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☆ “Oppenheimer,” My Uncle and the Secrets America Doesn’t Want to Tell - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Ariel Kaminer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The darkened sky stretches over miles of desert sand as in the distance, from an illuminated scaffold, the object rises that will change the world. The first atomic test is the defining scene in “Oppenheimer,” which won seven Academy Awards on Sunday night, including best picture. Watching the film on opening weekend, I found the scene excruciating, even though history had long since recorded the outcome. “Oppenheimer” is a movie about a singular genius, an extraordinary collaboration and a turning point in history. An innovation designed to make the world safer in the long term made it manifestly more dangerous.

Persons: “ Oppenheimer, ”, Edward Teller, it’s, Robert Oppenheimer’s Organizations: Los Alamos

☆ Are Fears of A.I. and Nuclear Apocalypse Keeping You Up? Blame Prometheus.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( A.O. Scott | More About A.O. Scott | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The atomic bomb may be, for the soldiers and politicians, a powerful strategic tool in war and diplomacy. He snatched a spark of quantum insight from those divinities and handed it to Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Army Air Forces. (The notable exception is Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb and as such another potential Prometheus.) Like the original Prometheus, Oppenheimer survives his disgrace, and ends the movie as a flawed, haunted, regretful creature, carrying a flicker of inextinguishable, theoretical guilt. A.I., on the other hand, seems newly sprung from science fiction, and especially terrifying because we can’t quite grasp what it will become.

Persons: Oppenheimer, “ Oppenheimer, —, Oppenheimer wasn’t, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Harry S, Truman, ”, Edward Teller, von Neumann Organizations: U.S . Army Air Forces Locations: Hiroshima, Nagasaki

☆ How hydrogen bombs work and why they were created after WWII despite being more powerful than atomic bombs
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Adam Barnes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

But just seven years after dropping the atomic bombs, the United States detonated an even more powerful nuclear weapon: the hydrogen bomb. A hydrogen bomb, also known as a thermonuclear bomb, can create explosive force hundreds or even thousands of times greater than an atomic bomb. That extra challenge is why it took scientists longer to build a hydrogen bomb than the atomic bomb. Some physicists, including Oppenheimer, who were concerned about the far greater destructive potential of hydrogen bombs compared to atomic bombs, opposed their development. Hydrogen bomb tests were incredibly powerfulOn November 1, 1952, the US detonated the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Persons: Edward Teller, Sun, there's, ALEXANDER NEMENOV, Robert Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, Melinda Sue Gordon, Enrico Fermi, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Harry S, Truman, Stanislaw Ulam, Teller, Mike, NurPhoto, Dragon Organizations: US, Service, TNT, University of Nevada, Getty, Tsar, Manhattan Project, Los, Universal, Alamos, Soviet Union, Atomic Energy, Bravo, Castle Bravo, Marshall Locations: Los Alamos, Wall, Silicon, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, United States, Las Vegas, Mt, Soviet, Soviet Union, Marshall, Castle, Bikini Atoll, Japan, Great Britain, Russia

☆ Opinion: Oppenheimer’s not your daddy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Opinion Aanchal Saraf | Rebecca H. Hogue | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Corbis/Getty ImagesScholar Teresia Teaiwa famously critiqued the bikini as instrumental to depoliticizing and concealing the effects of nuclear weapons in the Pacific. Britain and France would later begin their own nuclear weapons programs on Indigenous lands and waters in Australia and French Occupied Polynesia, among others. The US began detonating nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site in 1951, garnering nearby Las Vegas the nickname Atomic City. Atomic playboys have aestheticized nuclear weapons as sexy — but still safe — since their very existence. Nolan prolongs the time between the flash and the blast, allowing Oppenheimer’s words to hang in unnerving suspension.

Persons: Rebecca H, Hogue, Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, “ Barbie ”, Barbenheimer, Hogue Rebecca H, Baker, ” Rita Hayworth, Gilda, Hayworth, — Jacques Heim’s, Louis Réard, Corbis, Teresia Teaiwa, Lee A, Merlin, SpongeBob, Bert, Turtle, Walt, William Blandy, “, Christopher Nolan’s “ Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, Nolan, Oppie, Ernest Lawrence, Josh Hartnett, Jean Tatlock, Florence Pugh, Kitty Oppenheimer, Emily Blunt, Tatlock, Oppenheimer, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's, Melinda Sue Gordon, Nolan prolongs, “ Gilda, ”, Nolan bifurcates “ Oppenheimer ”, ” “ Oppenheimer, Barbie, Margot Robbie, ’, Ken, Ryan Gosling, —, Barbie’s, Mike ”, Edward Teller, “ It’s, Teller, “ Oppenheimer ” Organizations: Dartmouth College’s Society of Fellows, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, CNN, Warner Brothers Discovery, Universal, Trinity, Crossroads, Getty, Atomic Energy Commission, US, Las, Atomic, National Atomic Testing, Los, Communist Party, American, Twitter Locations: Pacific, Oceania, New Mexico, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Northern Paiute, Western, Nevada, Amchitka , Alaska, Bikini Atoll, Britain, France, Australia, French, Las Vegas, Las, Playthings, Los Alamos, Japan, American, iconicity, Alamos

☆ What happened when the Trinity test bomb detonated, from the creation of green glass to fallout that drifted over 1,000 miles
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Scientists set off the Trinity test atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Base camp (9.5 miles away): Through his dark glass, Fermi had the impression the desert was suddenly brighter than day. Chupadera Mesa (30 miles away): Fallout rained on cattle near Chupadera Mesa, giving them serious beta burns, which appear similar to a sunburn. Over 1,000 miles away: In August 1945, Kodak customers complained that their X-ray film, sensitive to radiation, was ruined. The Trinity test fallout had reached the Midwest.

Persons: Trinity, McAllister Hull, Hans Courant, Enrico Fermi, Oppenheimer, Bruce Cameron Reed, Val Fitch, Warren Nyer, General Thomas F, Farrell, Fermi, Rabi, Campañia, Edward Teller, William Spindel, Hans Bethe, Leslie Groves's, Janet Farrell Brodie's, Lilli Hornig, Norris Bradbury, Fitch, Spindel, Hornig, Brodie, Schmidt, McDonald, Reed, sheepherder Jack Denton, Los Alamos Louis Henry Hempelmann, James L, Nolan Jr, Jennet Connet, Bingham, Chupadera, Nolan, Ruidoso, Henry Herrera, Sébastien Philippe, Susan Alzner, Gilbert P, Compo, Mason Grimshaw, Megan Smith, Julian Webb Organizations: Trinity, Service, Manhattan, National Security Research, Geographic, Atomic Energy, Hans, Atomic Heritage Foundation, Base, Manhattan Project, SED, Alamogordo Air Base, Alamos, McDonald, House, Fitch, Silver City, New York Times, Los Alamos, Centers for Disease Control, Princeton University, Consortium, Kodak, Princeton Locations: Wall, Silicon, New Mexico, Sandia, Amarillo , Texas, Albuquerque, Fitch, Los, Bingham, Chupadera Mesa, Nevada, Indiana, Canada, Mexico

☆ How a US government program advocated using nuclear explosions for construction, farming radioactive crops, and blasting holes in the moon
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Most focused on the potential for nuclear explosions to quickly excavate areas for construction projects at lower costs than conventional explosives. (Hamblin is the author of the book "The Wretched Atom: America's Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology.") Fly the radioactive skiesUS officials also hoped nuclear energy could be used for transportation. Nicknamed the "pan-atomic canal," nuclear explosions would have carved a sea-level waterway through Nicaragua, Panama, or Colombia, per Forbes. Corbis via Getty ImagesFor Hamblin, the concept of "peaceful nuclear explosions" fell out of favor in the mid-70s.

Persons: Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer, Jacob Hamblin, Dwight D, Eisenhower, Alex Wellerstein, Hamblin, you've, Dr Leonard Reiffel, Alaska's Cape Thompson, Edward Teller, detonations, Rio, Iran —, —, Corbis, Wellerstein, Marshall, we're Organizations: Service, White, Nevada . U.S . Department of Energy Office, Scientific, Atomic Energy, UN, United Nations, IAEA Imagebank, United, US Atomic Energy Commission, Technology, Institute of Radiation, Google, NASA, Sputnik, Air Force, U.S . Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, AEC, of Energy, Popular Mechanics, New York Times, Carryall, US Department of Energy, Forbes, Atomic Energy Commission, Getty, IAEA Locations: Wall, Silicon, Suez, Nevada ., United Nations, New York, Hitachiomiya, Japan, Soviet Union, Nevada, Alaska's Cape, inconveniently, Israel, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Pacific, Farmington , New Mexico, Rulison , Colorado, Rio Blanco, , Colorado, Iran, Mercury , Nevada, USA, Cuba, Vietnam, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada —, Marshall

☆ 'Oppenheimer' doesn't get Einstein's relationship with the Los Alamos director quite right. Here's what they really thought of each other.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In reality, Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer knew each other but weren't friends until much later. The movie focuses on J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the assembly and testing of the first-ever atomic bomb at Los Alamos in New Mexico. Einstein and Oppenheimer disagreed on a key issue: the governmentOppenheimer (right) standing with General Leslie Groves of the US army. Out of fear the Nazis would develop and use a nuclear weapon, Einstein wrote the letter that convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to launch an atom-bomb program. Einstein the outsider, Oppenheimer the disgraced insiderJ. Robert Oppenheimer in 1950.

Persons: Albert Einstein, Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer, Einstein, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan, Alex Wellerstein, Corbis, who'd, Edward Teller, Wellerstein, Arthur Compton, Leslie Groves, Einstein wasn't, wouldn't, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Lewis Strauss, Strauss Organizations: Service, Manhattan, Princeton, New York Times, Manhattan Project, University of Chicago, Times, Getty, Trinity, National Security Research, United Locations: Wall, Silicon, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Princeton, United States

☆ What it was like to live at the Los Alamos lab site during the Manhattan Project
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Los Alamos National LaboratorySituated 7,300 feet above sea level and roughly 35 miles from Santa Fe, the Los Alamos site seemed ideal for a secret laboratory. Constant constructionCompared to the Chicago labs, where some of the work on the Manhattan Project was being done, Los Alamos was starting from scratch. The commissary is where many Los Alamos residents did most of their grocery shopping during the Manhattan Project. Mary Palvesky is the daughter of Harry Palevsky and Elaine Sammel, who both worked at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. After the US dropped the bombs, the site became the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Persons: J, Robert Oppenheimer, he'd, Oppenheimer, Abraham Pais, Laura Fermi, Enrico Fermi's, Robert Wilson, Leslie Groves, John Henry Manley, would've, McAllister Hull, Richard Feynman's, Groves, you'd, Robert Serber, Serber, John Manley, Leon Fisher, Phyllis, Emile Segré, Leon, Phyllis Fisher, wouldn't, Ruth Marshak, Elsie McMillan, Enrico Fermi, Jane Wilson, Charlotte Serber, Kitty Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, Lucie Genay, they'd, Edward Teller, Bernice Brode, Robert Brode, Jean Bacher, Thomas Mann's, Fisher, Mary Palvesky, Harry Palevsky, Elaine Sammel, Palvesky, Joseph Rotblat, Hans Bethe, Pavlevsky, Bethe, couldn't, Marcos, Maria Gómez Organizations: Manhattan Project, Service, Manhattan, Trinity Test, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos National, Los Alamos Ranch School, Manhattan Project . National Security Research, Los Alamos, Alamos lab's Tech Area, National Security Research Center, Residents, Carpenters, Tech, Security Research, Los, Nuclear Weapons Industry, couldn't, Trinity, Chicago Met Lab, Japan Locations: New Mexico, Los Alamos, Wall, Silicon, Alamos, Santa Fe, Chicago, Los, Mexican, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Berkeley, New York

☆ The women behind the Manhattan Project that Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer' completely ignored
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Katie Hawkinson | Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Nolan's "Oppenheimer" fails to highlight the women who helped make the Manhattan Project possible. Here are the stories of just six of the hundreds of women that made essential contributions to the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. Hornig first arrived at Los Alamos after Manhattan Project officials tapped her husband to join the effort. Los Alamos National LaboratoryCharlotte SerberCharlotte Serber first went to Los Alamos with her husband, a physicist, in 1942. Los Alamos National LaboratoryMaria Goeppert MayerTheoretical physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer contributed to the development of nuclear fission while working at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and visiting Los Alamos from time to time.

Persons: Nolan's, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Lilli Hornig, Charlotte Serber, Nolan, Hornig, Lilli Hornig's, Alamos National Laboratory Charlotte, Serber, Charlotte Serber's, Alamos National Laboratory Floy Agnes, Naranjo Stroud, Lee Floy Agnes, Lee, — Lee, Louis Slotin, Joan Hinton Joan Hinton, Hinton, Harry Daghlian, Joan Hinton, Reuters Elizabeth Graves Elizabeth Graves, Graves, Henry Barschall, Elizabeth Graves, Alamos National Laboratory Maria Goeppert Mayer, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Sarah Lawrence, Mayer, Edward Teller, Sharon McGrayne, Marie Curie Organizations: Manhattan, Service, Manhattan Project, Trinity Test, Hornig, Alamos National Laboratory, Sun, University of New, University of Chicago, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, University of Wisconsin, Los Alamos, Trinity, New York Times, Reuters, US Department of Energy, Columbia University, Sarah, Sarah Lawrence College Locations: Wall, Silicon, Los Alamos , New Mexico, Los Alamos, United States, Berlin, Germany, New Mexico, Japan, Santa Fe, University of New Mexico, Santa Clara Pueblo, Hiroshima, Nagaski, China, Beijing, Alamos, Los, —

☆ 'Oppenheimer' fact v. fiction: A nuclear historian breaks down what the movie got right and wrong
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an immensely complex figure, and the movie's based on a biography of him. Fact: Oppenheimer mocked Strauss about isotopesJ. Robert Oppenheimer testifies before the Senate in October 1945. Fact: A big thunderstorm delayed the Trinity TestOppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) stands next to the test bomb in "Oppenheimer." If it weren't for the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer would likely be best known for bolstering theoretical physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Fiction: Oppenheimer consulted Einstein about Teller's calculations(L-R) Tom Conti as Albert Einstein and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer."

Persons: Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer, Robert Oppenheimer, J, Alex Wellerstein, Kai Bird, Martin Sherwin, Wellerstein, Niels Bohr wasn't, Patrick Blackett, Bird, Sherwin, Blackett, Niels Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, Bohr, Oppenheimer's, Cillian Murphy, Abraham Pais, Baudelaire, e.e, cummings, who's, Haakon Chevalier, Peter, Peter Oppenheimer, Kitty, Haakon, Barbara Chevalier, Robert, Perro, Werner Heisenberg, peppering Bohr, Heisenberg, Strauss, David Hill, Lewis Strauss, Dwight D, David Inglis, Inglis, I've, Arthur Compton, Trinity Test Oppenheimer, Jack Hubbard, Leslie Groves, Hubbard, Feynman, Richard Feynman, I'm, Groves, Robert Serber, David Bohm, Philip Morrison, Willis Lamb, Hitler, Hartland Snyder, Kip Thorne, John Wheeler, Roger Penrose, Penrose, Murphy, Trinity, there's, —, Karl T, Compton, Stimson, Henry Stimson, that's, Harry Truman, Wallenstein, Einstein, Tom Conti, Albert Einstein, Melinda Sue Gordon, Edward Teller, Hans Bethe, Enrico Fermi, Bethe, Roger Robb, He's, Teller, Stanislaw Ulam, Gordon Dean, Charlotte Serber, Charlotte Serber's, she's, Serber Organizations: Service, Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, Stevens Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Eisenhower's, Federation of American Scientists, Time, Atomic Energy Committee, Trinity Test, Trinity, Los, University of California, Clovis, National Security Research, Manhattan Project . National Security Research, FBI Locations: Wall, Silicon, England, Leiden, Holland, New Mexico, Perro Caliente, Los Pinos , New Mexico, Germany, Nazi, Denmark, Sweden, Los Alamos, Europe, Berkeley, Poland, Amarillo , Texas, Japan, Kyoto, Alamos

☆ J. Robert Oppenheimer stifled a petition by 70 scientists beseeching President Truman not to use the atomic bomb. Read it here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In August 1945, the US used atomic bombs on Japan, killing over 100,000 people. Truman didn't actually see the petition before he ordered the bombs to drop, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Read the full petition from the Manhattan Project scientists and their names (provided by Szilard biographer Gene Dannen) below. The liberation of the atomic power which has been achieved places atomic bombs in the hands of the Army. All the resources of the United States, moral and material, may have to be mobilized to prevent the advent of such a world situation.

Persons: Weeks, Harry Truman, Leo Szilard, Szilard, Edward Teller, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Teller, Oppenheimer, Truman didn't, Adolf Hitler's, Hitler, Emilio Segrè, Gene Dannen, Truman, United States — Organizations: Manhattan Project, Service, National Archives Museum, Chicago Met Lab, Manhattan, Los Alamos Laboratory, Atomic Heritage Foundation, OF, UNITED STATES, Army, United States Locations: Japan, Wall, Silicon, United States, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Los Alamos , New Mexico, Los Alamos, Los, Alamos, Manhattan, Germany

☆ Albert Einstein wrote to the US pleading with the government to build an atomic bomb 80 years ago. Here's what he said.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Albert Einstein was famously a pacifist, but he urged the US to develop the atomic bomb. Szilard and two other Hungarian physicists, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner, who were both refugees, told Einstein of their grave concerns. Einstein and Leo Szilard reenacting the signing of their letter to Roosevelt warning that Germany may be building an atomic bomb. Einstein later said, "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing for the bomb." UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Roosevelt in the meeting where they finalized plans for an atomic bomb.

Persons: Albert Einstein, —, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Einstein, Alexander Sachs, Alex, Sachs, Leo Szilard, Szilard, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, Leo Szilard reenacting, Cynthia Kelly, Winston Churchill, Warren Buffett Organizations: Manhattan, Service, Atomic Heritage Foundation, New York Times, Jewish, Getty, Geographic, Uranium, Manhattan Project, AP, Gamma, Columbia University Locations: Japan, Nazi Germany, Germany, Hungarian, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, AP Nazi Germany, Keystone, France, United States

☆ John B. Goodenough, 100, Dies; Nobel-Winning Creator of the Lithium-Ion Battery
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Robert D. Mcfadden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

He was, he said in a memoir, “Witness to Grace” (2008), the unwanted child of an agnostic Yale University professor of religion and a mother with whom he never bonded. The two sides, called electrodes, hold charges — a negative one called an anode, and a positive one called a cathode. When a battery releases energy, positively charged ions shuttle from the anode to the cathode, creating a current. A rechargeable battery is plugged into a socket to draw electricity, forcing the ions to shuttle back to the anode, where they are stored until needed again. Materials used for the anode, cathode and electrolyte determine the quantity and speed of the ions, and thus the battery’s power.

Persons: Grace ”, Clarence Zener, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi Organizations: Yale University, Yale, Army Air Forces, University of Chicago, Lincoln Laboratory Locations: Groton, M.I.T, Oxford

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