The much-anticipated "Oppenheimer" is finally released! This film centers on Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb", and tells the story of the birth of the atomic bomb and the political game behind it.
Oppenheimer was a Jewish-American physicist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times. He was America's Prometheus, and under his leadership, scientists wrested the awe-inspiring sun's fire from nature for their country. Afterwards, he not only wisely stated the dangers of nuclear bombs, but also hopefully mentioned the potential benefits of nuclear energy. Oppenheimer became the most famous scientist of his generation and one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century.
Before understanding "Oppenheimer", you might as well take a look at his legendary life.
Source | "Entanglement: An Interesting History of Quantum Mechanics"
Author | [US] Louisa Gilder
Translator | Li Shufeng Ruan Dong
Start with Oppenheimer.
Bohm said: "I love Oppenheimer." At this point, many people agree with him.
Every spring semester (after his term at Berkeley) when Oppenheimer was teaching at Caltech, he swooped down the cliffs of the California coast like a long-legged stork. One semester in 1941, he found Caltech cynical and lifeless, so he returned to Berkeley with Bohm.
Robert Oppenheimer grew up in an 11th-floor apartment overlooking the Hudson River and spent much of his childhood with his mother. His father, Julius, was social and liked the paintings of Van Gogh and Fauvism, and Oppenheimer was also influenced by this from an early age. Mother Elle is dignified and elegant, and studied art in Europe. To hide her prosthetic leg, she always wears a glove.
Science entered Robert Oppenheimer's life when he started collecting minerals, thanks to his poor but self-taught grandfather who lived in Germany. Robert was 12 years old at the time and was studying for a paper for the Mineralogical Club of New York. But after finishing high school, Robert contracted dysentery while on a visit to the Bohemian mines. His parents asked his favorite teacher to accompany him to New Mexico to recuperate. There he fell in love with horseback riding, the pine-like plateaus, and the wide open spaces.
After graduating from Harvard, he pursued the center of quantum theory. He went to Cambridge in Rutherford - where he almost committed suicide due to experimental and social failures; he went to Göttingen in Born - where his arrogance, intelligence and what students later said The "blue glare" he spoke of put even the sharp Born to shame. There were two other places where he felt like home: Leiden in Ehrenfest, where he became friends with Dirac and became known as "Oboschie" (later Americanized to " Obi"); the best place was Pauli's Zurich - there he had nothing to do and Pauli could handle everything with ease.
A month before the 1929 stock market crash, Oppenheimer arrived at the University of California at Berkeley as a 25-year-old professor. Hans Bethe, one of the greatest theorists of the 1930s and 1940s, recalled: "In addition to his gorgeous literary talent, he also brought into the world sophistic ideas in the field of physics that were previously unknown to Americans to a certain extent. In his lectures. He deeply understood all the mysteries of quantum physics and pointed out that the most important problems in quantum mechanics remain unsolved." And he was extremely knowledgeable. His friend the great experimentalist Isidor Isaac Rabbi recalled: “He became an almost mythical figure, especially to experimentalists who could demonstrate a wealth of knowledge in their field. His talent, at the same time, can soar in the sky of profound theories, which is unattainable.”
Oppenheimer later recalled: "Initially, I did not intend to build a school. At the beginning, I really just wanted to be a disseminator of the theory I loved (quantum theory) and continue to study in depth. This The subject has become quite rich but is not yet well understood." His influence on those students whom he once declared "unable to hope for" was remarkable.
Oppenheimer's students observed him and learned from him. They even walked and talked as much as possible like him, and even imitated the sounds of "Ni Mu Ni Mu Ni Mu" he made when he was thinking. He took the students to restaurants and concerts, taught them about Plato in Greek, taught them to eat his spicy red peppers, taste fine wines, and taught them how to light cigarettes for others. The rabbi claimed that he could spot Oppenheimer's students in crowded places.
In a 1934 letter to his brother (bringing greetings from "all Californians and many physicists"), Oppenheimer wrote: "I think...physics and what it brings Obvious progress in life has penetrated deeply into your soul." This is what Oppenheimer gave to his students. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he established the Theoretical Research Department at the University of California, Berkeley, along the lines of Rutherford's Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and Bohr's Copenhagen Institute - a combination of a cutting-edge physics institution and a cult of personality. conjugates. When Pauli was told that there were no outstanding American physicists in the 1930s, he replied: "Oh? Haven't you heard of Obi and his Nim-N-M-N-M students?"
David Bohm was Oppenheimer's student for only a short period, during which time Oppenheimer taught him two theories. One theory was Oppenheimer's entire spiritual life, while the other nearly cost him his life.
The first theory was quantum theory proposed by Bohr and his disciples. Bohm left Caltech in 1941, a "devout classicist" who strongly questioned quantum theory. He and his friend, Berkeley alumnus Joe Weinberg, argued late into the night. Weinberg insisted on quantum theory, and Bohm said that Weinberg's excessive emphasis on mathematics was actually "mysterious Pythagoreanism." Bohm said: "Physics has changed from its early form when it tried to explain things and give certain physical images. Today, its essence is considered to be mathematics, and the truth is felt to be in the formulas." Bohm most His favorite analogy made him feel that he could never live with such a theory.
But Oppenheimer is so fascinating. The process of Bohm slowly accepting and then rejecting quantum theory was a decisive struggle in his life. This evolution would affect the history of physics and inadvertently laid the foundation for John Bell.
In 1936, the naive, world-weary Bohm became a little depressed. Soon, he absorbed the second theory - a theory that Oppenheimer, who had not yet been exposed to politics, began to teach his students. In November 1942, a year after arriving at Berkeley, Bohm joined the Communist Party, encouraged by his new friends in the physics department. However, Bohm found the meetings boring and began to slack off after a few months. He is only interested in new ideas. Oppenheimer admitted that he had been a "fellow traveler" (a euphemism for a supporter of communism), but he was heard to say triumphantly during a lecture: "I would say that after 1939, I We don’t often follow this path.” 1939 was the year the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed. If so, the change was not obvious to his devout students.
Then Oppenheimer disappeared, working on a secret project for the U.S. government called the Manhattan Project. His students were left behind in wartime Berkeley. Graduates also began to disappear, as if they had died and slept with their ancestors in heaven. On the contrary, some people are quite happy at this time: they are doing some secret and important things under Oppenheimer on the isolated red soil plateau of New Mexico. Those students who stayed at Berkeley only knew that it was a confidential job that Obi was responsible for. Although Bohm later claimed: "We knew those people were working on uranium, so we could guess that it might be a bomb." However, most of Bohm's friends were not called.
When Oppenheimer asked for Bohm to be transferred to Los Alamos in March 1943, General Leslie Groves, who was in charge of the Manhattan Project, told him that Bohm could not be brought. Oppenheimer recalled that "there was some secondary alphabetic code" for this kind of information. The official reason given was a flimsy excuse. They said Boehm had relatives in Nazi Germany. But there were many reasons why Oppenheimer and his students didn't know.
Oppenheimer and Ernest Orlando Lawrence, leaders of the Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, participated in the early atomic bomb program in early 1942. Meanwhile, the U.S. military conducted a security investigation on campus. A year later, when Oppenheimer requested that Boehm be transferred to Los Alamos, military intelligence learned that an unidentified person ("Scientist X") was visiting Oppenheimer at his house. Steve Nelson, the local Communist leader, was also a friend of Oppenheimer's wife Katie. Oppenheimer told Nielsen a formula and apparently got paid.
At the beautiful Pusidi Military Base in San Francisco, Colonel Boris Pash, who was responsible for leading counterintelligence activities, recalled: "We had almost no intelligence. The only thing that was certain was that the man was called 'Joe' and that he had a sister. Living in New York." They began scrutinizing the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, where the active Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, who had an uncle from Oklahoma who was a known unionist, became one of the men they suspected of being " X scientist” is the primary target.
Counterintelligence agents quickly noticed that Lomanitz spent most of his time with Boehm, Joe Weinberg, and Max Friedman. Bohm and his friends were soon being followed everywhere, even during class. In June 1943, counterintelligence reports revealed that "Scientist X" was Joe Weinberg of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. By July, against the angry protests of Ernest Lawrence, Rosie Lomanitz was drafted into boot camp and away from uranium separation research.
In September of that year, Oppenheimer casually mentioned to security personnel at Los Alamos that "it was known that certain people among physicists" at Berkeley were being investigated for espionage. A week later he learned that he had been summoned to Washington. He was received by Colonel John Lansdale, who led the investigation on the Berkeley campus. Although his cheerful and energetic face made him more like a father than a hawk of the U.S. military, he was currently the security director of the entire atomic bomb program. Lansdale immediately discovered that Oppenheimer had not revealed the motives of who was being "investigated" and who was investigating. Oppenheimer reasoned: "I saw it as a dirty little ploy to bluff people, and I'm sure (he did nothing wrong)."
Lansdale said during a lengthy and fruitless interrogation session: "By now we know that news is leaking out of this place every day... What do we do? Do we stand back and say, 'Oh, God, Let this guy stop moving...'"
Oppenheimer frowned and nodded. He was very interested in thinking about this problem, so he said: "Because of my personal tendency, it's really hard for me to say anything." Then he used his famous pair of blue His eyes glanced at Lansdale as if to say, "Of course, you got it, bro."
Lansdale said, "Well, is there anything else you want to tell us that you think might be helpful?"
"Let me walk around the house and think about it," Oppenheimer said.
He stood up and started pacing, and then, suddenly, he said, "I can tell you, I deeply doubt whether - well, I don't know Bohm very well, but I doubt very much whether Weinberg is going to involve us. The situation we were just talking about." He went on to say something about one of his older German students, Bernard Peters. The tape recorder in the dark did not record this. When Oppenheimer first met Peters, he was working as a stevedore at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Oppenheimer brought him to the physics department. Oppenheimer later described that it was during this time that he began to believe that Peters was "a dangerous figure in the secret war program" because of "the way Peters talked about things." Despite these insights, the talks continued arduously with little result.
"Colonel," Oppenheimer said, "I wish I could do what you wanted, and there's no denying that I'd be willing to give you that information. I really wish I could."
"Well, personally, I want to say that I like you very much." Lansdale opened his mouth and smiled shyly, "I hope you don't call me colonel so formally, because I haven't become a colonel yet. How long it takes, I’m not used to it.”
"I think I remember you being a captain first." Oppenheimer raised his head and stuffed the pipe into his half-open mouth.
"I haven't been a lieutenant in the Army very long," Lansdale said. "I hope to get out of the Army and go back to practice law. I won't have these troubles there."
Out of politeness, Oppenheimer nodded sympathetically: "You have a very meaningful job."
More than 50 years later, the debate over exactly how much Oppenheimer did for the Soviet Union remains fierce and more confusing. In 2002, Gerald and Leona Schechter published a book called How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History. The book caused a scandal among physicists and was immediately condemned by many. In this regard, the authors of this book feel that their book is actually victimized by a "covenant of silence." For example, the New York Times may have been too sensitive and mentioned the word "mistake" in its review of the book. The authors' information about Oppenheimer came from a former KGB agent named Sudobratov, who was proven to have told lies in other confessions.
Yet amid all the confusion and conflicting accounts, the Schechters included in an appendix a (probably exaggerated) report from an agent to the head of the KGB, dated October 1944. On the 4th, the report mentioned: "In 1942, Professor Robert Oppenheimer, one of the leaders of U.S. scientific research on uranium, was a secret member of the 'Comrade Browder Organization'. He told us this This work was initiated... providing collaboration on the research process for several of our test sources."
In January 1944, Oppenheimer was sitting on a train bound for Santa Fe. In the same car with him was Major Pierre de Silva, a security guard from Los Alamos. The latter consciously urged Oppenheimer to talk about his former students, about some of Bohm and his friends, people whom Oppenheimer considered "real dangers." De Silva reported:
He identified David Joseph Boehm and Bernard Peters as such men. Oppenheimer explained that for some reason, he did not believe that Bohm would be a dangerous person with his temperament and personality, and he suggested that Bohm's danger lay in the possibility that he could be influenced by other people. On the other hand, he described Peters as a "crazy guy" and someone whose behavior was unpredictable. Oppenheimer described Peters as "a complete Red" and said that "his background is full of incidents" (he participated in street battles with Nazis in Germany and then fled Dachau), which showed that he His temperament is to take direct action.
In March 1944, Oppenheimer returned to Berkeley for a visit, and Bohm came to visit him. As you can imagine, Bohm and Joe Weinberg were having a rough time. In Oppenheimer's absence, the two have been teaching Obie's famous courses. Bohm wonders if things have changed, if there is a possibility of being transferred to Project Y (Manhattan Project), because he has "a strange sense of insecurity" in his current situation. Bohm stood piously in front of Oppenheimer, unintentionally showing irony in his wording, but this was also Bohm's personality.
Oppenheimer said he would let Bohm know. Later, he asked Major de Silva (the man who two months earlier had claimed that Oppenheimer had described Bohm to him as a "real danger") if he had any objection to Bohm going to Los Alamos.
"The signature below answers in the affirmative," de Silva wrote, duly reporting the incident.
Nonetheless, Bohm was involved in the war effort to some extent. The military wants to understand plasma — the stuff that makes up stars, the Northern Lights, lightning, St. Elmo's Fire and even the light from neon pizzeria signs. Plasma is the fourth form of matter after solid, liquid and gaseous states, which is similar to the ancient Greek cosmology theory that water, fire, earth and air constitute matter. When most of the atoms in a hot gas are dissociated into positive ions and electrons that flow freely between each other, the hot gas becomes a plasma. Bohm discovered that the electrons in metals (which flow between atomic nuclei and belong to the entire metal but not to any part) also constitute a plasma.
Bohm was fascinated by the collective behavior of electrons in plasmas. Plasmas have long had a certain connotation: for Bohm, they symbolized the perfect Marxist form. He became an authority among American plasma theorists, an expert on arcane subjects such as "plasma oscillations" and the theory still known today as "Bohm diffusion."
After the war, on Oppenheimer's recommendation, Bohm became a professor at Princeton, working at the Institute for Advanced Study in a grove of woods and an open pasture in the distance. By then, Oppenheimer's great secret had exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bohm remained ignorant of Oppenheimer's other secrets, which, legitimate or not, made the two of them, and their friends, so special.
Bohm asked the department if he could teach his "old enemy" quantum mechanics to a graduate class. While preparing for the class, he rediscovered Oppenheimer's class notes that had been taken years earlier by his friend Bernard Peters. Bernard Peters, a survivor who escaped the concentration camp and a stevedore at the dock, was inspired by Oppenheimer to enter the "Ivory Tower" of Berkeley.
recommended reading
"Entanglement: An Interesting History of Quantum Mechanics"
Author: [US] Louisa Gilder
Translator: Li Shufeng Ruan Dong
This is a "novel" belonging to quantum mechanics, and the masters of physics are the protagonists of the story.
This is also a magnificent history of human thought, recreating the birth and evolution of mankind’s greatest scientific and philosophical ideas in the past hundred years.
The author has excellent "story-telling" ability: dialogues, plots, and scenes are integrated into real historical stories, making the century-old history of quantum mechanics as fascinating as a movie. Through letters, memoirs, essays and exclusive interviews with living figures, the author outlines each extraordinary figure, showing their genius and ambition, fragility and humility, joy and trouble.
