Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (144 page)

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

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, 20
n
, 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 48
n

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 178
n

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

alpha radiation 95
n
, 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, 556, 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 601–2
ff.

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, 63
n
, 73, 79, 80–81, 83, 91

RO to 460

Bernheim, Mary (
née
Hare) 91

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

Rabi to 479

Berolzheimer, Emil 21

beryllium 99, 184, 292, 330, 409

beta decay 177
n
, 178, 246
n
, 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, 63
n
, 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

‘What is Communism?’ 243–4

Brown, Frederick W. 211

Brownell, Herbert, Attorney General 598

Bruner, Jerome:
A Study of Thinking
644

Buchta, J. W. 536

Buck, Pearl 651

Buckley, Oliver 547, 550

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
489, 557–8, 559–60, 562–3, 589
n
, 593, 606–7, 621