Scientific Contributions of Julius Robert Oppenheimer Julius Robert Oppenheimer once proclaimed, "As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress". This quote not only signifies the high intelligence and intellect of J. Robert Oppenheimer, but it shows his believe that man and science are deeply imbedded in each other. Julius Robert Oppenheimer lived a life devoted to science, and though he may have regretted some of his research, he made enormous contributions to our current knowledge of the building of the atom bomb. Julius Robert Oppenheimer (or J. Robert Oppenheimer as he cam to be known) was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. As a child, Oppenheimer attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City, on Central Park West, which promoted nonsectarian or nonreligious ethical principles. While Oppenheimer attended school there, he was a stand out even among the other bright and wealthy students. One summer during his high school years, Oppenheimer helped his science teacher, Augustus Klock, set-up the lab equipment for the next year. As a reward for his work, Klock and Oppenheimer would often go mineral hunting. At this point in Robert Oppenheimer's life, he realized that he had a love for chemistry. After High school Oppenheimer attended Harvard University and continued to study his passion of science but he also pursued languages, and writing poems and short stories. When Oppenheimer graduated Harvard in 1925, he went to Europe to work in laboratories with two highly regarded scientists, Ernest Rutherford, and Max Born. While working with these two scientists Oppenheimer became frustrated that he had a limited experimental ability. However, Working with these prominent scientists must have helped him later on his life with his own experiments. During the 1920's, Oppenheimer research was devoted to the energy processes of subatomic particles. In 1927, Oppenheimer returned to the United States and began to teach at the University of California Berkeley. While at UCB, Oppenheimer became more politically active. He became more political during the rise of Hitlerism in Germany and especially during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, Oppenheimer sided with the republic and that is when he was acquainted with communist students. Only one year later, however, Oppenheimer withdrew from the communist party.
Michael Moscherosch was born on November 23rd, 1962, in Stuttgart Germany. He and his younger brother were born into a working class family, with his mother working as a full-time accountant and his father working as a car mechanic. The Moscherosch family stayed in Stuttgart for since its inception, the families ancestral roots stem as far back as the 1600s and stayed within Stuttgart and the villages surrounding the area. Michael as a child was described to be scholastic and performed well in his school. In Germany, instead of there being an elementary, middle, and high school, there is a primary school and then secondary schools prioritizing certain fields; some of these fields include engineering, trade schools, and “gymnasiums” which closely represent the structure of our American high schools. Upon completing his secondary school education, Michael began studying Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, working at night during the week to fund his education.
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.
In 1920 Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers Party or the Nazi party. With his excellent speakin...
With his experience he had many doubts about the Hydrogen Bomb, whether it would work. “Oppenheimer and others on technical and moral grounds had initially opposed building the H-bomb, seeking instead an international moratorium on its development” (Teller and Ulam).
By the time he received his university degree in August 1922, Heinrich was a fanatical Völkisch nationalist and political activist.
Himmler graduated in July 1919. He majored in agriculture at the Technical University in Munich. This is where he combined a German-nationalist student group and began to read intensely in the racist-nationalist literature popular on the essential right of the interwar German political field. By the time he received his university degree in August 1922, Himmler was a nationalist and a political activist. Forced to take a job in a manure-processing factory near Munich, Himmler made contact with t...
physics. The work of Ernest Rutherford, H. G. J. Moseley, and Niels Bohr on atomic
In World War I he served in the Bavarian army, was gassed and wounded, and received the Iron Cross (first class) for bravery. The war had embittered him and he blamed Germany’s defeat on the Jews and the Marxists. He settled in Munich, joined with other nationalists in 1920, to form the Nazi party. In 1923, he tried to overthrow Bavaria’s Republican governmen...
While Robert’s name has become synonymous with the atomic bomb there is more to the story than that. J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. After graduating from Harvard and studying under Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge University, Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. in Germany in 1925. In 1929, he returned to the United States to teach at the University of California Berkeley and at Cal Tech.
"The release of atomic energy has so changed everything that our former ways of thinking have been rendered obsolete. We therefore face catastrophe unheard of in former times. If mankind is to survive, then we need a completely new way of thinking."
“Early in 1939, The worlds scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting the uranium atom and word spread quickly and several countries began to duplicate the experiment.” Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt that Germany may have already built an atomic bomb. Roosevelt did not see an urgency for such a project, but agreed to proceed slowly. In 1941, British scientists pushed America to develop an atomic weapon. America’s effort was slow until 1942 when Colonel Leslie Groves took over. He quickly chose personnel, production sites and set schedules to invent the atomic
Albert Einstein was one of these particular scientists. Although he was a pacifist, so his greatest effort in helping create the bomb itself was when he penned a letter to President Roosevelt, encouraging him to build the bomb in fear of what Germans had already done in 1938 (Sublette). But that being said, his contributions to science made creating the bomb possible. Through his Theory of
Technology has allowed for the furtherance of warfare, from the invention of gun powder to the splitting of the atom. These findings have propelled the leap of numerous nations’ in the ability to wage war against each other. Of these discoveries, the splitting atom spawned an invention that would hurl the world from conventional warfare into the nuclear age. These ideals were the brainstorming of some of the greatest minds in America and abroad. These scientists began to formulate the creation of the atomic bomb, a device that would change the world in ways that had never been imagined before.
"Science is sometimes blamed for the nuclear dilemna. Such blame confuses the messenger with the message. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman did not invent nuclear fission; they discovered it. It was there all along waiting for us, the turn of the screw" (Rhodes- 784).
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...