Oppenheimer: Father of the Atomic Age with Kai Bird & Neil deGrasse Tyson

[@richardzinns5676]

One little note, for what it's worth: The reason Mary Shelley called Dr. Frankenstein a "modern Prometheus" is that she grew up in the household of her father, the novelist and popular philosopher William Godwin, who was a devotee of the 17th/18th century philosopher Lord Shaftesbury, whose work she would have had to read. In Greek myth, Prometheus creates mankind out of clay, and steals fire for man's use. Only Shaftesbury represents him as mixing the stolen fire with clay to create man, a composite creature of matter and spirit that should never have existed. Hence Frankenstein is the new Prometheus.

[@YewtBoot]

SUPERB! I enjoy watching all of the Star Talk episodes, but as a person who has both read the book by Kai and seen the film by Nolan, this talk was a piece to pull it all together. Raised by a dad who was a McCarthyist, I rebelled like so many of us in the 1960s and continue to put energy into trying to stop warfare, hatred, racism, and making individual humans to be declared as "less worthy." Thanks for such clarity into this important work.

[@North_Lights]

This is one of the best interview Neil ever done. Kudos.

[@Chimeratech8]

This is exactly content I was looking for. The intersection of science, politics and ethics is so fascinating as the Oppenheimer movie demonstrated. Not to mention those exact things came into play on a global scale when it came to the pandemic.

[@r.a.monigold9789]

I was blown away watching this episode. Thank you to ALL involved.

[@Synthwave89]

Yes, it was quite enlightening and paints a new perspective on Oppenheimer I didn't have. I might go watch it if it's still on now.

[@ShonMardani]

There is no Atomic bomb. Japan's atomic bomb attack and all those tests were explosions of multi kilotons of TNT. Nuclear reactors do not produce power, they use power to make gold and Plutonium (to be used as very heavy metal to make warheads for chemical bombs), watch "Unlocking Power of the Atom at Tarapur Nuclear Power Plant" to be clear. There are no turbines to generate electricity in any nuclear plants and turbines are the only means of generating electricity in power plants. Einstein embezzled $7 billion from American government and was charged by FBI 12/1/1932 case # 61-7099-1 by Data Hodgdon. I have the copy of the file in pdf if needed.

[@JD987abc]

Probably the best interview NDT has done in recent years. An appropriately serious tone, very informative and Excellent guest.

[@Loquacious_Jackson]

He is terrible

[@nfrance999]

Loved the talk, so much insight which transcends the time period and we still see so relevant to this day

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Neil and Chuck for 2024!

[@Kenadams240]

Facts

[@deonte1981]

Facts

[@kickstart56Sim]

Got my vote

[@ishu6may]

Oh yea

[@AlbertCamus1993]

Got my vote. Make science grate again.

[@ThadGuardi]

Anyone interested in space exploration and colonization should read Mr. Oppenheimer's book called 'Colonies in Space'. Where we should have been in space if science could influence our progress more than wars. I read it in highschool, and still have the copy. :)

[@stevenbruno7710]

Know if a digital copy exists anywhere?

[@janihaavisto79]

I don't even wanna know how far in space we would be if war's wouldn't have been the catalyst... Such funding is hard to come by and militaries usually have the biggest cut from any nations budget.

[@blackdog6969]

I'll have to check it out. Do you know if it's still being printed? Sounds like a read worth having a physical copy of

[@Rotceh-r4g]

Thanks for the reference. I'll have to check it out! Peace!

[@ThadGuardi]

IDK. my paperback copy was given to me in 1980.@@blackdog6969

[@samuelrodriguezrivera6856]

Great episode! totally makes you want to go back and watch more documentaries and the movie again

[@johnduggan4993]

Greatly appreciated how you deftly tied the narrative of Oppenheimer's experience with your personal family history -- offered me some new perspectives on how broader movements in history flow together.

[@SuperPanda2000]

One of THE best interviews Star Talk ever had! I’m off to see Oppenheimer -again- and considering getting the book! Thank you! ⭐️🗣️💙

[@brian.the.archivist]

Thank you for doing an episode on this one. Great movie, now another book on my long list. A very good discussion. 😀

[@armondobbabone8556]

Outstanding episode. I enjoyed it so much, I dug out my copy of Kai Bird’s (and Martin Sherwin’s) biography of Oppenheimer to revisit the man before visiting the movie. Thanks!

[@sandydelopoulos5908]

Fascinating! Thank you. I'm in the middle of reading the book and this was a fantastic addendum.

[@rutujagurav3473]

Another minor error in the movie is at 47:00 - It's Oppenheimer's first meeting with Gen. Groves where Groves is recruiting him and Oppenheimer is describing where they should locate all the different labs and operational sites and he mistakenly draws Hanford, Washington to the south of Berkeley, California. The only reason I spotted it immediately in the theater is because I happen to be a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and one of the two LIGO gravitational wave detectors is located at Hanford, Washington!

[@kiros235]

I like this interview. It's very informative and no interruptions from Chuck NICE

[@travisstump23]

2.5 Million Subscribers. Keep hitting that like button. Leave a comment. Share with friends and family. Keep looking up.

[@briannovak-mcsweeney9109]

See "The Day After Trinity", the 1980 documentary by Jon Else.Fascinating! Includes interviews with Frank Oppenheimer,Hans Bethe,I.I. Rabi, Haakon Chevalier,Robert Serber and others close to Oppenheimer. Runs about 90 minutes.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I saw it when I realized I didn't want to go see a three-hour movie. It's on KZbin.

[@lordflowerbear6597]

yes the US persecuted Oppenheimer and the British basically killed Alan Turing... I would never directly do any research that has military use.... 52:20

[@MitzvosGolem1]

What happened to Turing was barbaric yet Klaus Fuchs went back to UK while Rosenberg's got electric chair .... Leaving a small child an orphan.. 🤔

[@HarryNicNicholas]

i went to see oppenheimer with my son, i was a bit disappointed cause i was expecting a "how we made the bomb" and "how we dropped the bomb" movie, but it was a biopic, which was okay, but i'd only watch it the once. i had forgotten my personal connection though, and part way through i leaned over to my son and asked "do you remember ringing the peace bell?" he said no, he was three at the time. we went to hiroshima while visiting my in-laws to introduce them to their grandson, nearly thirty years ago now, hiroshima is pretty pleasant city, and like all of japan the people are great. my (now ex) wife didn't want to translate my interrogation of how her parents felt about the war, which is fair enough, so my impression of how the japanese feel about the whole thing is that the people would have preferred if hirohito had minded his own business and not got them involved, like me i think they blame the war on the leaders, not the folks. what fascinates me about japan is their building codes, my in laws, when i first met them, were living in a fairly traditional wood and paper house just south of yokohama in kanagawa, opposite their house is a car park and the car park has a mini cemetery near the entrance, and behind that is a golf driving range, and beyond that is an american airbase, they have blackhawks and f-15's circling their house 24/7, but they don't seem to mind, and we even went shopping in the japanese store on the base one day. i hate to make light of the horrors of the bomb, but the japanese experience disasters on a regular basis, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, and what they do is roll up their sleeves, clean up the mess and rebuild what fell over. three days after the bomb in hiroshima they had the trams up and running taking folks to the office.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I saw _Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)_ as well as the documentary _The Day after Trinity (1981)._

[@keithbell9348]

Honestly I have to wonder, if "Oppie" were alive today, how he would take to Nolan's description of him as being "the most important man alive". Because the atomic bomb is forever attached to his reputation, I suspect Oppenheimer would have grimaced at that title.

[@CollinZaffke]

Oppie?

[@keithbell9348]

@THEC.O.VISIT. Yeah I know.. Just humor me

[@wsams]

I got chills at the end when they said the book could end very badly.

[@thomanderson7981]

Very stimulating interview about the book & movie Oppenheimer. I saw 👀 it & it was very intriguing. My mom’s favorite saying was, “Keep looking ⬆️ 🆙” which always reminds me of her when Neil says it!👆🏽😇🙏❤️‼️

[@solidust573]

Oppenheimer's works will live on to haunt this world for centuries. He provided us with brand new keys to the apocalypse possibly centuries ahead of time.

[@Synthwave89]

The thing is, the atom bomb was going to be made whether it was lead by Oppenheimer or someone else. What I think is important is Oppenheimer's late opposition to his own creation and the backlash he received by the establishment for doing so. It tells you who the real enemies truly are.

[@flinx]

Oppenheimer provided new keys about two years ahead of time, not centuries.

[@flinx]

@@Synthwave89 Oppenheimer was wrong about what the soviets were willing to do with their bombs and developing Hydrogen bombs. The soviets would have developed the super bomb and the USA wouldn't have it if he'd gotten his way.

[@AYEEYOBEASTBOY]

It was going to be created regardless but it might be have been a gift for us maybe we killed millions we have probably saved so many lives and I wish to save more

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@Synthwave89 Not necessarily. If we called it quits when we learned Germany's A-bomb program failed, it might have been twenty years and millions or billions of rubles spent for the Russians to come up with it from scratch. And they might not have the motivation to invent it if we didn't have it.

[@stevenschmidt7819]

Would be nice if this was included in the bonus materials on the DVD/Blueray disc

[@robvangessel3766]

In 1989, I saw a tv movie on CBS called DAY ONE, about Oppenheimer and Groves. It had lasting impact on me, esp as I'd just reached voting age, and it's still the best telling of the story, imo. Brian Dennehy played Groves, Historically accurate in linear structure as a docudrama should be; which is a problem I have in Christopher Nolan's approach. What's weird is that DAY ONE, which won emmys, is no where to be found to stream online. Like someone closed it away in a vault! And that's a real, REAL shame, because the film is SO informative and absorbing.

[@chrome6479]

Great and Insightful Interview

[@ruffshenanigans9582]

3 hour film felt like 3 minutes. Fantastic!

[@LennyDucano]

This is one of the best channels ever! Thank you so much for making me think differently 🎉

[@karenjohannessen8987]

What an a*Maz*ing episode!! Thank you Neil and Mr. Bird. I will, indeed, "Keep Looking UP!"

[@subhanusaxena7199]

Thank you thank I have been so waiting for this

[@dancooper8551]

One of the best star talks ever!!

[@bolshevi3187]

I wonder what information on Oppenheimer and such has been surfaced since 2005 - I would’ve asked Kai that, something he wishes he could include or rewrite or whatever

[@alenacepelkova7475]

✨ Thank you for this episode ✨

[@aseemsharan]

15:12 - Richard Feynman playing bongose at the party 16:30 - Feynman windshield

[@Rotceh-r4g]

Great interview. Magnicifent film. Relevant themes. My favorite in the movie: how Oppie and others figured things out, .... In particular: the reference to his scientific paper on Black Holes clarified for me perfectly how they connected thermal Neutrons, sticking to atoms, and spliting them, releasing energy. It further elucidated the next area of discovery, fussion in relation to stars. Black holes and stars hold the key to many more, discoveries .... Anyhow, great post. I truly enjoyed this. Thanks for posting it.

[@louiscaston9692]

You are the best! Love your videos. Please keep them coming.

[@phillipphelts6241]

someone should tell Neil deGrasse Tyson that Werner Heisenberg was not jewish.

[@davidjacobs8806]

Very interesting but a number of serious omissions in the film (and much of my opinion derived from the Greg Mitchell blogs), including Nagasaki, Asian characters/victims, the controversy over the reason for using the weapons in 1945 (which leads to the view that the use of such weapons is permissible given the circumstances-not an anti nuclear message), the character Joseph Rotblat (who said he left the project on learning that Groves thought that the Nazis were not making a bomb and that it was being built to subdue the USSR), etc. It was a very watchable film, well acted, but it and the book suffer from these elisions. Must say I love and am enlightened by your work

[@SuperTicklemonsters]

Mccarthy is name dropped in the movie during one of Strauss side meetings with his aides. Strauss calls him a clown lol

[@bradwiggins2332]

Yeah as I remember it he says he didn't want to put the fake trial in front of "that self aggrandizing clown" since it would turn it into too much of a public circus that people wouldn't be able to take seriously.

[@samanthaharris9661]

Affirmative 😀 outstanding balance thank you 😊

[@Dawn_Aramoana63]

Great interview 👍

[@vickieysacoff4249]

Loved the book and loved the movie! Great conversation!

[@KaylaAvery-co5gm]

Recession is most likely the result of an external factor. For the first time in decades, the United States is losing its clout as a federal reserve currency. They don't have any more economies to use to control inflation, and less money is being spent on stock and oil trading than in the past. They all lend support to the idea that a new multilateral world order is in the works.

[@gibsonmorgan9419]

Keep this in the back of your mind. There are good days and bad days. It's a zero-sum game, but keep this advice in mind: spend wisely, invest wisely, and diversify your holdings so that when one performs poorly, the others do as well. This can be accomplished by hiring a knowledgeable specialist whose platform provides a wide range of investment options. By doing so, you gonna make a lot of profit.

[@admln1350]

@@gibsonmorgan9419 Nobody knows anything; You need to create your own process, manage risk, and stick to the plan, through thick or thin, While also continuously learning from mistakes and improving.

[@gibsonmorgan9419]

Well I invest with a top trader Investor Ashton Edwards you might have heard of him.. I can correctly say he's the best top trader in the world, an investment advisor as his diversification skills are great, I say this because i see that in his results as my portfolio grows by averages of 25% to 35% on a weekly basis, unlike i can say for my IRA which has just been trudging along. my portfolio just mirrors what he place and not just on some particular industries of my choosing. He gave me that financial freedom I needed

[@williamsscott7414]

@@gibsonmorgan9419 Would you mind recommending a specialist with a variety of investment options? This is extremely rare, and I eagerly await your response.

[@davidbryant2872]

Excellent, glad to have seen this, especially after seeing the film.

[@YousefPeekabu]

I really have a question and it's not about space i would like to have an explained answer. From where the blue light comes during earthquake ?? Is it a lightning from sky? Lightning from earth?? Or it's just electric cables? It's really confusing me and i can't find a clear answer anywhere.

[@Jas.2105]

We haven’t learn a damn thing! Couldn’t agree more

[@Jas.2105]

It hurts that I have to explain that quote, so I’m just going to say watch the show again and pay really really close attention how kai and Neil summarized it at the end. “We haven’t learn a damn thing”Literally this time

[@alexandra.etush1]

Great video. I was thinking if I want to watch the movie. Now I'm sure I will.

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Nice!

[@EricSchultz-zs8hz]

I took my son to see "Oppenheimer," and we both were glad to have seen it.

[@bored9260]

speaking of quantum physics, Neil Tyson Degrasse black hole is based off singularity while michu kaku is based off duality but off the same concept on the singularity couldn’t cross ties on credit.

[@bravo_01]

Fantastic movie! So much better than Barbie…

[@petethepeg2]

Fantastic celebration of art and and mans' scientific endeavours to produce terror. Kudos too to our friends in the far east who werent included in the credits ,for being participants in the project . A very entertaining vlog!

[@cardozaonline]

Fascinating.

[@asan1050]

Thanks Much !.......

[@bababillenial7861]

Love from India sir! You are my favourite,Neil sir!

[@roxcastaneda]

I was born in 1954 and I grew up listening to my parents talk about Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb and hoping it would never used again.

[@Whuzzer]

Dr. Tyson, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world. I have a question for you. Has anyone ever tried designing a telescope with the mirrors arranged according to the fibanocci sequence? I've been thinking about this idea for a few years now, but I lack ALL the resources to pursue it. Not to mention, I only have a high-school education. The idea of using that sacred geometry just seems so intuitive to me.

[@4747da]

I love NDT keeping things on perspective in terms of the actual contribution of Oppenheimer. I watched the movie twice, loved it. But the exaggerated significance, even as a marketing tool is , well, exaggerated.

[@bored9260]

my dad’ professor for his PHD, was one of the people who worked on the manhattan project.

[@sanbest93rd]

it's rather unfair that nobody's talking about Lise Meitner

[@stevematthews4489]

Marshal Mcluhan saw cubism as the exploding of the linear perspective that had been created by the invention of the printing press (you don't see accurate perspective in art before that), to the creation of electronic media, which compressed or eliminated linear time and space, extended the human nervous system, giving the viewer the impression of seeing objects from all perspectives at once, which paralleled the scientific discoveries happening at the same time including quantum physics, driven by the new electronic media and instrumentation available to science.

[@aanchaallllllll]

0:00: 📚 In this episode of Star Talk, Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews Kai Bird, the author of 'American Prometheus', a biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer, discussing his personal life, religious beliefs, contributions to building the atomic bomb, the McCarthyism trial, and the relevance of these topics in the future. 6:00: 🔥 The video discusses the concept of Prometheus and its connection to the invention of atomic weapons. 11:45: 📽 The video discusses the remarkable period of the 1920s and early 30s in physics, including the discovery of quantum physics and the expansion of the universe. 17:35: 🎥 The speaker discusses how the movie 'Tenet' incorporates historical events and themes into its plot. 23:35: 📚 The biographer discusses the challenges of writing about AER's love life, politics, education, privileged background, and his involvement in quantum physics and black hole theory in the late 20s and 30s, and the delay in the book being adapted into a film by Christopher Nolan. 29:58: 🔍 The film does not mention McCarthy, but it is implied that the events are happening above his pay grade, involving the military, the White House, and the Eisenhower Administration. 35:30: 📚 Oppenheimer discusses the possibility of other countries acquiring nuclear weapons and the ease of building them due to known physics. 41:29: ! The movie 'Oppenheimer' used actual testimonies from participants and dialogue from the transcripts, making it a courtroom drama. 46:53: 🎥 The film 'Nolan's film' is conveying a lot of complicated history, focusing on what happened to Oppenheimer rather than McCarthyism. Recap by Tammy AI

[@loizosnikolaou2864]

If we take a step back and think about it for a moment, we gathered the smartest and brightest scientists and had them build the biggest weapon of mass destruction. I would like to see an episode where the ethical considerations of this "scientific achievement" are discussed. Not in political terms, but purely through the lens of science and its role in serving humanity.

[@RealmsSMPStudios]

I have a question, so there’s a quantum particle for time called a chronon, is there a quantum particle for space?

[@awuma]

19:10 A partial explanation is the Equation of Time, which after the solstices goes negative. You can get a situation for some weeks after the solstice that while the day (or night) keeps getting shorter, sunrise keeps coming later. The effect is bigger after the (northern) winter solstice than in the summer, because then the Earth is moving more quickly (at perihelion, closest to the Sun). I first encountered this effect while observing at Mt. Wilson and waiting for dawn to do calibrations... 39:10 To me, it seems that Oppenheimer's leadership somewhat resembled that of Korolev and Musk, though in Oppenheimer's case there was Groves to push things along, whereas Korolev and Musk did the hard driving themselves as well. 46:20 By the time of the late 50's and 60's Civil Rights Movement, the evils of Stalinism had been revealed (by Khruschev), and Hungary had been invaded (by the same Khruschev...), so that the Communists in North America had suffered a mortal blow just as deadly as McCarthyism.

[@SchwarzSchwertkampfer]

*Dr.Tyson what do you think of this brainstorming idea* . *If a 4D being cast a 3D Shadow* . *To us it seems 3D* . *Is there a way to test how much of reality is actually just 3D Shadows* . *If I am understanding this correctly, if not I apologize* . *If I am then this will give humanity a better picture of 4D space* .

[@Kim_Jong_Un1254]

Just use geometry, i think it's more precise than what you're suggesting.

[@bored9260]

Neil I believe i use to quote Oppenheimer before the movie came out, “I become death, destroyer of worlds”

[@ContinentalDrifter]

I have what I’m sure is a crazy question, and I’m not even sure I’m asking it correctly, but would there be any way to incorporate magnets into car bumpers to avoid, or at least minimize, accidents because of the magnets’ polarity? Perhaps like an airbag they activate on contact because you don’t want them attracting other things all the time?

[@TheBnzr]

Fun fact: The DOE restored Oppenheimer's security clearance in 2022

[@AldrianCG]

“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” Julian Barnes. “The sense of an ending”. 2011.

[@markybob_bassplaya1462]

What I don't get is associating Oppenheimer with what would have been inevitable. I guess it is human nature to pick a single person to give it a face. Do all of the people who worked at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos have the same burdens to bear?

[@OvMov7]

I am so glad that Neil pointed out that the result would have been pretty much the same no mather if the name was Oppenheimer or other. It was a race to build the bomb.

[@sandal_thong8631]

That may have been true if Charles Darwin died without ever publishing, so Alfred Russel Wallace might be the name associated with evolution through natural selection. And if it was a national priority to get the A-bomb, then someone else in charge would have made it happen even if it didn't get done before Japan's surrender. But if they closed up shop, then it might have been decades if ever before the first nation built a bomb.

[@e2p718281828]

It's the end of the interview that's the most insightful: "We haven't learned a damn thing!" - about treating science and scientists

[@timson7970]

Heisenberg was not Jewish

[@KaraWisdom]

No but was often treated as if he was because he practice 'Jewish science'

[@j72ashley]

Thank you Gentlemen!

[@michaelwendell7771]

Thanx Neil....😊

[@edthri]

And Oppenheimer did this on his own did he?

[@altprsn6929]

47:19 Oh.. Lewis Strauss (played by RDJ) mentions McCarthy

[@von-shonfaison9931]

Mr.Tyson how are you doing, long time listener and fan my name is VonShon and I have question to ask if I may. I was wondering what would be the effects to our local group if the Andromeda galaxy just disappeared from its location since it is larger galaxy and on a collision course with the Milky Way

[@asitkumar2095]

Chandrayan 3 pls

[@soyuz281]

Groves doesn't get much credit. He appreciated Oppenheimer's potential.

[@Jdshald]

McCarthy was quickly mentioned in the movie and more detailed in the book

[@ToniSkit]

This conversation was more interesting than the movie

[@AkashSharma-uv6bx]

if the zeroes of the polynomial ax^2 + bx + c and alpha and beta are the zeroes of the polynomial then find the value of Alpha^101 + beta^101. (I am very desperate for you to solve this question sir please help me in solving my doubt)

[@kforest2745]

The origin of “innovate” is ‘new’ but later it’s ‘altered’ as there is nothing new everything that can exist will so “innovations” are of celestial terrestrials that’s why it comes to mind on account of exposure, which is why Neil says it was already in the works of being built prior to the thought. People highly underestimate process that’s why it’s important to watchdog manipulation.

[@bored9260]

finally watched it dad was talking about trinity being the biggest top secret project because it declassifies the flight integrity of dropping the atom bomb.

[@facespaz]

Great episode with a poignant conclusion regarding McCarthyism. Thank you.

[@sandal_thong8631]

"We haven't learned a damn thing." I think we should have had Civics class including how fascism works starting in the 1940s. Maybe we could have prevented McCarthyism and the modern day international far-right movement using fascist tactics to get a strong man in power in Brazil, Hungary and elsewhere.

[@louisgomez182]

Uhhhh... you are EXACTLY that guy neil, maybe you dont wanna be that guy, but you are him.

[@aleckg5291]

Day 30 asking for Oppenheimer episode. Oh wait, IT IS HERE! Thanks Neil!

[@noahway13]

I often wonder where science would be if Einstein had never been born. His ideas were way outside the box.

[@kforest2745]

Waiting to hear whether the “intersection of science politics and ethics” is actually acknowledged (the behaviour/intersection)

[@dteed6282]

Oppenheimer was brilliant. However, in the race to build the bomb, he was simply the first. That is an achievement, to be sure. But to Neil's point, in Oppenheimer's absence, the bomb likely would have been built anyway.

[@GetUpTheMountains]

This came off like an advertisement for a book. Neil had it tight within the first few minutes. The bomb was being made no matter who was chosen as the head administrator. Most important man in history, lol. Not even close.

[@nickpaine]

"Tactical nukes".Now there's a curious term. So, tactical may suggest... practical? Only if used. Reminds one of "..with extreme prejudice", a bit. Aren't euphamisms handy?

[@KenakaElric]

the project would not have been a success without Hanford

[@31415dow]

Hi Neil, please, for the love of all you truly hold dear, please talk about 'deep adaptation'. You talk a big talk about how science and facts don't care about your opinions of feelings... please cover deep adaptation

[@jerroncrowder6261]

Was Oppenheimer a better film than interstellar ?

[@thetommantom]

Great power

[@cybsamurai]

NEIL! PLEASE do a reaction to the rock band Starset!!! Start with kashmir, starlight, gravity of you, and back to the earth.