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J. Robert Oppenheimer Biography

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Julius Robert Oppenheimer[note 1] (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico; Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."[note 2]

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J. Robert Oppenheimer Quotes

The best way to send information is to wrap it up in a person.

Information, Person, Send, Way, Wrap, Writing

If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'.

Electron, Electrons, Instance, Position, Same, Say

I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. . . . "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. " I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

Change, Gita, Line, Thought, Way, World

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

Fears, Funny, Inspirational, Life, Pessimist, True

The people of this world must unite or they will perish.

People, Perish, This World, World

There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.

Doubt, Errors, Free, Science

But when you come right down to it, the reason that we did this job is because it was an organic necessity. If you are a scientist you cannot stop such a thing. If you are a scientist you believe that it is good to find out how the world works; that it is good to find out what the realities are; that it is good to turn over to mankind at large the greatest possible power to control the world and to deal with it according to its lights and values. Regarding the atomic bomb project.

Atomic, Believe, Come, Greatest, Jobs, Science

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.

Bomb, Change, Country, Different, Future, Military

Optimists think that this is the best of all possible worlds; pessimists fear they are right.

Fear, Pessimist, Right, Think, Thinking, World

We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism.

Believe, Criticism, Group, Power, Wise

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

Action, Live, Man, Men, Mystery, Science

There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men.

Intentions, Men, Secret, Thoughts, World

I can't think that it would be terrible of me to say — and it is occasionally true — that I need physics more than friends.

Needs, Occasionally, Physics, Thinking, True, Would Be

We know too much for one man to know too much.

Know, Knows, Man, Men, Too Much

All history teaches us that these questions that we think the pressing ones will be transmuted before they are answered, that they will be replaced by others, and that the very process of discovery will shatter the concepts that we today use to describe our puzzlement.

Discovery, Process, Progress, Think, Thinking

Bertrand Russell had given a talk on the then new quantum mechanics, of whose wonders he was most appreciative. He spoke hard and earnestly in the New Lecture Hall. And when he was done, Professor Whitehead, who presided, thanked him for his efforts, and not least for 'leaving the vast darkness of the subject unobscured'.

Appreciation, Appreciative, Effort, Leaving, Professor

We may anticipate a state of affairs in which two Great Powers will each be in a position to put an end to the civilization and life of the other, though not without risking its own. We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.

Civilization, Two, Risk, Though, State, Powers

In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

Humor, Lose, Quite, Sin, Vulgarity, Vulgarity Is

When all thermonuclear sources of energy are exhausted a sufficiently heavy star will collapse. Unless fission due to rotation, the radiation of mass, or the blowing off of mass by radiation, reduce the star's mass to the order of that of the sun, this contraction will continue indefinitely.

Blowing, Order, Star, Stars, Sufficiently, Sun

The Vedas are the greatest privilege of this century.

Century, Greatest, Privilege, Vedas

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