Robert Oppenheimer: The Atomic Bomb

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Robert Oppenheimer: Father of The Atomic Bomb Robert Oppenheimer, born in 1904, was a man of intelligence and thought. He was a man that changed the world with his creation that he would soon regret. The life of Robert Oppenheimer is rather interesting starting at a young age. When Robert was a child he was very sickly. Because of this, his parents forbid him to play outside like many other children. While inside he absorbed knowledge from books of literature, science, and languages. He would sometimes say “ask me a question in Latin and I will answer you in Greek”(Sheinkin 9). But besides his vast amounts of knowledge he was described as “stick-skinny” (Sheinkin 9). At the age of fourteen, Roberts parents attempted to “toughen up” their kid(Sheinkin …show more content…

Latter he decided to teach Physics at Princeton University in New Jersey. He was a chain smoker. According to one of his students, Edward Gerjuoy, “His lectures were lightning bursts of ideas, theories, and math on the black board. He spoke rapidly, and puffed equally rapidly”(Sheinkin 10). During World War Two, the FBI watched certain americans that were suspected communists. One of these americans was Robert Oppenheimer. He was repeatedly asked to give information to the Soviet Union but never …show more content…

Robert Oppenheimer was asked to help build a hydrogen bomb but refused. The US tested their first hydrogen bomb on an island in the Pacific Ocean in 1952. The explosion was 500 times more powerful than an atomic bomb. The Soviet Union soon followed. Lewis Strauss, chairman of the AEC(Atomic Energy Commision), sued Oppenheimer for two reasons. “Attempting to weaken America by trying to subdue the making of the hydrogen bomb and disloyalty to the US because of ‘close Soviet contacts’”(Sheinkin 234). The AEC said “Dr. Oppenheimer is not entitled to the continued confidence of the government”(Sheinkin 234). Afterwards he was sad and depressed. To sum up, Robert Oppenheimer was always ill during childhood so turned to learning for relief but was commonly bullied. After exceeding in math and science, he went to Harvard University and got advanced degrees in Europe. Years later, his greatest accomplishment was building the atomic bomb in which he soon regretted. He foresaw it would start a competition between America and Russia to make the most powerful bombs. He was then taken to court for weakening America and communism. This lead to depression until his death on February 18,

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