Nuclear fission, as the name suggests, is the splitting of an atom.
A heavy atom, such as Uranium or Plutonium, is bombed by neutrons.
This collision leads to the uranium being split into two light elements, neutrons, and
a lot of energy released as heat.
Now, imagine if you had a few extra uranium atoms floating around?
Neutrons from the first fission reaction would collide with this uranium, creating another
fission reaction.
And then another and another and another, until the uranium runs out.
All the while, huge amounts of energy are being released.
This is the basic principle of how an atom bomb works.
An atomic bomb can release more than 20 kilotons of TNT, and the man that made the bomb a reality
was J Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 to wealthy Jewish parents, Julius and Ella Oppenheimer,
in New York.
He studied at The Ethical Culture Society.
Growing up, Oppenheimer was a precocious child, with a broad range of interests.
He was passionate about everything from rock collecting to literature to philosophy.
However, his attention eventually settled on physics.
He received his PhD in theoretical physics at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and the
University of Gottingen in Germany under Nobel Laureate Max Born.
These two institutions exposed Oppenheimer to legendary physicists like Paul Dirac, Werner
Heisenberg, Neils Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, and more.
As a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, he showed a talent for synthesizing
the new and complex physics concepts of the time.
The world of physics was in an uproar.
In the last three decades, physicists had been confronted by Einstein’s general and
special relativity theories, as well as E=mc2 and the complicated quantum behaviors of electrons,
protons and neutrons in an atom.
Oppenheimer applied himself to a wide array of these problems, both for his own work and
for his students.
His charismatic personality only heightened his intellect, which earned him quite a fan
club at Berkley.
All this would end up helping him for what was to come.
In 1939, news traveled to America about the discovery of nuclear fission.
Also in 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War 2 began.
Much of the best physics was happening in Germany, and scientists began to worry that
Hitler would realize the potential for nuclear fission and create a bomb.
Physicist Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein urged action from the only other power in
the world they thought could oppose Germany: America.
In 1942, the US government authorized the Manhattan Project, and its military head,
General Leslie Groves, picked a physicist in whom he not only saw ambition, but also
the genius and energy to beat the Germans to the bomb: Oppenheimer.
In the span of 6 months, Oppenheimer had managed to recruit the best physicists of the age:
Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman, among others.
At Los Alamos, he set up the work structure of the different labs, and shielded the scientists
from the rigid structure of military life, which allowed the scientists to fully utilize
their potential.
His insights were invaluable.
The difficult tasks of extracting and purifying enough Uranium for the bomb, as well as determining
how to set off the chain reaction, required collaboration, but also streamlined effort,
both of which Oppenheimer facilitated.
Somehow, the project didn’t devolve into chaos.
On July 16, 1945, a new type of bomb, equal to 24 kilotons of TNT, scorched the desert
of New Mexico.
The Trinity Test bomb was the first time an atomic bomb ever detonated.
Their success changed the fate of the Second World War, and the way humanity has fought
wars ever since.
For a bomb that was once unimaginable, it took a mere two years and 2 billion US dollars
to make, along with more than 600,000 people working on the project.
Then, three weeks later, two atomic bombs—Little Man and Fat Boy—were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, respectively.
The sheer magnitude and horror of the bomb made it abundantly clear to everyone that
nuclear weapons were more dangerous than anything humans had ever before used in war.
Oppenheimer, in a press release, famously said of the test, "Now, I am become death,
the destroyer of worlds,” quoting from the Bhagavad Gita.
World War 2 ended, and Oppenheimer, now called the "father of the atomic bomb", would spend
much of the rest of his life trying to ensure that nuclear weapons would not be misused
by any government of the world.
The devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was proof to him that the development of the
bomb could either end all future wars, or lead to humanity destroying itself.