J. Robert Oppenheimer Impacts on the American Society “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what you have to about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”-J. Robert Oppenheimer (www.great-quotes.com) . In this quote he is saying that if you see something you can do that is amazing, go ahead and do it, because you can make it happen. This is exactly what Oppenheimer wanted to get across. He was going to do things in his life that were amazing. He later would have some major impacts and was made famous for impacts such as building the atomic bomb to help end WWII, training an entire generation of doctors, and changing warfare forever. Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904, in New York City, New York. His mom, Ella Friedman, and dad, Julius S. Oppenheimer, a wealthy German Textile Merchant raised him as part of the Ethical Culture Society, an outgrowth of American Reform Judaism (www.atomicarchive.com) . Before all of his success as a student he got an illness which caused him to be held back from Harvard. He went to spend the summer at a dude ranch in New Mexico after waiting so long to get treatment . In 1922 he attended Harvard University, where he focused on Latin, Greek, Physics, and Chemistry. Before the war and when Oppenheimer was a teacher, quantum and relativity theories were capturing the attention of science (www.Britannica.com) . Oppenheimer's early studies were devoted mainly to energy processes of subatomic particles, including electrons,positrons, and cosmic rays. He also did innovative work on not only neutron stars but also black holes. His university provided him with a excellent opportunity to research the quantum theory, along with exploration and development of its full significance. This helped him train an entire generation of U.S.
A young scientist who was very smart and intelligent was the creator of a bomb that killed millions. The bomb was the most powerful weapon that was ever manufactured. He changed the course of World War II. This man is Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb. The book “Bomb” by Steve Sheinkin, is a book that includes teamwork and how Americans made a deadly bomb that changed the course of the war. The book engages the reader through how spies share secret information with enemies. Because the physicists were specifically told not to share any information, they were not justified in supplying the Soviet Union with the bomb technology.
As long as there is love, there will be hatred; as long as there is peace, there will be war, and as long as there is a positive side, there is a negative side. During the Second World War, the Nazis were very powerful. Due to the fear of the Nazis, Americans started a project called “The Manhattan Project" in order to build a very deadly weapon that could even blow cities apart. The allied powers were so concerned with Nazi domination, that they never considered the outcomes of creating an atomic bomb which are also positive and negative. The development of the atomic bomb boosted the level of understanding in terms of physics and chemistry of that particular time period.
In The Manhattan project, Jeff Hughes claims that the development of atomic weapons in World War II did not create “Big Science,” but simply accelerated trends in scientific research and development that had already taken place. Hughes was able to support his argument by introducing the Big science and the atomic bomb which was a main factor of World War II. Hughes introduce “Big Science” saying, during the twentieth century, almost every aspect of science changed. He went on to explain that geographically, science spread from few countries to many. Institutionally, it spread from universities and specialist organizations to find new homes in government, public and private industry and the military. Intellectually, its contours changed with the development of entirely new disciplines and the blurring of boundaries between old ones. Hughes introduce the atomic bomb in his argument saying it was the mission by British and American scientists to develop nuclear weapons. This was known as the Manhattan project. Ways in which the construction of the atomic bomb reflect a “Big Science” approach to research and development was by making scientist share their work with each other, including universities as their laboratories for
Many people had their thoughts about why or why not the Hydrogen Bomb should have been built. What this essay will talk about is why the Hydrogen Bomb was built. "The successful explosion of a Teller-inspired thermonuclear device in 1952 gave" the U.S. the go ahead blow against the Soviet Union in the arms race of the fifties (Teller and Ulam). Scientists around the world had been thinking that a thermonuclear bomb, also known as the Hydrogen Bomb, could be developed, but their arms race was completely focused on the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer was a household name because he was the head scientist at Los Alamos while developing the atomic bomb, after that had been completed the tide shifted to a man who’s name is Edward Teller.
After being taken by the Germans convinced others that they still had the lead in developing a fission weapon. It all started with the “Hungarian conspiracy” that had everyone convinced that the creation of a nuclear bomb was possible, but that the German government was already doing research in this field of study on such a weapon. To the rest of the world, the thought of Adolf Hitler might be the first to gain control of a weapon this destructive would be terrifying to the United States. Right, then they decided that the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt must be warned about the dangers and that the United States must begin its research department. As the planned gave way, Einstein was to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibilities and dangers of the atomic weapons, and later was taken to the president.
There was also many scientists that helped Oppenheimer obviously. Enrico Fermi played a big role in making the bomb as
For example, in the speech “the “Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists” by Robert Oppenheimer states,”But when you come right down to it the reason that we did this job is because it was an organic necessity.” This substantiates that Robert thought that it was a wonderful idea to drop the atomic bomb because it was a necessary but we could have talked with the Japanese instead of just doing it. In the speech it states,”that it is a good turn over to mankind at large the greatest possible power to control the world,” This demonstrates that he thought that dropping the bomb could have made us powerful but he did not think about the damage and the trouble it would cause after people found out about it. As a result, Robert Oppenheimer thought that creating and dropping the atomic bomb was the best thing that could have happen to the United states of
With the U.S. having possession of this new weapon, they had the potential to be viewed as an unstoppable force. The decisions the U.S. made about the atomic bomb would change the way the entire world views them. If they used it willingly and wisely, they would be viewed with respect and authority. If they used it blindly and carelessly, they would be viewed with fear and hatred. And if they didn’t use it at all, the world might question their willpower and influence.
In fear that Nazi Germany was developing an atomic bomb, on December 6 1941, scientists, engineers and the army raced to build the first man-made atomic bomb. These combined efforts provide the United States with wartime military advantage was dubbed ‘The Manhattan Project’. However, when by late 1944, concrete intelligence confirmed that Germany’s work on atomic weaponry had basically stalled in 1942, many scientists were given cause to pause and reassess their commitment to the project. Joseph Rotblat, for instance, quit the project maintaining that, ‘the fact that the German effort was stillborn undermined the rationale for continuing’. Indeed, he was the exception. Nevertheless, the scientists’ apprehensions reached a high plateau when Germany surrendered in May 1945. These events, among others, suggested that the bomb would be used, if at all, against Japan (a reversal, in a way, of the racism and genocide issues within Germany). Many scientists, thus, began to debate among themselves the moral and ethical implications of using an atomic bomb in the war and the fate of humanity in the imminent atomic age. In doing so, the scientists with a stronger sense of responsibility, resolved that, as they had created the bomb, they possessed both the legitimacy and intellect to formulate proposals regarding its use. On their political mission, the scientists fastened...
When the news surfaced of the atomic bomb, Fos noticed how different people responded to the creation of the atomic bomb. Fos would agree with Mian’s opinion that the only thing missing is “the aroused understanding and insistence of the people of the United States and the world to demand an end to the nuclear weapons” (Mian 10). As news surfaces of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, Janet proclaims “Can you imagine what this does for everyone’s careers who worked on it?” (Wiggins 313). Although she is excited for her own future, she is unaware of the impact the bomb has on the Japanese community; many of them do not have a future now. Whereas Fos acknowledges the severity of the consequences of the creation of the Atomic Bomb: “make a goddam killing weapon” (Wiggins 315). Although he does not fully understand the inner workings of the bomb, he sees the catastrophic outcome it produces. He is engulfed with rage at the thought that scientists used science as a means of causing destruction instead of solving problems for humanity. Fos also understood why they kept the bomb a secret: “They didn’t give us a warning at Pearl Harbor” (Wiggins 313). Although Fos did not agree with the creation and dropping of the bomb, he understood the bomb acted as a retaliation and a last push to end the war. Once Fos realized the danger of his x-ray machine, he could better assess the implications of what science produced. People will have various responses to a certain situation, but people need to have a complete understanding of the pros and cons if they want to make a
The Manhattan Project was led by American physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and directed by General Leslie Graves. The project employed over 130,000 people and the total cost by the end of production was nearly 2 billion dollars, 20 billion dollars in today’s currency. Oppenheimer’s early education was at the Ethnical Culture School in New York. He took classes in math and science and many languages such as Greek, Latin, French, and German. He learned Dutch in only six weeks to give a speech in the Netherlands. He was also interested in classic and eastern philosophy.
Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 in Brooklyn; in 1942 he received his Ph.D. from Princeton. Already displaying his brilliance, Feynman played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb through his work in the Manhattan Project. In 1945 he became a physics teacher at Cornell University, and in 1950 he became a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He, along with Sin-Itero and Julian Schwinger, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work in the field of quantum electrodynamics.
Stemming from the first years of the 20th century, quantum mechanics has had a monumental influence on modern science. First explored by Max Planck in the 1900s, Einstein modified and applied much of the research in this field. This begs the question, “how did Einstein contribute to the development and research of quantum mechanics?” Before studying how Einstein’s research contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, it is important to examine the origins of the science itself. Einstein took much of Planck’s experimental “quantum theory” research and applied it in usable ways to existing science. He also greatly contributed to the establishment of the base for quantum mechanics research today. Along with establishing base research in the field, Einstein’s discoveries have been modified and updated to apply to our more advanced understanding of this science today. Einstein greatly contributed to the foundation of quantum mechanics through his research, and his theories and discoveries remain relevant to science even today.
One of the smartest people ever to live, Albert Einstein, changed our society's development forever with his views, theories, and developments. Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. He was the only son of Hermann and Pauline Kech Einstein. He spent his youth in Munich, where his family owned a small electrical equipment plant. He did not talk until the age of three and by the age of nine, was still not fluent in his native language. (Discovering World History) His parents were actually concerned the he might be somewhat mentally retarded.
Scientists from earlier times helped influence the discoveries that lead to the development of atomic energy. In the late 1800’s, Dalton created the Atomic Theory which explains atoms, elements and compounds (Henderson 1). This was important to the study of and understanding of atoms to future scientists. The Atomic Theory was a list of scientific laws regarding atoms and their potential abilities. Roentagen, used Dalton’s findings and discovered x-rays which could pass through solid objects (Henderson 1). Although he did not discover radiation from the x-rays, he did help lay the foundations for electromagnetic waves. Shortly after Roentagen’s findings, J.J. Thompson discovered the electron which was responsible for defining the atom’s characteristics (Henderson 2). The electron helped scientists uncover why an atom responds to reactions the way it does and how it received its “personality”. Dalton’s, Roentagen’s and Thompson’s findings helped guide other scientists to discovering the uses of atomic energy and reactions. Such applications were discovered in the early 1900’s by using Einstein’s equation, which stated that if a chain reaction occurred, cheap, reliable energy could b...