Read Online Einstein's Genius Club by Katherine Williams Burton Feldman - Free Book Online
Authors: Katherine Williams Burton Feldman
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years older than Oppenheimer, yet seemed the master to Oppenheimer's apprentice. What made the difference was the pace of discoveries in physics in that decade. The brunt of that advance was accomplishedby 1927âby then, someone like Oppenheimer could feel as if he had missed the golden age by a twinkling.
He went to Berkeley in 1929 and by the late 1930s had builtâas Hans Bethe put it flatlyââthe greatest school of theoretical physics that the United States has ever known.â This was more than an academic matter. Through the 1920s, the best young American physicists studied in Europe, especially Germany. When Oppenheimer returned to the United States, he made it possible for American students to be educated at home. The arrivals of refugees from Hitlerism only strengthened this achievement. When research for the atom bomb seriously began in 1942, American physics, the equal of any in the world, was ready.
There is no end of testimony to Oppenheimer's brilliance, and justly so. His research on quantum physics made him an international force. 21 His graduate students, fascinated by him, mimicked the way he spoke, smoked, and gestured. He attracted women, daunted colleagues, and by sheer intellectual speed and range overwhelmed many of his peers. The physicist Emilio Segré said Oppenheimer had the quickest mind he had ever seenâno small praise: Segré had been trained by no less than Fermi himself. The young Edward Teller was overpowered by Oppenheimer's mind and personality. 22 To those around him, he glittered.
The inner Oppenheimer was much more complicated and troubled. He had grown up rich, sheltered, and rather spoiled. He could not help using his intelligence to browbeat others. He was feared for his sarcasm, which, unlike Pauli's, seemed personal and even vicious. Certainly, Oppenheimer's taste for humiliating others reflected his own insecurity. He could analyze, criticize, absorb, and penetrate all difficulties with astonishing ease with his âiron memory.â But he never succeeded in producing truly creative work. For someone so gifted, it must have been a bitter failure. The psychological burden seems to have lifted when he directed Los Alamos. There, his critical gifts were exactly what was needed, andhis restless energy was wholly occupied. In those years, he was self-confident and at ease with himself.
During his early years at Berkeley, Oppenheimer's private interests were as rarefied as his physics. He describes himself then:
I studied and read Sanskrit with Arthur Ryder. I read very widely, mostly classics, novels, plays and poetry; and I read something of other parts of science. I was not interested in and did not read about economics or politics. I was almost wholly divorced from the contemporary scene in this country. I never read a newspaper or a current magazine like
Time
or
Harper's
; I had no radio, no telephone; I learned of the stock market crash in the fall of 1929 only long after the event; the first time I ever voted was in the Presidential election of 1936. To many of my friends, my indifference to contemporary affairs seemed bizarre, and they often chided me with being too much a highbrow. 23
In 1936, his interests shifted radically. The exquisite aesthete became a political activist. The transformation was sparked in part by Oppenheimer's growing awareness of Nazi persecutions. It was also encouraged by his affair with the moody, smart, beguiling, and sometimes badly depressed Jean Tatlock. She introduced Oppenheimer to the world of left-wing protest and intrigue, to Communists, union organizers, and Spanish Civil War loyalists. She herself had been a Party member off and on. It was a heady experience for the privileged and precious Oppenheimer. The affair did not last, however. (Four years later, the gifted but troubled Tatlock committed suicide.) In 1940, Oppenheimer married Katherine Puening, whose first husband, Joe Dallet, had died fighting in
He went to Berkeley in 1929 and by the late 1930s had builtâas Hans Bethe put it flatlyââthe greatest school of theoretical physics that the United States has ever known.â This was more than an academic matter. Through the 1920s, the best young American physicists studied in Europe, especially Germany. When Oppenheimer returned to the United States, he made it possible for American students to be educated at home. The arrivals of refugees from Hitlerism only strengthened this achievement. When research for the atom bomb seriously began in 1942, American physics, the equal of any in the world, was ready.
There is no end of testimony to Oppenheimer's brilliance, and justly so. His research on quantum physics made him an international force. 21 His graduate students, fascinated by him, mimicked the way he spoke, smoked, and gestured. He attracted women, daunted colleagues, and by sheer intellectual speed and range overwhelmed many of his peers. The physicist Emilio Segré said Oppenheimer had the quickest mind he had ever seenâno small praise: Segré had been trained by no less than Fermi himself. The young Edward Teller was overpowered by Oppenheimer's mind and personality. 22 To those around him, he glittered.
The inner Oppenheimer was much more complicated and troubled. He had grown up rich, sheltered, and rather spoiled. He could not help using his intelligence to browbeat others. He was feared for his sarcasm, which, unlike Pauli's, seemed personal and even vicious. Certainly, Oppenheimer's taste for humiliating others reflected his own insecurity. He could analyze, criticize, absorb, and penetrate all difficulties with astonishing ease with his âiron memory.â But he never succeeded in producing truly creative work. For someone so gifted, it must have been a bitter failure. The psychological burden seems to have lifted when he directed Los Alamos. There, his critical gifts were exactly what was needed, andhis restless energy was wholly occupied. In those years, he was self-confident and at ease with himself.
During his early years at Berkeley, Oppenheimer's private interests were as rarefied as his physics. He describes himself then:
I studied and read Sanskrit with Arthur Ryder. I read very widely, mostly classics, novels, plays and poetry; and I read something of other parts of science. I was not interested in and did not read about economics or politics. I was almost wholly divorced from the contemporary scene in this country. I never read a newspaper or a current magazine like
Time
or
Harper's
; I had no radio, no telephone; I learned of the stock market crash in the fall of 1929 only long after the event; the first time I ever voted was in the Presidential election of 1936. To many of my friends, my indifference to contemporary affairs seemed bizarre, and they often chided me with being too much a highbrow. 23
In 1936, his interests shifted radically. The exquisite aesthete became a political activist. The transformation was sparked in part by Oppenheimer's growing awareness of Nazi persecutions. It was also encouraged by his affair with the moody, smart, beguiling, and sometimes badly depressed Jean Tatlock. She introduced Oppenheimer to the world of left-wing protest and intrigue, to Communists, union organizers, and Spanish Civil War loyalists. She herself had been a Party member off and on. It was a heady experience for the privileged and precious Oppenheimer. The affair did not last, however. (Four years later, the gifted but troubled Tatlock committed suicide.) In 1940, Oppenheimer married Katherine Puening, whose first husband, Joe Dallet, had died fighting in
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