American Prometheus (109 page)

74
In the event, Ehrenfest:
In 1933 Ehrenfest shot and killed his mentally retarded son and then turned the gun on himself. John Archibald Wheeler with Kenneth Ford,
Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam,
p. 260.

74
“Oppenheimer is now”:
Max Born to Paul Ehrenfest, 7/26/27, and 8/7 or 17/27, Ehrenfest letters, Archives of the History of Quantum Physics, NBL, AIP, courtesy of Nancy Greenspan, Born’s biographer.

74
Only six weeks:
Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
10/10/49.

74
His Dutch friends:
Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 25; Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
p. 17. According to Peter Michelmore, it was Paul Ehrenfest who nicknamed Robert “Opje” (Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 37).

74
“For the development”:
Victor Weisskopf,
The Joy of Insight,
p. 85.

74
“that Bohr with his largeness”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, pp. 20–21.
Herausprügeln
means an inner thrashing or disciplining (courtesy of Helma Bliss Goldmark). Ehrenfest once teased Oppenheimer about his philosophical bent, cheerily telling him, “Robert, the reason you know so much about ethics is that you have no character” (Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 15).

75
He had ignored:
JRO letter to James Chadwick, 1/10/67, JRO papers, box 26, LOC.

75
“prefers to live”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 127.

75
“At first [we] thought”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, pp. 22–23.

75
“He was such a good”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 45.

75
“so young and already”:
Ed Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 195.

76
“His ideas are always”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 28.

76
“nim-nim-nim man”:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 133.

76
“His strength,” Pauli soon:
Wolfgang Pauli,
Scientific Correspondence,
vol. I, p. 486.

76
“We got along”:
Jeremy Bernstein, “Profiles: Physicist,”
The New Yorker,
10/13/75 and 10/20/75.

76
“Even in casual conversation”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
p. 19; Bernstein,
Oppenheimer,
p. 5.

76
“never got to be an integrated”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
pp. 228–29.

77
“Oppenheimer? A rich spoiled Jewish brat”:
Pais,
The Genius of Science,
p. 276.

77
“I didn’t think”:
Rabi, interview by Sherwin, 3/12/82, pp. 7, 12–13.

77
“I was never in the same class”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
p. 214.

77
“Rabi was a great”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
p. 215.

78
“We felt a certain”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
pp. 218–19.

78
“air of easy nonchalance”
and subsequent quotes:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert
Oppenheimer,
pp. 45–46; Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
p. 5 (Introduction).

78
“The time with Pauli”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 22.

78
By the time Robert left:
Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 12, 72.

79
“[Quantum mechanics] describes”:
Brian Greene,
The Elegant Universe,
p. 111.

Chapter Six: “Oppie”

80
“open up the place”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 126–27.

80
Frank needed no:
Twenty-five years later, Robert would testify that Dr. Roger Lewis was one of those friends from whom he felt estranged since the war because “there has been a sense of hostility which I identified with their remaining close to the [Communist] party.” Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 132; JRO hearing, p. 190.

80
“It was a great spree”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Alice Smith, July 16 (no year), folder 4–24, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

81
“My two great loves”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 49.

81
On one trip:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 51.

81
“We’d get sort of drunk”:
The Day After Trinity,
dir. Jon Else, transcript, pp. 5–6; Uhlenbeck, interview by Alice Smith, 4/20/76, p. 9; Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 52.

81
“I think we probably”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 51.

81
“So we set the horses”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Alice Smith, July 16 (no year), folder 4–24, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

81
“The reason why”:
JRO to Frank Oppenheimer, 3/12/30, folder 4–12, box 1, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

81
“Your tales of a burro”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 132.

82
“The undergraduate college”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 133.

82
“I had for”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 29.

82
“I’m going so slowly”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 54.

82
“I was a very difficult”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 30.

83
“We were always”; “Well, Robert”:
Goodchild,
Oppenheimer,
p. 25; Royal,
The
Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 55.

83
“Robert’s blackboard manners”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 149; Leo Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76.

83
“tendency to answer your question”:
Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
p. 18; Royal,
The
Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 56.

83
“He could . . . be”:
Harold Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, pp. 2–3.

83
“somewhat obscurely”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 149.

84
“She went on a hunger”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 149; Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76.

84
“It is easy”:
Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
10/10/49, p. 126.

84
“Oppenheimer was interested”:
Lillian Hoddeson, et al., eds.,
The Rise of the Standard Model,
p. 311; Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
p. 18.

85
“I didn’t start”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63.

85
In 1934:
Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 28.

85
“unbelievable vitality”:
Herbert Childs,
An American Genius,
p. 143.

85
Even after Lawrence:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 51. Lawrence also had in mind his other good friend, Robert Cooksey.

86
By early 1931:
Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb,
p. 148; Davis,
Lawrence and
Oppenheimer,
pp. 17, 30–31.

86
“an activity that”:
Patrick J. McGrath,
Scientists, Business, and the State,
pp. 36, 64.

86
Building cyclotrons with:
Gray Brechin,
Imperial San Francisco,
pp. 312, 354.

87
“like marriage and poetry”:
Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76.

87
“Pauli thought it was nonsense”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 25.

87 Anderson’s discovery came: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 66; Gribbin, Q
Is for Quantum,
pp. 266, 107.

88
“It was amazing”:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, p. 14.

88
“his work is apt”:
Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76; Schweber,
In the
Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 68.

88
“His physics was good”:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 147.

88
Robert did not have:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, p. 15. Willis Lamb earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1938 under Oppenheimer. See Gribbin, Q Is for Quantum, pp. 203–4.

89
“He was an idea man”:
Melba Phillips, interview by Sherwin, 6/15/79, p. 5.

89
His interest in astrophysics:
Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
p. 16.

89
“white dwarfs”:
Physics Review,
10/1/38.

89
“one of the great”:
Physics Review,
9/1/39; Bernstein,
Oppenheimer,
p. 48.

90
“Oppenheimer’s work with Snyder”:
Marcia Bartusiak,
Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony,
pp. 60–61; Bernstein,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 48–50.

90 Characteristically, however, Oppenheimer: Gribbin, Q Is for Quantum, pp. 45, 266.

90
“Oppie was always”:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, p. 15.

90
Having made the initial:
Rabi, et al.,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 13–17.

90
“Robert’s own knowledge”:
Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76.

90
“Oppenheimer was a very”:
Edwin Uehling, interview by Sherwin, 1/11/79, pp. 5–6.