By that stage Oppenheimer, who had initially endorsed research on the hydrogen bomb, had decided that a Cold War arms race towards vast arsenals of these terrifyingly destructive weapons was madness. ...According to political scientist Joseph Haberer in his book of 1969, Politics and the Community of Science, Oppenheimer “went through the hearing as if mesmerized”. Yet it is hard to know anything for sure about the motives of so complicated an individual as Oppenheimer. ...while Haberer says in his book, one of the first studies of the political responsibilities of science in the nuclear age, that the case of Oppenheimer “is worthy of special attention in that it illustrates the dynamic relationship of scientists to government with extraordinary clarity”, it is also, like the man himself, a somewhat gnomic example. The formalisation of scientific advice to the UK Government after World War 2 (during the war Churchill relied heavily on advice from physicist Frederick Lindemann) culminating in the role recently filled by Vallance as well as advisory bodies, such as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, made sense.
GOD AND THE BOMB Leibovitz, Liel
First things (New York, N.Y.),
10/2023
Journal Article
If you merely watch the trailer, you may walk away with the erroneous impression that Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's magnum opus, is about the creation of the atomic bomb, or about the moral ...implications of forging a weapon that laid waste to a quarter-million souls, or even about the inner life of its chief inventor, the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. ...he was tough, brilliant, and resourceful, and when World War I broke out and a prosperous engineer named Herbert Hoover set up relief efforts to aid those Europeans stricken by its carnage, Strauss took the train to D.C, walked into Hoover's office, and talked his way into a job as the great man's assistant. Picasso's Mother and Child hung in the family's living room, as did works by Rembrandt, Renoir, and van Gogh. Even if you did not know that the scientist received his earliest primary school instruction at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School-the Central Park West bastion of secular humanist education and the alma mater of New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger, Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, and a long list of liberal notables-you only need to look into Cillian Murphy's watery eyes to know that beyond them lies a soul haunted by ethical conundrums that it wishes to address but cannot possibly resolve on its own.
The purpose of this paper is to lay the foundation for development of a new strategic plan for the work of the Academy to 2030. Its aim is to invite suggestions from WAAS members and partners ...regarding priorities for future work. It traces the origins and historical development of the Academy leading up to the present and provides an overview of recent activities and emerging opportunities aligned to its mission which were presented at a meeting of the Board of Trustees at the Academy of Athens in November 2023. The paper ends with a call for proposals from WAAS Fellows for topics to be discussed at an upcoming conference and general assembly of the Academy in mid-2024 as well to be considered during the WAAS strategic Planning Process.
No single figure embodies Cold War science more than the renowned physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Although other scientists may have been more influential in establishing the institutions and ...policies of the nuclear age, none has loomed larger in the popular imagination than the "father of the atomic bomb." Americans have been drawn to the story of the Manhattan Project Oppenheimer helped lead and riveted by the McCarthy-era politics that caught him in its crosshairs. Journalists and politicians, writers and artists have told Oppenheimer's story in many different ways since he first gained notoriety in 1945. In Storytelling and Science, David K. Hecht examines why they did so, and what they hoped to achieve through their stories.
From the outset, accounts of Oppenheimer's life and work were deployed for multiple ends: to trumpet or denigrate the value of science, to settle old scores or advocate new policies, to register dissent or express anxieties. In these different renditions, Oppenheimer was alternately portrayed as hero and villain, establishment figure and principled outsider, "destroyer of worlds" and humanist critic. Yet beneath the varying details of these stories, Hecht discerns important patterns in the way that audiences interpret, and often misinterpret, news about science. In the end, he argues, we find that science itself has surprisingly little to do with how its truths are assimilated by the public. Instead its meaning is shaped by narrative traditions and myths that frame how we think and write about it.
Man of steel Boyce, Niall
The Lancet (British edition),
02/2015, Letnik:
385, Številka:
9968
Journal Article
Recenzirano
70 years after the arrival of the atom bomb, the people and the events involved are beginning to take on the quality of myth. Tom Morton-Smith's Oppenheimer, a new play for the Royal Shakespeare ...Company about the Manhattan Project and its fall-out--both literal and metaphorical--sets about exploring that tension.
In an era of globalization, innovation, and competitive intelligence, the nuclear supply chain is continually evolving and increasing its capabilities. The top-secret operation ALSOS plays a key role ...in the (re)evolution of atomic energy as the energy of the future, with a constant focus on the responsible use of atomic energy. The US, a nuclear hegemon, has harnessed its leaders to their full potential, with J. Robert Oppenheimer being one of the leading names in charismatic, competitive, and transformational leadership. Through qualitative and content analysis, this article proposes a reflection on the origins and evolution of change in the nuclear field, in a continuous struggle for supremacy, connecting with current desiderata in the sphere of innovation, built on different leadership styles. The interest in leadership is recurrent, and the model of Operation ALSOS, in line with the iconic figure of J. Robert Oppenheimer, is representative of motivating the harnessing of new promises to inspire and revolutionize the world.
'Michael Day's insightful ‘philosophical biography’ of J Robert Oppenheimer stands out from other works on the so-called ‘father of the atomic bomb’ by its focus on the post-war period and by ...the depth of its philosophical engagement with his humanistic thought on science and culture.'
Centaurus Review
Incorporating elements from history, science, philosophy and international relations theory, this book takes a fresh look at the life and thought of Robert Oppenheimer.The author argues that not only are Oppenheimer's ideas important, engaging and relevant, but also more coherent than generally assumed. He makes a convincing case that Oppenheimer has much to say about 21st century issues, and his voice should be brought back into the public forum.The book recovers and reconstructs what Oppenheimer said and wrote during the 1940s, 50s and 60s (i.e., his hope and vision) with the goal of identifying what might be of general philosophical interest today. It considers not only Oppenheimer's thought, but also his life using philosophical ideas developed by contemporary philosophers.In addition, to deepen and broaden the discussion and demonstrate the relevance of Oppenheimer's vision for the present, the author analyzes his views using contemporary international relations theory with a special emphasis on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. This examination reveals ways in which Oppenheimer's reasoning was prescient of current work being carried out to control, and possibly move beyond, the nuclear revolution.
When he discovers that his father worked on missiles for a defense contractor, Jeff Porter is inspired to revisit America's atomic past and our fallen heroes, in particular J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ...father of the atomic bomb. The result,Oppenheimer Is Watching Me, takes readers back to the cold war, when men in lab coats toyed with the properties of matter and fears of national security troubled our sleep. With an eye for strange symmetries, Porter traces how one panicky moment shaped the lives of a generation.
In the Shadow of the Bomb Schweber, Silvan S; Schweber, Silvan S
2000., 20131031, 2013, 2000, 2000-01-01, Letnik:
39
eBook
In the Shadow of the Bombnarrates how two charismatic, exceptionally talented physicists--J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hans A. Bethe--came to terms with the nuclear weapons they helped to create. In ...1945, the United States dropped the bomb, and physicists were forced to contemplate disquieting questions about their roles and responsibilities. When the Cold War followed, they were confronted with political demands for their loyalty and McCarthyism's threats to academic freedom. By examining how Oppenheimer and Bethe--two men with similar backgrounds but divergent aspirations and characters--struggled with these moral dilemmas, one of our foremost historians of physics tells the story of modern physics, the development of atomic weapons, and the Cold War.
Oppenheimer and Bethe led parallel lives. Both received liberal educations that emphasized moral as well as intellectual growth. Both were outstanding theoreticians who worked on the atom bomb at Los Alamos. Both advised the government on nuclear issues, and both resisted the development of the hydrogen bomb. Both were, in their youth, sympathetic to liberal causes, and both were later called to defend the United States against Soviet communism and colleagues against anti-Communist crusaders. Finally, both prized scientific community as a salve to the apparent failure of Enlightenment values.
Yet, their responses to the use of the atom bomb, the testing of the hydrogen bomb, and the treachery of domestic politics differed markedly. Bethe, who drew confidence from scientific achievement and integration into the physics community, preserved a deep integrity. By accepting a modest role, he continued to influence policy and contributed to the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963. In contrast, Oppenheimer first embodied a new scientific persona--the scientist who creates knowledge and technology affecting all humanity and boldly addresses their impact--and then could not carry its burden. His desire to retain insider status, combined with his isolation from creative work and collegial scientific community, led him to compromise principles and, ironically, to lose prestige and fall victim to other insiders.
Schweber draws on his vast knowledge of science and its history--in addition to his unique access to the personalities involved--to tell a tale of two men that will enthrall readers interested in science, history, and the lives and minds of great thinkers.
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