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Richard Rhodes wrote a classic book about Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb
- gerikson 3y agoI read this years and years ago, it's really readable despite being very very long.
- timmg 3y agoCame to say, essentially, the same thing. I will add that I also enjoyed the move Fat Man and Little Boy which was about the Manhattan project. Not an Oscar-worthy movie. But told a good story, centered around Oppenheimer.
- natechols 3y agoThe first part of the book, describing the history of atomic theory and experimental physics, is still one of my favorite pieces of science writing ever.
- uhtred 3y agoOut of interest are you a physicist or chemist, or have a very good understanding of either of those subjects? Asking because I found the book extremely dry and hard to get excited about (I only read the first half admittedly) due to it seeming to be aimed at people who do understand that stuff quite deeply. I'm amazed so many people can enjoy it. For example, was I supposed to know who all those early twentieth century physicists were? It seemed like I was. Apart from Einstein and Oppenheimer I hadn't really heard of most of them.
- UncleOxidant 3y agohttps://archive.is/yLTZq https://archive.is/yLTZq
- opwieurposiu 3y agoThe thing that struck me from this book (or maybe it was in "Dark Sun") was how much the soviets were spying. We were giving them detailed plans for chemical factories, tire factories, engines, alloys, anything you can think of. They did not trust us so they would spy on all this stuff anyway. They would fill up a C-47 Skytrains(lend-lease) with stolen documents and fly them out to Moscow through Alaska. I have to give the soviets the win on this one. Their spying was very effective. All that spying let them get the bomb PDQ.
- philomath_mn 3y agoWell, to be fair, spying on a free and open society is much easier than spying on the opposite.
- amelius 3y agoThere's a parallel here with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
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- InTheArena 3y agoThis. It gets far worse the further you get - it wasn't just spying. Sean McMeekan's recent book details how pervasive it was - for example, Harry Dexter White was in the Department of treasury, helped write the Morgenthau plan, which extended the war, and assigned "the booty" of germany to the soviets and leaked it to the soviets and the press. That led to "a near-miraculous revitalization of the German army." The soviets under Stalin played the allies _hard_ during World War 2.
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- hgsgm 3y agoWhat do you mean? Why would leaking the plan to the Soviets mean anything? Why would the Soviets want a longer war?
- twoodfin 3y agoAt that point, a longer war in the West meant further and more secure Soviet advances in the East. The Morgenthau plan implied a harsh post-war settlement for Germany, and at the time was viewed as effectively inspiring the Germans to fight on rather than capitulate or revolt against the failing Nazi regime.
- sklargh 3y agoI recommend Rhodes’ “Making of” and Dark Sun with American Prometheus and the Los Alamos Primer for people seeking a thorough initial introduction to the Manhattan Project and little bit of postscript. Indulging myself a bit here. Essentially all elements of modern society have at least a tangential relationship with Los Alamos. The symmetry between a nuclear detonation and what happened intellectually and culturally before and after the Manhattan Project is striking. An immense compression followed by a massive release of energy. In the bomb’s case that was an explosives and physics package that led to a good yield. In the Manhattan Project more broadly it was a remarkable concentration of human capability that impacted almost every element of hard science and culture. Something worth learning about.
- kabdib 3y agoEric Schlosser's Command and Control is a nice historical view of the nuclear defense establishment, and describes a particularly terrible missile site failure.
- sklargh 3y agoYeah for those who wish to go deeper Stumpf’s Minuteman and Titan histories are good resources as well. There is also the Effects of Nuclear Weapons.
- mistrial9 3y agothat's very grandiose and all, but this story is true. During the Fukishima aftermath here in the USA, a series of talks was called at UC Berkeley with the public invited. One of the talks was given by an actual nuclear weapons designer, who rarely stands in public for obvious reasons. A large, confident bearded man, he "commanded" the podium with ever more tales, speaking like that paragraph above.. Someone challenged him in some polite and meaningful way in a question, and just as he was starting to reply, people were getting uncomfortable due to the excessive air conditioning in the room -- it was hot outside but apparently the air conditioner was ON with a sensor not in the room? Someone went to check on the air conditioning exactly when the guy said "The USA has NEVER FAILED to achieve a stated objective in nuclear deterrance" or something similar, when the guy from the audience checking the thermostat said helplessly "its stuck ON, there is nothing I can do!" it was so appropriate, had to repeat that here.. true.. and what a WEIRD collection of humanity were in the audience. Those old physics people and their kin, plus paranoids and vegans.. the lot.
- autreschiffres 3y agoListen to RUSH's Manhattan Project song on repeat while reading the article
- cliver 3y agoI love RUSH but this song isn't their best lol
- mcpackieh 3y agoDoes anybody know if this book (or the movie) covers Oppenheimers attempt to murder his teacher with a cyanide laced apple? I don't care to invest time in a biography that whitewashes the man.
- superkuh 3y agoI am actually re-reading it right now (started 6 months ago). No, it doesn't cover that ~1924 event. But it's an excellent book. Ignoring it because it doesn't go into all the people's childhoods seems like an over-reaction. Just to be clear, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is about the lead up to and the making of the atomic bomb. It is not about Oppenheimer though it does go into great detail about all the major players.
- mcpackieh 3y ago> childhoods 20 year olds shouldn't be considered culpable for attempted murder now? Madness. This is an important biographical detail not only because attempted murder is always relevant, but also because it is relevant to his involvement in an idea to poison Germany's food supply with radioactive strontium. Edit for correction: it happened in 1926, he was 22 years old.
- superkuh 3y agoYes. The person whom the alleged noxious apple was left for was his tutor. Children have tutors. Adults far more rarely.
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- mcpackieh 3y agoHe was *22 years old, at Cambridge. He should have been expelled for it (not to mention criminally charged) but his father was wealthy so normal rules didn't apply.
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- jacobedawson 3y agoThis is an excellent book - beautifully written, easy to read, and covering so many epic events that an entire film or series could be made from what is essentially a footnote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage (Operation Gunnerside).
- hgsgm 3y agoHarvard had a gen ed History class mostly about that book. The class was graded based on how much your essay matched what the grader secretly wanted. No feedback except a single sentence and a letter grade. Great book. Terrible class.
- e12e 3y agoAvailable at archive.orgvas text and audio: https://archive.org/details/the-making-of-the-atomic-bomb-by-richard-rhodes-z-lib.org-1/ https://archive.org/details/the-making-of-the-atomic-bomb-by... https://archive.org/details/MakingOfTheAtomicBomb/ https://archive.org/details/MakingOfTheAtomicBomb/
- 0xDEF 3y agoBoth Oppenheimer and Teller made numerous visits to Israel. Oppenheimer admitted he helped them make fast breeder reactors to produce plutonium for fission bombs and Teller admitted he helped them make fusion/hydrogen bombs. Why is this information not included in modern coverage of Oppenheimer and Teller? Why were they given a slap on the wrist when other "Atomic spies" were fried in the electric chair for sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union?
- localplume 3y agoI imagine they made numerous visits to Israel because they were Jewish, just as Einstein did. Although Oppenheimer is said to have been ashamed of his Jewishness and tried to hide it, he still was a supporter of Israel and of course this meant helping their nuclear program. He met with Weizmann in 47 and Ben-Gurion in 52, literally just after the holocaust. He helped Israel as he was concerned about Egyptian-Russian relations and securing the position of the only Jewish majority state in the world in the wake of the largest industrialized genocide. Ben-Gurion recruited many Jewish scientists with the explicit goal of ensuring something like the holocaust never happened again. The french also helped newly independent Israel. Why would this information be relevant in modern coverage of Oppenheimer and Teller? They weren't atomic spies selling secrets to an enemy state? The USSR was obviously not equivalent to Israel given the US was the first country to even recognize Israel. Post-WW2 the world was fractured into the eastern and western blocs, and obviously the USSR was the enemy. So I don't see your point Finally, Israel's nuclear weapons policy is drastically different to that of the US or the then-USSR. The purpose is entirely defensive as Israel is a small country surrounded by majority-Muslim countries which have invaded Israel several times; Israel cannot afford to lose a war as this threatens the very existence of Jews. The US and USSR had very different, intentionally antagonistic policies with the exact opposite of deliberate ambiguity.
- sudosysgen 3y agoHelping the nuclear program of the country you identify as your home country using secrets from the one you came from is normally called treason and espionage. The rest is the motivation, it doesn't change what it is.
- mkw5053 3y agoThis book is fantastic. I’d also recommend Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne to learn more about Oppenheimer’s scientific accomplishments.
- AI52487963 3y agoReading that book inspired me to watch the documentary Trinity and Beyond(https://youtu.be/p4yXfrYSmuA https://youtu.be/p4yXfrYSmuA) a fascinating Shatner-narrated dive into the cold war era of nuclear testing and proliferation. Only documentary I've ever bought the soundtrack to.
- ttyprintk 3y agoVideo archivist Peter Kuran is the force behind it. Im surprised he’s not mentioned on HN; filming atomic fireballs is quite technical. His site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34294804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34294804
- glimshe 3y agoA classic. Will people 100 years from now be talking about a similar book, but titled "The Making of the Artificial Intelligence"?
- CatWChainsaw 3y agoWe'll be lucky to make it that far.