Doctor Atomic: J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Man, the Manager, the Physicist

The opera Doctor Atomic revolves about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the pioneer in quantum mechanics and the key scientist behind the first atom bomb. Brilliant, driven and controversial, he lost his security clearance during the McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s. At a 2008 symposium at CUNY, Historians Robert Crease and David Cassidy join physicist Jeremy Bernstein, a former student of Oppenheimer, to consider him as a scientist and as a man. NYU Professor Emeritus Benjamin Bederson moderates.

[@bearowen5480]

I found Roy Glauber's talk by far the most interesting and enlightening reminiscence of Oppenheimer the man. Glauber's recollections of his own personal observations and interactions with Oppie humanize him in a way that all the other biographical descriptions I've seen and read failed to do. I sincerely thank Dr. Glauber for giving us an entirely different perspective on this complex and historically significant figure that forever changed the world.

[@drbonesshow1]

As hard as you may try, you can neither be loved nor hated by all.

[@dovbarleib3256]

Edward Teller was a "You are with me or Against me" vitriolic kind of guy. Oppenheimer wanted nothing to do with the H bomb, and Teller saw to it that his opposition to the mega-nuke would end his security clearance.

[@howiewillie]

Oppenheimer was a great man who used his tallents to end the most terrible war ever conceived, The fact tha he felt terrible guilt for all the lives lost to "the bomb" is a testament to his character and genius. Howard Jenkyn

[@margaretneanover3385]

It didn't end..not really

[@dovbarleib3256]

@@margaretneanover3385 Ww2 ended. MacArthur in the Pacific and George Marshall in Europe saw to it that Japan and Germany did not become military powers again at least for the last 77 years.

[@Johnconno]

​@@dovbarleib3256The world got America instead. That's worked out hasn't it?

[@anwiycti1585]

He was in touch w/ the ultimate wisdom

[@eagle1ear]

@@Johnconno Some country would get it. Which country would you prefer to have gotten it?

[@VMac-eg7fb]

Countries almost always kill their heroes, even destroy the lives of their musicians, for instance "The BEE GEES", their albums were stacked 8 feet high in Bon Fire Burnings, amazing. Paul Dirac left Britain, taught in Florida, he developed the formula that melded quantum physics with conventional physics. a phenomenal feat. I was brought up in life to celebrate the idiosyncrasies of genius, remember the poison apple and Alan Turing, what a waste of a most brilliant National Treasure. Japanese have a saying, "The tallest nail will be hammered down.

[@user-ry4nq8rd4z]

I love the video. I found it veeeeeeeeery interesting!!!!!!!!!! My new fav

[@JohnSmith-id8kz]

"Read between the lines."

[@rsr789]

I don't know if it's the video or KZbin, but it's very choppy and constantly has video and audio buffers that make it unwatchable.

[@Johnconno]

Oppie was a Four Seasons type of guy. A Rothko type of guy.

[@raycooper3269]

Rothko! I need to think about that. I'm almost certain you are right.

[@VMac-eg7fb]

Very deliberate,

[@dovbarleib3256]

Julius is a Jewish name?? Denying the Roman name Julius was a denial of Judaism? Really??

[@michaelkrieger9241]

It had that implication at the time and in that environment, 2000 year after Caesar

[@howard1beale]

Yes. Julius as in Rosenberg. I'm guessing you've never heard of him either

[@VICTORGIRAFFE]

ick up at 35:00

[@margaretneanover3385]

So who died 1966? It was even a message board to that effect. 1957? No..but compared ...not quite..unless he leapfrogged another ..

[@bearowen5480]

Please translate to English.

[@johnsnowkumar359]

Oppenheimer was a poster boy of the nuclear program of the United States jump-started in about 1942. Suddenly President Roosevelt was interested. A car with a dead battery can be jump started with the good battery of another car with a jumper cable. The American atom bomb program was jump started in about 1942 when two academic scientists from a country near Holland (The duo could from any country in the area) went to Washington DC in about 1942 from across the Atlantic Ocean and showed up at the White House along with about 50 papers of the Soviet atom bomb. Suddenly the President was interested. He never showed the design papers and air blast calculations of the Soviet atom to the office staff. Vice president Truman just heard that two men had brought design papers of a destructive bomb designed by the Soviet scientists in about 1942, sent to the White House by dissident scientists in the Soviet Union with the help of the courier duo. He was not informed till the day after President Roosevelt died that the President had secretly hired a team of U. S born scientists in 1942 to re design and to re build the Soviet atom bomb based on soviet design papers of their atom bomb of 1942. The Soviet atom bomb was designed by a Soviet team led by Egor Kurchatov between 1936 and 1942. During a visit to the White House in about 1942, Robert Oppenheimer said he needed 3 months notice in early 1942 approximately. The White House official along with the President wanted Oppenheimer to quit his job and to enlist himself in the re-design and re-manufacture of the Soviet atom bomb designed by the Soviet team of dissident nuclear scientists within the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt asked the two academic scientists in about 1942 why there so many papers on nuclear air blast calculations in the smuggled papers on the Soviet atom bomb. the bundle had about 50 pages approximately. The two visiting academic scientists rightly guessed that these air blast calculations were a delaying tactics by the dissident scientists of the Soviet Union to delay the manufacture of he Soviet atom bomb. which made up to 70 percent of the papers handed over to the white House. The Soviet papers of the atom bomb also had a warning note that if Hitler had an atom bomb, that Hitler would surely nuke London or Moscow or Leningrad (Saint Petersburg). President Roosevelt made it very clear that he wants an American with a German last name to be the poster boy of the nuclear program of the US. Kurchatov himself was a dissident scientist. Egor looked more like a beach boy surfing a surf board in a beach anywhere in the USA, as a young man. Egor as a young man also looked like a slim fraternity boy in any college in the US. Average fraternity man in any college across the US used to be fat. About a decade or two ago, college fraternities in the US made it a requirement that all new fraternity members be slim or muscular and not fat any more. Later, Egor also started looking like a mad scientist as he aged. Oppenheimer was hesitant to join the nuclear program, as he someone told him as a child that he had a German last name. *** In 1942, two theoretical physics from a country near Holland or Denmark showed up at the White House along with detailed blueprints of the Soviet atom bomb along with air blast calculations. President Roosevelt was suddenly highly interested. Two academic scientists from Holland or some other small country near Holland or Denmark visited the White House along with blueprints of the Soviet atom bomb, and offered to become project managers of the American nuclear program. President Roosevelt told Oppenheimer that he needed an American with a German last name as the project manager. Why? If Berlin is nukes, then he can say that a German American had nuked Berlin. If the President finds out that Hitler may use the atom bomb against the US, then President Roosevelt may be obliged to order the use of atom bombs against Berlin. So President Roosevelt wanted a scientist with a German last name to lead the American nuclear program. The Soviet 50 odd design papers of the Soviet atom bomb of 1942 sent to the White House had a warning note: If Hitler had an atom bomb first, that Hitler would surely nuke London or Moscow or Leningrad (Saint Petersburg).

[@janklaas6885]

📍53:16

[@howardleekilby7390]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@danielmeyers5598]

2nd speaker confuses fascism of germany's socialist party with russia's communism when trying to frame a failed logical argument about peters.

[@whirledpeas3477]

Also, there is obviously a lying hatred this narrator has against the great physicist, Oppenheimer.

[@kp6215]

As an American have never understood why America is afraid or at constant hate for all things Russian.

[@VMac-eg7fb]

They were one of the Eastern most feared warriors , ask the Jews and others in that area, they were extremely groomed and at the peak of dominance at various times, always the aggressors.

[@eagle1ear]

@kp6215: Russia, during the years of the Soviet Union, was adamantly against Capitalism. The U.S. didn't ignore this stance. The Soviet Union was an unabashed dictatorship. Americans noticed this as well. Propaganda did the rest. However, Americans do not "hate all things Russian." So, don't paint things with such a broad brush. We enjoy a lot of Russian cultural treasures. We were allies in WWII. Currently the political atmosphere is rather tense because of what Putin brought about in Ukraine. America has a lot of citizens whose heritage is Ukrainian or Polish or Lithuanian. I dare say that those citizens have some very strong feelings about Russia. Understand?

[@robertoppenheimer8976]

Those people with all their knowledge should have been born in their Homeland ( Israel)

[@dovbarleib3256]

Yea, gosh darn it, only 20% of Nobel Prize winners in Physics in history were Jews. It should have been 50% Jews and 50% Chinese.

[@howard1beale]

It didn't exist until 1947 Duh