Robert Oppenheimer is the creator of the atomic bomb, an American physicist. When he learned that his bomb had been dropped over Hiroshima on August 6 in 1945 and how it caused people suffering, he called himself "destroyer of worlds." Below you can find out in more detail who Robert Oppenheimer was.
"Father of the atomic bomb" in the early years
He was a very conscientious person, and after using the nuclear bomb he created, he called on scientists around the world not to create weapons of destructive power anymore. Oppenheimer went down in history as the "father of the atomic bomb" and as the discoverer of black holes in the Universe.
From early childhood, Oppenheimer was seriously called a child prodigy. He very early learned to write and read, already before entering school he was interested in many sciences: art, history, literature, mathematics, etc. His parents were Jews, immigrants from Germany, who settled in New York in 1888.
His father owned a prosperous business, his mother was a famous artist. Parents have always encouraged their son's thirst for knowledge and they had a huge library at home. Robert was placed in the best school in New York, where the teachers immediately noted the boy's talent. He studied easily, quickly learned Greek, then began to study Sanskrit - the oldest literary Indian language. The boy was very actively interested in medicine and mathematics.
In 1922, the young man entered one of the most prestigious universities in the United States - Harvard University. After 3 years, he received an honors degree. Then Robert was sent for an internship in Europe to the famous English physicist Ernest Rutherford. It was there that he began to study atomic phenomena. Further, the still very young Oppenheimer, together with a professor at the University of Göttingen, physicist and mathematician Max Born, developed a part of quantum theory. Today this knowledge is known as the "Born-Oppenheimer method".
Teaching and the atomic bomb
When Oppenheimer was 25 years old, he returned to the United States, published a scientific work, and at the same time became a doctor of sciences. He became famous in the scientific world of Europe and America. Several American universities immediately offered him the best conditions for research and teaching. Robert chose California Tech in Pasadena to teach for the spring semester and Berkeley for the fall and winter seasons. In the latter, he also taught quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, the students did not understand his theories well and therefore the teaching activity brought little pleasure to Oppenheimer.
In 1939, Nazi Germany managed to split the atomic nucleus. Some eminent scientists, including Oppenheimer, guessed that we are talking about obtaining a controlled reaction, which is the key to obtaining a destructive weapon. The famous Einstein, Oppenheimer and other scientists wrote a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, where they expressed their observations and concerns. The signal was received and the United States immediately began to develop its own atomic bomb according to the "Manhattan Project". Oppenheimer became the scientific director of the entire process.
"Fat Man" and "Kid"
In 1945, the atomic bomb was ready. The question immediately arose: what to do with this weapon? After all, Nazi Germany was already in ruins, Japan also posed no danger. America's new president, Harry Truman, has gathered all scientists to discuss this issue. As a result, it was decided to drop an atomic bomb on one of the military facilities in Japan. Oppenheimer considered this and agreed.
Before that, it was tested in Almagordo, New Mexico. The explosion took place on July 16, 1945. The destructive power of the bomb was such that it even horrified many. However, the war machine had already been launched. On August 6, the Malysh uranium bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and on August 9, the Fat Man plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Since Oppenheimer was married to a communist and once supported communist views himself, he was deemed unreliable. Because of this, an end was put on his further career, access to classified information for him was completely blocked. Robert Oppenheimer felt like an exile, was a lot nervous and smoked. In 1966, his health deteriorated sharply, and a year later he died of throat cancer in his own home in Princeton.
