from the sensitive, delicate Oppenheimer. But it was these two people who worked together to make a career in the end. Despite their completely different personalities, there is a connection between them, and that is their ambition, or ambition: they are both desperate to do the same thing and succeed in it. These two very different people see in each other the means to achieve their ambitions. The two admire each other and have a strange chemistry with each other. Based on this trust, they formed a seemingly unlikely, but actually the best way to cooperate, which can be described as a "match made in heaven". They recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses and are willing to work together for the greater good. Groves can carry out his will through Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer can achieve his goals through Groves.21). This was a key factor in the success of the Manhattan Project.
The Groves really decided to use Oppenheimer was actually a conversation they had during their train ride in October 1942. He found Oppenheimer "to know everything but sports." More importantly, he can explain profound truths in a language that a layman understands, and he understands the needs of the other person for safety. The choice of Los Alamos, far from the east and west coasts and isolated from the rest of the world, as a base is proof of this. Because of this, Groves selectively ignored the fact that Oppenheimer participated in the peripheral activities of the Communist Party of the United States when he was young, and directly put pressure on the military to elect Oppenheimer against public opinion. You know, Oppenheimer had neither the Nobel Prize nor the experience of managing large laboratories, let alone participated in the activities of many peripheral organizations of the Communist Party!
After Oppenheimer's participation in the Manhattan Project, his colleague at Berkeley, Haakon Chevalier (1901-1985), relayed to him an attempt to inquire about the Berkeley laboratory, but Oppenheimer refused to mention the conversation to security officials until eight months later, and he lied about it. When Groves found out, he scolded him for being naïve, but understood that the reason why he did it was like many young people in the United States, who had done some stupid things, but was unwilling to betray his friends. The matter passed so lightly. In order to prevent the incident from escalating further, Groves transferred the security officials in charge of the matter to Europe. Neither of them expected that the conversation with the security officer was secretly recorded and later used as "evidence". Interestingly, despite Groves' efforts, Oppenheimer was constantly monitored by the FBI and the Manhattan Project's own security services throughout the Manhattan Project. Years later, Oppenheimer quipped, "The government spends more on my phone calls than they pay me at Los Alamos"22).
The Manhattan Project began with how to enrich uranium-235 and create plutonium-239, which does not exist in nature. Uranium-235 accounts for only 0.7% of the entire natural uranium isotope, and the rest is uranium-238, and it is quite difficult and complicated to refine this 0.7%. The most obvious method of centrifugal separation did not work, and later the electromagnetic separation method, the gas diffusion method and the thermal diffusion method were adopted. These methods were put to practical use in the Manhattan Project, but they were extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. The process of manufacturing plutonium-239 was also fraught with hardships, necessitating the establishment of a giant facility dedicated to the production of plutonium-239 in Hanford, Washington. In addition, how to successfully detonate an atomic bomb and adopt different explosion methods (gun method and implosion method) for different nuclear fuels is even more problematic, and it has gone through many twists and turns.
Oppenheimer was an amazing leader, motivator, and communicator. During his tenure as the scientific director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he was responsible not only for scientific matters, but also for a vast logistical and administrative coordination effort. At its peak, he managed more than 6,000 employees, coordinating physical, chemical, metallurgical, blasting and other talents. It's not easy to bring together the best physics minds from all over the United States and immigrants from Europe and guide them in the direction of collaboration. They include Nobel Prize-winning physicists such as Erico Fermi (1901-1954) and Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958)23, as well as Nobel Prize-winning physicists such as Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988)24) and Hans Bette. Most of these top talents have strong personalities and strong self-awareness, and in the process of cooperation, it is inevitable that there will be differences of opinion and even tensions. Oppenheimer's relationship with Eduard Taylor, a Jewish theoretical physicist of Hungarian origin who later became the "father of the hydrogen bomb," is typical. Still, Taylor didn't leave the Manhattan Project.
Commenting on Oppenheimer's leadership qualities, Hans Bette once said, "Now I can finally see for myself the infinite wisdom of Oppenheimer, who is the undisputed leader of our team...... The experience of the collision of ideas is unforgettable" 25). Even Taylor later said, "Oppenheimer showed an elegant, confident, casual demeanor." I don't understand where his ability to deal with people comes from. Those who knew him were amazed" 26).
After overcoming unimaginable challenges, the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Alamogordo Desert in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later said that when he saw the incredible mushroom cloud rushing into the sky from the center of the explosion, he remembered a sentence from the Bhagavad Gita. In 1965, he recalled in a television documentary: "We realized that the world was not what it used to be. At that time, some laughed, some cried, and most were silent. And I remembered a quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture where Vishnu tried to persuade the prince to fulfill his duty, and in order to impress the prince, he became a multi-armed avatar and said, 'Now I am the god of death, the destroyer of the worlds.' I think we all think that way to varying degrees. In fact, that's not what he said at the time. According to Oppenheimer's brother Frank, after the success of the Trinity experiment, he exclaimed, "I guess it worked!"27)
On August 6, 1945, the uranium bomb "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, plutonium bombs over Nagasaki "Fat Man" followed. More than 100,000 civilians died28). The United States used nuclear weapons against "a largely defeated enemy"29).
Oppenheimer's pride after the success of the "Trinity" test disappeared and was replaced by fear and guilt. Occasionally, he spoke publicly about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, with a vague sense of remorse. Oppenheimer's teacher, Born, had made it clear in the past that he strongly disapproved of Oppenheimer's work on the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer wrote in his letter to Born: "I can sense that you have disapproved of many things that you have done to me over the years. I think that's perfectly understandable, as I feel the same way.30).
3
After the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer became a star figure in the United States and the spokesman of the American scientific community. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine several times, becoming the second most famous scientist after Albert Einstein.
Fig.5 Oppenheimer appeared on the cover of Time magazine twice, in 1948 and 1954
As the voice of the scientific community, he dealt with the government and provided advice. Because of his great social prestige, from Truman to Eisenhower, he was initially treated with great courtesy, but because of his insistence on opposing the development of the hydrogen bomb, which embarrassed the military (especially the Air Force) and the US government, some people began to find ways to silence him. Oppenheimer believed in himself too much, enjoyed the pleasure and power of advising the government, and did not perceive the change.
In order to convict, his history of contacts with the Left and the Communists has been resurfaced, and he has become black material for political opponents to unite against him. Even his opposition to the hydrogen bomb program has been accused.
The advent of William Liscum Borden (1920-1985) was a very important turning point. A proponent of hydrogen bomb research, Borden served as executive director of the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and was one of the most powerful advocates of nuclear weapons in the U.S. government. Lewis Strauss (1896-1974), chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, wanted to bring down Oppenheimer but did not intervene himself, so he took advantage of Borden's letter of complaint to the Atomic Energy Commission and illegally opened the Atomic Energy Commission's file on Oppenheimer. Boden did not disappoint Strauss, and found inconsistencies between Oppenheimer's own testimonies from different periods in the archives. Later, Borden wrote to J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) reported Oppenheimer and accused him of being a Soviet agent.31 Eisenhower ordered a "blank wall" between Oppenheimer and all defense-related work, completely prohibiting Oppenheimer from accessing any sensitive or classified information. In fact, Eisenhower knew at the time that Oppenheimer was likely to be the victim of malicious slander, but he made this decision anyway. After the order was issued, the Atomic Energy Commission began an investigation into Oppenheimer, held internal hearings, and suspended his security clearance.32).
The whole hearing was politically motivated to bring Oppenheimer into disrepute. It is an unjust "kangaroo court", a preconceived "trial" that ignores accepted standards of law or justice. Finally, Oppenheimer himself said, "I'm a fool." This achieves what the "Inquisitors" want to achieve, to humiliate themselves with their own words.
On June 29, 1954, after six months of accusations and hearings, the Atomic Energy Commission suspended Oppenheimer's security clearance the day before his expiration date. The FBI has spent a lot of manpower and material resources and amassed tens of thousands of pages of files, but there is no conclusive evidence that Oppenheimer ever joined the Communist Party of the United States, and there is no evidence that he did anything that violated the interests of the United States or endangered national security. But under the McCarthyist "red scare," the reputation of "dubious" was enough to destroy Oppenheimer's reputation at the entire public level. At that time, if he was found to be a member of the Communist Party of the United States, he would immediately have no job. For example, many of Oppenheimer's students were members of the Communist Party and lost their jobs. His younger brother Frank Oppenheimer (1912-1985) was a member of the Communist Party and was expelled from the university.33
Oppenheimer's situation was supported by many scientists of integrity. When Vannevar Bush (1890-1974), who was the head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, heard that Strauss was going to attack Oppenheimer, he personally went to Strauss's office and confronted him, saying that it was a "great injustice" and that if Strauss continued to pursue the matter, "he would bring shame upon himself." But Strauss insisted on holding a hearing. Bush specially appeared at the scene to testify about this, saying that he also opposed the hydrogen bomb, and those who want to investigate the anti-hydrogen bomb should first investigate him. Rabbi I. I., Oppenheimer's friend and inventor of the MRI, was also present to express his support for Oppenheimer.
Fig.6 Oppenheimer's former colleague Edward Taylor. He testified against Oppenheimer at a safety hearing in 1954
There were also very few scientists who testified against Oppenheimer, such as Taylor, who later became known as the "father of the hydrogen bomb". His testimony was exactly what Strauss and others needed. Of course, it was later isolated by the scientific community because of this. From the very beginning, he felt that the power of the atomic bomb was too small and that he should build a hydrogen bomb. But his opinion was ridiculed by everyone. In fact, if a hydrogen bomb wants to explode, it must first use the explosive energy of the nuclear fission device to trigger the self-sustaining fusion reaction of light nuclei such as deuterium and tritium, so that it is possible to release huge energy instantaneously. In other words, the mechanism of the atomic bomb explosion (fission) must be understood before the hydrogen bomb (fusion) can be made.34). Oppenheimer's colleague at Berkeley, Lawrence, was supposed to testify against Oppenheimer at the hearing, but later escaped because of colitis.
The Oppenheimer case triggered a high-intensity seismic response in the American scientific community. More than 1,000 scientists in the United States petitioned more than 1,000 scientists in the United States to protest the ruling, in a joint letter to Strauss, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Oppenheimer's suffering at the hearing had a very bad effect. Originally, intellectuals were active in science policy, but after that, intellectuals were silent about raising different views. As a result, intellectuals have less and less influence in major science policy decisions, and most of the decisions are made by politicians.
Fig.7 Distinguished journalist Edward Murrow visits Oppenheimer, 1955
Oppenheimer's injustice was indignant to many upright people. Oppenheimer's first return to the public eye was an interview with Oppenheimer by the famous American journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) on the television program "See it now," just a year after the hearing. Murrow himself was known for his staunch anti-McCarthyism. In the show, Oppenheim talks eloquently, and his image has changed from a man who poses a potential threat to American security to a man with a strong personality who is adept at explaining difficult physics to the masses. Later, he was invited to visit Japan, which can also be seen as a sign of some kind of rehabilitation. In 1964, he was awarded the "Fermi Prize". This was the best effort that the U.S. government did to restore Oppenheimer's reputation during his lifetime. It was not until the end of 2022 that the Biden administration's energy secretary officially announced the revocation of the resolution of the atomic energy commission's hearings.
4
Oppenheimer is often referred to as the "father of the atomic bomb" in the United States. Although he did not win the Nobel Prize in Physics, it did not affect his status as an outstanding physicist. He has made significant contributions in many areas. During World War II, driven by strong patriotic feelings, he believed that he was involved in the war against fascism and successfully led the Manhattan Project to develop the world's first atomic bomb. The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki eventually accelerated the end of the war 35). Influenced by his spiritual mentor, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962), he believed that the atomic bomb was the best solution to the war forever. Although the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union later led to an arms race, the result of "mutual containment" was that no nuclear war had occurred since the nuclear explosions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because of Oppenheimer's role in the development and use of nuclear weapons, his legacy is also complicated. Although he initially supported the development of the atomic bomb as a means of ending the war, he later became an active advocate of nuclear disarmament and spoke out against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. His ambivalence and later remorse for his involvement in the Manhattan Project reflected the ethical dilemmas faced by scientists engaged in weapons of mass destruction research.
Oppenheimer is an enigma: as a theoretical physicist, he exudes the charisma of a brilliant leader, and as an aesthete, he has a knack for creating ambiguity. For decades after his death, his life was shrouded in controversy, rumors, and mystery" 36). He was "brilliant and full of contradictions, sometimes brilliant, sometimes childish." He is a passionate advocate for social justice and a tireless government advisor. He tried to contain a runaway nuclear arms race, only to make numerous enemies in the establishment. "He devoted his life to science and rational thinking, but also to the development of weapons of destruction. Like Goethe's Faust, he bargained with the devil and ended up destroying himself. He led the people to unleash the power of atomic energy, but he also tried to warn his compatriots of its danger and hoped that his influence would change the direction of the authorities' policies.37).
Oppenheimer advocated global control of nuclear energy through international institutions, making it clear that "there can be no permanent peace without a world government, and there can be no nuclear war without peace"38). But the establishment of a world government did not happen overnight, so Oppenheimer argued that in the field of atomic energy, all countries should agree to a "partial relinquishment" of sovereignty.
He saw international institutions as the equivalent of world government and called for "complete and absolute openness" to the nuclear issue, not just to the United States, but to all countries around the globe. In his view, secrecy was not feasible because there had always been an active exchange of knowledge in the scientific community. Secrecy contradicts the principle of scientific knowledge sharing. "Secrecy policies encourage ignorant decision-making"39). If the nuclear program remains considered a state secret, the public will not be able to express its opinion on issues that affect its moral principles. He wanted to apply his scientific worldview to the structure of countries around the globe, but this conflicted with the interests of the USSR and the United States. With the end of the war and the beginning of the Cold War, this conflict became more pronounced, and containment and international control were no longer options for the superpowers.
There is no single word that can fully and accurately describe Oppenheimer. Despite his many contradictions, his ideas were advanced and revolutionary, but they were not accepted by the world at that time. He was so charismatic that people are still drawn to him 57 years after his death.
In a world where issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology pose major ethical challenges, Oppenheimer's teachings need to be revisited in the face of an increasingly complex international situation. In the pursuit of knowledge and innovation, it is necessary to have the courage to assume the corresponding moral responsibilities and the potential impact on the future of humanity.
This article commemorates the 120th anniversary of Oppenheimer's birth.
Annotation:
1) The film grossed $970 million worldwide and won numerous awards, including seven Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards.
2) American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (literally translated as American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer) was written by writer Kai Bird and historian Martin J. Shewin over a period of 25 years, with Oppenheimer's biography published in 2005. The book has won numerous awards, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Literary Biography in Biography. The book is available in three Chinese translations (two in Simplified Chinese and one in Traditional Chinese). The content of this book quoted in this article is based on the translation by Wang Bing, edited by Fang Zaiqing, and published by CITIC Publishing Group in 2023: "Oppenheimer's Biography: The Triumph and Tragedy of the American "Father of the Atomic Bomb"".
3) 这里引用了杨振宁先生为好友亚伯拉罕•派斯（Abraham Pais, 1918-2000）的遗著《奥本海默的一生》（J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life, Oxford University Press, 2006）所写的推荐语。 原话为：“J. Robert Oppenheimer was an extraordinarily brilliant and complex man. In this book Abraham Pais and Robert Crease take a kaleidoscopic approach to his life, shedding insightful light on the personality and the times of the scientist who played such an important role in the future destiny of mankind.” （罗伯特•奥本海默是一个异常杰出而又复杂的人。 在这本书中，亚伯拉罕•派斯和罗伯特•克雷斯以万花筒般的方式展现了他的一生，深刻揭示了这位在人类未来命运中扮演重要角色的科学家的个性和时代。 ）
4) Oppenheimer, letter edition, p. 19.
5) Ibid.
6) Ibid., p. 22.
7) Einstein liked to play the violin as a spice for intense work. Planck's piano performance was of a very high standard, and Werner Heisenberg and Edward Teller were avid pianists. Oppenheimer loved music, but he was never seen playing any instrument in public.
8) He later enjoyed New Mexico and St. John's Island, which in every sense of the word was completely different from New York, where he grew up.
9) Oppenheimer, CITIC edition, p. 122.
10) Ibid., p. 32.
11) American physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 "for his invention of a device for generating extremely high pressures and for his discoveries in the field of high-pressure physics." He is also known for his research on the electrical conductivity and crystalline properties of metals. He also wrote works on modern philosophy of science, especially operationalism.
12) British experimental physicist known for his research on cloud chambers, cosmic rays and paleomagnetism, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1948. As early as 1925, he was the first to demonstrate that radioactivity could transmutate the nucleus of one chemical element into another. In World War II, he provided advice on military strategy and proposed operations research. In 1965 he was appointed President of the Royal Society. Blackett differed too much from Oppenheimer in personality.
13) Interestingly, his life has since been linked to psychoanalysis. Several important women in his life were also involved in psychoanalysis.
14) The person who wrote the petition was none other than Maria Göppert (1906-1972), Born's favorite schoolgirl. In 1930 she married Joseph Edward Mayer (1904-1983), who had come to Göttingen from the United States to further her studies, and changed her name to Maria Gopert-Meyer. In 1963, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her proposal of a model of the shell of the atomic nucleus, becoming the second woman after Marie Curie to win the Physics Prize. In her later years, she was asked about the "petition incident", and she was noncommittal.
15) Oppenheimer, CITIC edition, p. 84. The translation has been slightly changed.
16) The term black hole was coined by John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008) in 1967. The 1939 Oppenheimer and Snyder paper showed that enough heavy stars would collapse when fusion energy was exhausted, and that this collapse would continue indefinitely.
17) American physicist. He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his success in establishing a systematic classification of elementary particles and for his new discoveries in elementary particle interactions.
18) 奥本海默生前曾被三次提名获诺贝尔物理学奖（Physics 1946 by David Mathias Dennison；Physics 1951 by Leopold Ruzicka；Physics 1955 by Harlow Shapley）。 在他去世的那一年，又被提名一次（Physics 1967 by Albert Allen Bartlett），总共被提名四次。 参见https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=6873。
19) Oppenheimer's Biography, CITIC Edition, p. 335.
20) Ibid., p. 223.
21) Groves' book, Now it can be told, details his interactions with Oppenheimer during the Manhattan Project.
22) Ibid., p. 479.
23) American nuclear physicist. In 1939, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention and further development of cyclotrons and the results achieved with them, in particular the production of man-made radioactive elements. The 103rd element of the periodic table of chemical elements, the cymbal (Lr), is named after him. It was he who introduced Oppenheimer to the "Manhattan Project", and later the two men disagreed because of their different attitudes towards the development of the hydrogen bomb, especially whether to cooperate with the military.
24) American physicist born in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. Rabbi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his research on the resonance methods of nuclear magnetism since 1930. He participated in the Manhattan Project as an advisor and was a strong supporter of Oppenheimer.
25) Oppenheimer, CITIC Edition, p. 216
26) Ibid., p. 219
27) Ibid., p. 364.
28) The exact number of deaths caused by the radiation effects of atomic bombings, fires and bombings varies. It is estimated that between 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima and between 60,000 and 80,000 in Nagasaki.
29) Ibid., p. 412.
30) Ibid., p. 662.
31) Borden does not provide much convincing evidence in his letter, but his conclusions are extremely deadly. "The purpose of this letter is to state my own deliberate opinion, based on years of research, on the available classified evidence that Robert Oppenheimer was more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union. ”
32) 截至2021年4月，美国共有92,177人持有持Q许可证。 参见Alex Wellerstein, How many people have Q Clearance?. Restricted Data. November 12, 2021。
33) In fact, the investigation into Oppenheimer began with. He was already under investigation before he was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, and all of his phone calls were monitored throughout the Manhattan Project, including after he left Los Alamos, all of his activities in Princeton were monitored, and the garbage he threw was also checked.
34) Oppenheimer tolerated him at the time and let him continue to do what he was interested in. Just don't leave Los Alamos. Taylor thinks highly of himself, and he also has a problem with his friend Hans being the head of the theory department. He whines a lot and is a bit of a hard time getting along with. The happiest time was playing the piano like crazy at a weekend party.
35) Some scholars believe that the atomic bomb was not the main cause of the end of World War II. Considering that before the surrender of Japan, a large number of American soldiers were killed. If the atomic bomb is not dropped, but American GIs are sent directly to fight on the Japanese mainland, there will definitely be more deaths.
36) Oppenheimer, CITIC Edition, p. 10.
37) Ibid., p. 10.
38) Ibid., p. 404.
39) Ibid., p. 508.
This article is reprinted with permission from the WeChat public account "Journal Network of the Chinese Physical Society" and will be published in the 5th issue of Physics in 2024
Original title: "Scientists who have played an important role in the future destiny of mankind" - commemorating the 120th anniversary of the birth of Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb" in the United States
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