All Physicists In Oppenheimer & Their Scientific Contributions
In the crucible of World War II, amidst chaos and conflict, a clandestine assembly of brilliant minds, under the leadership of J. Robert Oppenheimer, embarked on an unprecedented mission with far-reaching consequences. One of the key figures in this endeavour was Ernest Lawrence, portrayed by Josh Hartnett, who revolutionized cyclotrons and contributed to the discovery of elements through nuclear fission. Leo Szilard, played by Máté Haumann, was instrumental in initiating the project, urging President Roosevelt to develop atomic weapons and later advocating for a peaceful use of atomic energy. Niels Bohr, portrayed by Kenneth Branagh, provided valuable advice and continued to champion peaceful applications of atomic knowledge. Edward Teller, known as “the father of the hydrogen bomb,” played by While Safdie, played a pivotal role in the development of fusion-based weapons, despite differences with Oppenheimer.
Hans Bethe, portrayed by Gustaf Skarsgård, oversaw the crucial T (Theoretical) Division that calculated the power of the atomic bomb and later became an advocate for arms control. Isidor Isaac Rabi, played by David Krumholtz, brought scientific expertise and organizational skills to the project, supporting Oppenheimer during his hearings. David Hill, portrayed by Rami Malik, testified against unfair treatment of Oppenheimer during Strauss’s Senate confirmation hearing. Vannevar Bush, played by Matthew Modin, played a crucial administrative role in initiating and prioritizing the Manhattan Project. Robert Serber, played by Michael Angarano, provided essential lectures and theories vital to the atomic bomb’s design. Richard Feynman, portrayed by Jack Quaid, developed critical formulas and contributed to safety procedures. Albert Einstein, portrayed by Tom Conti, lent his support to the nuclear program after being convinced by Szilard.
Kenneth Bainbridge, played by Josh Peck, directed the Trinity test, and Enrico Fermi, portrayed by Danny Deferrari, led the creation of the first nuclear reactor. Seth Neddermeyer, played by Devon Bostick, supported the implosion technique, and Luis Walter Alvarez, portrayed by Alex Wolff, made crucial inventions for the bomb’s success. Klaus Fuchs, portrayed by Christopher Denham, infamously spied for the Soviet Union, and Werner Heisenberg, played by Matthias Schweighöfer, played a significant role in Germany’s atomic program. Together, these brilliant scientists’ collective genius gave birth to the most devastating weapon the world had ever seen, ending the greatest war in history.
Max Born Biography, German Mathematician and Physicist’s Life and Contributions to Science Name Surname: Max Born Date of Birth: 11 December 1882 From: Poland Occupations: Physicist , Mathematician Death Date: 05 January 1970 Max Born , German mathematician and physicist who was influential in the development of quantum theory .
He also contributed to solid state physics and optics and supervised the work of important physicists in the 1920s-30s. Born received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 for his work “On researching the basis of quantum mechanics , especially on statistical interpretation of the wave function”
Upon returning to Los Alamos in 1983 for the lab’s 40th anniversary, Rabi told CBS News he had “sorrow that the place still exists.”
“Why do we have to do it this way?” “Wouldn’t it be better to do it another way?” Ask a lot of questions. A person who asks a lot of good questions can create something different from others. Because our brains are programmed to answer questions.
Hungarian-American physicist, Edward Teller (1908-2003), helped to develop the atomic bomb and provided the theoretical framework for the hydrogen bomb. He remained a staunch advocate of nuclear power, calling for the development of advanced thermonuclear weapons. [Listener: John H. Nuckolls]
TRANSCRIPT: I would like to finish my story about Bohr and, in a way, about Heisenberg, by telling you of a very sad fact. When the Nazis came, when Hitler occupied Denmark, Bohr was in danger of his life. He had a Jewish grandfather, I think, at least. He was to escape. Shortly before that, Heisenberg listened- came to him. Bohr came out to America and told us that Heisenberg is working on the atomic bomb for the Nazis. Heisenberg and Bohr have been good friends. Bohr did enormous damage to Heisenberg‘s reputation.
I heard him say that, I even heard him say that in a one-to-one conversation. I never quite believed it. I went back to Germany, found out – in more ways than in a short time I can tell you – but found out what actually happened. Heisenberg went to visit Bohr, he had to talk with him. He talked with him in his home, the Carlsberg Castle, the, the beer producing Carlsberg people or- I don’t know whether it was beer, but they gave it to Bohr. And when they were talking indoors and Heisenberg was afraid that there might be- that the Nazis might have put in listening apparatus, he said things- I am working for my government and it’s good to work for my country.
That is what Bohr quoted. Then they went out into the garden and Heisenberg was no longer afraid. And then he added- I am with a group working on the atomic bomb. I hope we won’t succeed. I hope the Americans won’t succeed either. I cannot do otherwise than give an ab- abbreviated version of all this but here is one point, one generalization which I would like to make. My years in Germany, about which I want to talk a little more later, have been at a wonderful constructive period of science. Hitler destroyed it. You were not allowed to talk about Einstein. A Jewish lie, relativity. Heisenberg resisted it. I have many detailed indications that Heisenberg, if he did not directly sabotage the work on the atomic bomb, he never seriously worked on it.
After war he and maybe ten other people were taken to a place in England and kept there and now the British did listen by secret apparatus to what they were saying to each other. I couldn’t get that record until two years ago when it was published. And Heisenberg said about atomic bombs some of things which clearly prove that he did not think about the subject. They were told in August 1945 that we’d dropped an atomic bomb and the Germans didn’t believe it. And then Heisenberg told them- Perhaps they did, and explained to them how the atomic bomb worked, wrongly so.
A point about which I am very proud because the mistake that Heisenberg then made, I made a few years earlier when I was starting to think about it – and found out within a few months that it was wrong. That Heisenberg should make the same mistake gives me pleasure. But it shows, in the case of the excellent intelligence of Heisenberg, that he never seriously tried to work on the subject.
Top 20 Quotes of Isidor Isaac Rabi:
■ I think physicists are the Peter Pans of the human race. They never grow up and they keep their curiosity.
■ My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. Izzy, she would say, did you ask a good question today? That difference – asking good questions – made me become a scientist.
■ If you decide you don’t have to get A’s, you can learn an enormous amount in college.
■ [Science is] a great game. It is inspiring and refreshing. The playing field is the universe itself.
■ As yet, if a man has no feeling for art he is considered narrow-minded, but if he has no feeling for science this is considered quite normal. This is a fundamental weakness.
■ Physics filled me with awe, put me in touch with a sense of original causes. Physics brought me closer to God. That feeling stayed with me throughout my years in science. Whenever one of my students came to me with a scientific project, I asked only one question, ‘Will it bring you nearer to God?’
■ There are questions which illuminate, and there are those that destroy. I was always taught to ask the first kind.
■ The scientist does not defy the universe. He accepts it. It is his dish to savour, his realm to explore; it is his adventure and never-ending delight. It is complaisant and elusive but never dull. It is wonderful both in the small and in the large. In short, its exploration is the highest occupation for a gentleman.
■ Physics is an other-world thing, it requires a taste for things unseen, even unheard of- a high degree of abstraction… These faculties die off somehow when you grow up… profound curiosity happens when children are young. I think physicists are the Peter Pans of the human race… Once you are sophisticated, you know too much- far too much. Pauli once said to me, “I know a great deal. I know too much. I am a quantum ancient.”.
■ You know that, according to quantum theory, if two particles collide with enough energy you can, in principle, with an infinitesimal probability, produce two grand pianos.
■ Science itself is badly in need of integration and unification. The tendency is more and more the other way … Only the graduate student, poor beast of burden that he is, can be expected to know a little of each. As the number of physicists increases, each specialty becomes more self-sustaining and self-contained. Such Balkanization carries physics, and indeed, every science further away, from natural philosophy, which, intellectually, is the meaning and goal of science.
■ It was eerie. I saw myself in that machine. I never thought my work would come to this. Upon seeing a distorted image of his face, reflected on the inside cylindrical surface of the bore while inside an MRI (magnetic-resonance-imaging) machine-a device made possible by his early physical researches on nuclear magnetic resonance (1938).
■ We must also teach science not as the bare body of fact, but more as human endeavor in its historic context-in the context of the effects of scientific thought on every kind of thought. We must teach it as an intellectual pursuit rather than as a body of tricks.
■ To me, science is an expression of the human spirit, which reaches every sphere of human culture. It gives an aim and meaning to existence as well as a knowledge, understanding, love, and admiration for the world. It gives a deeper meaning to morality and another dimension to esthetics.
■ There isn’t a scientific community. It is a culture. It is a very undisciplined organization.
■ Most new insights come only after a superabundant accumulation of facts have removed the blindness which prevented us from seeing what later comes to be regarded as obvious.
■ My ideal man is Benjamin Franklin-the figure in American history most worthy of emulation … Franklin is my ideal of a whole man. … Where are the life-size-or even pint-size-Benjamin Franklins of today?
■ Suddenly, there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bored its way into you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. You would wish it would stop; altogether it lasted about two seconds.
■ It was eerie. I saw myself in that machine. I never thought my work would come to this.
■ We gave you an atomic bomb, what do you want, mermaids?
Isidor Isaac Rabi was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance imaging.
In this short clip, Best-selling author and physicist Safi Bahcall explains the one reason that Rabi gave as to how we won the Nobel Prize.
brain-perks 