Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer Page 108

by Ray Monk


  652. ‘Science and Culture’: Encounter, Vol. 19, No. 4, October 1962, 3–10, reprinted in Oppenheimer (1984), 123–38

  652. ‘I went to midtown Manhattan’: Bernstein (2004), 196

  653. ‘Let me end with an anecdote’: ‘The Added Cubit’, typescript, 6, JRO papers, LOC

  653. ‘Readers and writers’: Encounter, August 1963, 47

  653. ‘By taking thought’: ibid.

  653. ‘a truth’: ibid., 46

  654. ‘it is almost wholly through the arts’: ibid.

  654. ‘He was out’: Regis (1989), 152

  654. ‘Once in the 1950s’: Pais (2006), 278

  654. ‘Bourbon Manor’: Regis (1989), 151

  654. ‘source of profound bewilderment’: quoted Pais (2006), 278

  654. ‘The faculty meetings’: ibid., 277

  655. ‘It started to dawn’: Pais (1997), 385

  655. ‘just about then’: ibid.

  655. ‘He looked’: Seaborg (2001), 225

  655. The decision was reported: Physics Today, June 1963, 21–3

  656. ‘maintain intimacy of discussion’: Agnes Meyer, letter of invitation, 27.2.1963, quoted Thorpe (2006), 274

  656. ‘Up to now’: untitled typescript of JRO’s talk at Seven Springs Farm, June 1963, JRO papers, LOC – quotation on page 5

  657. ‘a recognition of’: ibid., 6

  657. ‘is surely not’: ibid.

  657. ‘I know every person’: quoted Wolverton (2008), 221

  657. ‘this great enterprise’: typescript of JRO’s acceptance speech, undated, JRO papers, LOC

  657. ‘I enjoyed what you had to say’: ‘Brotherly Spirit’, Newsweek, 16.12.1963, quoted Wolverton (2008), 222

  657. special issue: Reviews of Modern Physics, 36 (2), April 1964

  657. Robert Crease records: Pais (2006), 296

  658. ‘Message’: Reviews of Modern Physics, 36 (2), April 1964, 509

  658. ‘Massive Stars, Relativist Polytropes, and Gravitational Radiation’: ibid., 545–5

  658. ‘It is a tribute’: ibid., 545

  658. ‘was rushed down’: Dyson, letter to his parents, 25.4.1964, quoted Pais (2006), 296

  658. ‘I am very pleased’: San Francisco Examiner, 24 April 1964, quoted Wolverton (2008), 226

  658. ‘L’Intime et le Commun’: Oppenheimer (1984), 157–66

  658. ‘when the proceedings were published’: ibid., 165

  659. ‘We most of all should try’: ibid., 165–6

  659. ‘Today we live’: ‘The Fraternal Dialogue’, Supplement to the bulletin From Heart to Heart, No. 15, November 1964, 2

  660. ‘I begin to wonder’: Heinar Kipphardt, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: a play freely adapted, on the basis of the documents, London: Methuen (1967), 106

  660. ‘You make me say things’: JRO to Heinar Kipphardt, 12.10.1964, JRO papers, LOC

  661. ‘The whole damn thing’: Washington Post, 13.11.1964, A18, quoted Pais (2006), 268

  661. ‘makes me say’: JRO, statement to the press, 11.11.1964, JRO papers, LOC, quoted Wolverton (2008), 237

  661. When the play was performed in Paris: see Wolverton (2008), 238–9

  661. ‘I have not been for this play’: JRO to John Roberts, 22.2.1965, quoted ibid., 240–1

  661. ‘restrain the production’: ibid., 241

  662. ‘The trouble with Oppenheimer’: see Serber (1998), 183–4

  662. ‘the true story’: HC to JRO, 23.7.1964, JRO papers, LOC

  662. ‘Dear Haakon’: JRO to HC, 7.8.1964, JRO papers, LOC

  663. ‘Had letter from Chevalier’: notes of telephone conversation, 18.3.1965, JRO papers, LOC

  663. ‘physics, of course’: New York Times, 25 April 1965, quoted Pais (2006), 297

  663. ‘a general feeling’: New York Times Magazine, 15 May 1966, quoted Wolverton (2008), 271

  663. ‘Well, I don’t want to speak for others’: typescript of interview with Martin Agronsky for CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, 5.8.1965, JRO papers, LOC

  664. ‘Physics and Man’s Understanding’: Oppenheimer (1984), 181–9

  664. ‘To Live with Ourselves’: ibid., 169–79

  664. ‘the life of the scientist’: ibid., 170

  664. ‘This was’: ibid., 170–1

  664. ‘when the discovery’: ibid., 178

  665. ‘[The] new discoveries which liberated physics’: ibid., 185

  665. ‘The error which this corrected’: ibid.

  665. a talk on Einstein: delivered at UNESCO House in Paris on 13 December1965, published as ‘On Albert Einstein’, New York Review of Books, 17 March 1966, 4–5, available online at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1966/mar/17/on-albert-einstein/?page=1

  665. ‘his tradition’: ibid., 4

  665. ‘clouds of myth’: ibid.

  666. ‘was almost wholly without sophistication’: ibid., 5

  666. ‘Thirty Years of Mesons’: Oppenheimer (1966)

  666. ‘It seems to me’: ibid., 58

  666. ‘You see the old man’: Pais (2006), 300

  666. ‘finding out’: Dyson, letter to his parents, 30.3.1966, quoted Pais (2006), 301

  667. ‘Dr Oppenheimer Plans History of Physics’: New York Times, 21 June 1966, 46, copy in JRO papers, LOC

  667. ‘A Time in Need’: Oppenheimer (1984), 191–2

  667. ‘no confidence’: Pais (2006), 303

  667. ‘Sam, don’t smoke’: ibid., 304

  667. ‘Poor Oppenheimer’: Dyson to his parents, 16.2.1967, quoted Pais (2006), 304–5

  667. ‘He looked extremely thin’: B & S, 587

  668. ‘I walked him’: ibid.

  668. ‘It was a horrible period’: Pais (2006), 305

  668. ‘The truth is’: ibid., 306

  668. ‘Damn it’: ibid.

  669. ‘a man who had’: ibid.

  669. ‘In Oppenheimer’: Rabi et al. (1969), 8

  Index

  The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

  Abelson, Phil 256, 264, 305

  Acheson, Dean 475, 480, 485, 488, 500, 553, 556

  and ‘Acheson–Lilienthal Plan’ 479, 481–2, 483, 484, 485

  appoints Disarmament Panel 581, 582, 587

  Ackroyd, Peter: T. S. Eliot 526

  Addis, Thomas 236–7, 240, 281, 310

  Adler, Felix 13–14

  and Ethical Culture Society 1 3, 14, 20n, 21, 22–3, 24, 26, 27, 31, 200

  publishes Creed and Deed 19–20, 23

  conducts Seligman’s funeral service 15, and the Oppenheimers’ wedding service 19, 20

  and ‘moral law’ 23, 28

  on Americanisation of Jewish immigrants 28, 244

  and World War I 31–2, 33, 272

  Adler, Samuel 13

  Advisory Committee on Uranium 263, 293, 294, 295

  AEC see Atomic Energy Commission

  Alamagordo: ‘Trinity’ test site 48n

  ALAS see Association of Los Alamos Scientists

  Albuquerque 42

  La Glorieta 41, 46

  Alien Registration Act (Smith Act) (1940) 275, 280

  Allison, Helen (née Campbell) 147, 170

  Allison, Samuel K. 147, 175, 295–6, 313, 438, 444, 557, 621, 658

  alpha decay 178n

  alpha particles 94n, 143, 177, 184, 189, 190, 215, 252–3

  alpha radiation 95n, 177

  Alsop, Joseph and Stewart: ‘We Accuse!’ 630, 633

  Alvarez, Luis W.:

  hears about nuclear fission 255–6

  and RO’s reaction 256–7

  his cyclotron results 266

  leaves Berkeley 283

  invents electric detonator 423, 424

  and Hiroshima bomb 444, 447

  sends letter to Japanese physicist 454–5

  lobbies for crash programme to develop H-bomb 543–5, 548, 555, 5
56, 562

  and RO’s attitude 548, 561

  at RO’s hearing 605, 606, 616, 621, 626

  American Hebrew (newspaper) 7, 53–4

  American Institute of Physics 515

  RO’s address 637–8

  American Physical Society 126, 182, 209, 245, 248, 273, 274, 290, 492, 497, 512, 527, 575, 669

  Anderson, Carl D.:

  as RO’s student 172–3

  and discovery of the positron 191–6, 205

  researches cosmic rays 225, 227

  finds new particle 228–9

  at Caltech conference (1948) 516

  Anderson, Herbert 331, 466, 473

  Anderson, Sir John (later Lord Waverley) 399, 401

  Anderson, Robert 8

  Ann Arbor, Michigan

  summer schools 149, 174, 177, 179, 185, 204, 211, 517–18

  Annalen der Physik 107

  anti-Semitism 7, 10–11, 12–13, 15–16, 17, 83, 88–9, 259

  at Harvard 52, 53–7, 68, 88

  Nazi Germany 123, 198, 214, 230–31, 244, 394

  Armijo, Manuel 41, 49

  Arneson, Gordon 553

  Aron, Raymond 646

  Asimov, Isaac: Races and People 59

  Association of Los Alamos Scientists (ALAS) 463–5, 466, 467, 472, 476–8

  Association of Oak Ridge Scientists 472, 473

  Astors, the 9, 15, 17

  atom, splitting the (Cockcroft and Walton) 187–90, 191, 193, 196, 252

  Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 493, 495

  and FBI suspicions of RO 499–500

  and Strauss 537–9, 556

  and H-bomb programme 544, 545, 552–3, 555, 559, 562, 569

  rejects idea of second laboratory 571, 572, 574

  chaired by Strauss 592, 593–4

  and renewal of RO’s contract 592, 593

  and RO’s security hearing 601–2ff.

  Seaborg as chairman 655

  see also General Advisory Committee

  Attlee, Clement 443, 482

  Aydelotte, Frank 495

  Baade, Walter 245, 246, 247

  Bacher, Robert 329, 330, 331, 340, 356–7, 363, 368, 398, 410, 493, 495, 560, 561, 658

  Bainbridge, Kenneth 294–5, 414, 426, 427, 428, 437–8, 557

  Baltic, SS 141

  barium 252–3, 254, 318

  Barnard College, New York 18

  Barnes, Joe 386

  Barnett, Lincoln 540

  Barnett, Shirley 425, 457–8

  Baruch, Bernard 482, 483, 485

  ‘Baruch Plan’ 485, 490, 492

  BBC: Reith Lectures (RO) 599–601, 604

  Panorama 647

  Beams, Jesse W. 309

  Beaufort, Lady Margaret 92

  Beck, Guido 244–5

  Beecher, Henry Ward: ‘Gentile and Jew’ 12

  Belmont, August 7

  Benesch, A. A. 53–4

  Berkeley, University of 148, 162, 165–9, 199, 248–9, 259

  RO’s ‘school’ 165, 169–72, 174–5, 182, 186, 196, 204, 213, 268, 282–3

  Radiation Laboratory (‘Rad Lab’) 169, 215–16, 225, 255–6, 264–6, 267, 303, 305, 307, 311, 312, 316, 341, 343, 346, 358, 364–7, 406, 537, 548

  and CP 233, 238, 240, 270, 279, 281

  and security 310–11, 367, 368, 373

  and FBI 366, 384

  Berlin, Gerald 221

  Bern, Gregory C. 484

  Bernfeld, Siegfried 359

  Bernheim, Frederick 40, 41, 56–7, 58, 59, 60–61, 62, 63n, 73, 79, 80–81, 83, 91

  RO to 460

  Bernheim, Mary (née Hare) 91

  Bernstein, Jeremy xii, 67, 80, 116n, 249, 292, 395, 538, 567, 604, 641–2, 652

  Rabi to 479

  Berolzheimer, Emil 21

  beryllium 99, 184, 292, 330, 409

  beta decay 177n, 178, 246n, 253, 257, 305, 639, 640

  Fermi’s theory 228, 229, 230

  beta radiation 177–8, 228

  Bethe, Hans 214, 317

  astrophysics research 248, 317, 492

  works on nuclear fission 246

  hears Bohr’s announcement on nuclear fission 255

  meets RO 273

  comes to Berkeley 316–17, 319, 322

  disagrees with Teller’s calculations 320, 321

  at Los Alamos 331, 333, 353, 354

  and Feynman 348, 356, 512

  fears Germany has new weapon 392

  sees Bohr’s drawing of reactor 398

  and implosion programme 416, 417

  publishes paper with RO on electron scattering 491–2

  surprised by RO’s anti-Soviet views 498

  at Shelter Island Conference (1947) 501

  excited by Schwinger’s theory 511–12

  and Dyson 512, 517, 519, 522

  praises Feynman’s theory 522

  appalled by RO’s disloyalty to Peters 535

  supports Frank Oppenheimer 537

  and H-bomb programme 545, 547–8, 552, 555, 557, 558, 559–60, 566, 567

  and Griggs 576

  at RO’s hearing 614

  awarded Fermi Prize 655

  and RO’s 60th birthday tribute 658

  speaks at RO’s memorial service 668

  awarded Nobel Prize (1967) 317

  on Fuchs 390

  on Lawrence 265, 266–7

  on RO 165, 273, 276, 404

  on Rabi 334

  Bethe, Rose 339

  Bhabha, Homi J. 649

  Bhagavad Gita 199, 200, 201, 203, 428, 439, 579, 647–8

  Bier, Marcy 461

  Bikini Atoll:

  bomb tests 487–90, 608–9

  Bird, K. and Sherwin, M.: American Prometheus x–xi, 387

  Birge, Raymond T. 166–7, 168, 171, 182, 186, 210, 259

  RO’s letters to 478, 496

  Birkhoff, George 82–3

  Aesthetic Measure 82

  Birmingham, Stephen: Our Crowd 13, 17

  Birmingham University 291, 293, 523

  1948 conference 519

  Black, Algernon 57, 58

  ‘black holes’ 249, 250–51, 283

  Blackett, Constanza (née Bayon; ‘Pat’) 94

  Blackett, Patrick (later Baron) 94, 95–6, 117

  and Kapitza 100

  photographs nuclear transformation process 94–5, 252

  at Göttingen 95, 103

  and RO 95, 96, 97, 100–1, 111

  supports general strike 112

  writes ‘The Craft of Experimental Physics’ 95–6

  and discovery of the positron 192, 194–6

  and Heisenberg 230

  wins Nobel Prize (1948) 196

  Blair, Clay see Shepley, James

  Bloch, Felix 163, 214, 244, 257, 281, 319, 349

  on RO 3

  Blunt, Anthony 300, 390

  Bock, Frederick 453

  Bohm, David Joseph 312, 358, 366, 368, 375, 378, 383, 387–9, 532, 536, 611

  Bohr, Aage 397 and n, 398, 400

  Bohr, Niels 77, 88, 154

  works with Rutherford 86

  produces new model of atom 86–7, 95, 102, 104

  becomes member of Royal Society 113

  and RO 113–14, 148, 151, 153, 155, 162

  and Einstein 116

  announces ‘principle of complementarity’ 137–8

  defends new quantum mechanics theory 139, 140

  and Pauli’s work on beta radiation 178

  sceptical about Dirac’s theory 193, and Lawrence’s results 207

  discussions with RO at Caltech 206

  sent RO’s reformulation of Dirac’s theory 209

  and Frisch and Meitner’s paper on fission 253, 254–5

  works out theory of fission with Wheeler 260–61, 263–4

  refuses to keep fission research secret 262

  convinced of impossibility of bomb 262, 393

  under surveillance 393

  meetings with Heisenberg and Jensen 393–4, 396–7

  leaves Denmark for Britain 394–5, 399

/>   at Los Alamos 397–9, 406

  on ‘complementarity’ of atomic bombs 399–400, 480

  has disappointing meeting with Churchill 400–1

  Roosevelt sympathetic to his ideas 400, 401

  at Institute for Advanced Study 507

  visited by the Oppenheimers in Copenhagen 601

  agrees to TV interview 633

  70th birthday tribute from RO 637

  and Chevalier 662

  death 652

  RO’s memoir of 652

  RO’s lectures on 658, 661

  Borden, William (Bill) 551–2, 553, 556, 572, 578, 586, 588

  letter to Hoover 597–8, 601, 606

  and RO’s hearing 608, 619

  Born, Heidi 128

  Born, Max 77, 95, 151, 159

  and Blackett 95, 103

  and Heisenberg 103, 105–6

  and Schrödinger’s wave theory 107, 108

  delivers paper at Kapitza Club 114–15

  impressed by RO 114, 116, 324, 325

  and Condon 125, 165, 167

  with RO at Göttingen 117, 121–2, 124–5, 127–8, 130–31, 133–4, 135, 136–7

  declines offer to work in US 141

  at Como conference (1927) 138

  at Solvay Congress (1927) 139–40

  thrown out of Göttingen 198

  at Cambridge 199

  at Edinburgh 391

  and RO’s 60th birthday tribute 657–8

  articles:

  ‘On Quantum Mechanics II’ 106

  ‘On the Quantum Mechanics of Collisions of Atoms and Electrons’ 114–16, 121

  ‘On the Quantum Theory of Molecules’ (with RO) 133–5

  ‘Physical Aspects of Quantum Mechanics’ 116

  Boyce, Joseph 188

  Boyd, Julian 656

  Boyd, William Clouser 58–9, 60–61, 63n, 73, 79, 80–81, 83, 144

  Bradbury, Norris 404, 440, 487, 560, 570, 571, 614, 630

  Bradley, General Omar 548

  Brady, James 191

  Brady, Mildred Edie 237

  Brady, Robert A. 237

  RO to 238

  Bragg, William L. 130

  Brahe, Tycho: De Nova Stella 246

  Braithwaite, Richard 96

  Bransten, Louise 308

  Breit, Gregory 259, 285, 313–14, 316

  Brickwedde, Ferdinand 183

  Bridges, Calvin 236

  Bridgman, Percy 77–8, 81, 83, 87, 88, 122, 132–3

  Briggs, Lyman 293, 294, 295, 306, 307, 314

  British Association for the Advancement of Science 116, 121

  British University Mission 92

  Brode, Bernice 283, 645

  Brodeur, Arthur 240

  Broglie, Louis de 102–4, 107, 115, 116, 138

  Browder, Earl 243, 269, 308

 

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