J Robert Oppenheimer

J Robert Oppenheimer The physicist who created the ATOMIC BOMB The radioactive element uranium was used as fuel in the atomic bombs in 1945. This brilliant American scientist made many important contributions, but he is known for developing the devastating nuclear bombs that ended World War II.

Race for atomic weapons

Born in 1904, Oppenheimer went to Harvard University, USA, where he became immersed in the world of atoms and how they interact with each other. During World War II, the Allies feared that Nazi Germany would build an ATOMIC BOMB, so in 1942, Oppenheimer was appointed the director of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop atomic weapons first.

Replicas of the two atomic bombs, Little Boy (left) and Fat Man

The Trinity test

Oppenheimer established the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and recruited a team of leading scientists. In July 1945, a plutonium bomb was successfully detonated at a remote test site in nearby Alamogordo. Code-named Trinity, this test created a crater over 300 m (980 ft) wide and ushered in the ATOMIC AGE. An atomic bomb explodes into a mushroom cloud. Did you know? Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics three times, in 1945, 1951, and 1967, but never won.

Who came before...

In the 1930s, Austrian physicist

Lise Meitner and German chemist OttO HaHn discovered nuclear fission – nuclear technology relies on this process – when they split a uranium nucleus by bombarding it with neutrons. Italian physicist enricO FerMi developed the first nuclear chain reaction in 1942. This is the process in which a neutron splits a uranium atom, producing more neutrons that split further uranium atoms.

Genbaku Dome, the only building to survive the attack on Hiroshima, Japan

By the way… After the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima in Japan, I voiced my regret with words from the Bhagavad Gita, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Nuclear age

Shortly after the Trinity test, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, swiftly ending World War II. Filled with remorse, Oppenheimer went on to argue against the development of a deadlier hydrogen bomb. He was initially accused of disloyalty, but in 1963 was awarded the ENRICO FERMI AWARD for his contribution to physics.

How he changed the world

The development of nuclear weaponry, with its potential for mass destruction, has been seen both as a supreme scientific achievement and a disaster for the modern world.

Who came after…

Hungarian-born physicist edWard

Teller led the development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb.

This bomb relies on atomic nuclei fusing together, rather than atoms splitting apart, to produce explosive energy. Chinese-American physicist

Chien-Shiung Wu contributed to the Manhattan Project by finding a way to increase the radioactivity of uranium. She went on to carry out important research in radioactive interactions.