Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by ggreer on Sunday October 04, 2015 @06:26PM
(#10329065)
A few interesting things I noticed in the video:
• Oppenheimer mentions a young physicist named Dyson. This is Freeman Dyson[1], who is still active today[2]. Human lives are long.
• Cloud chambers had been around for decades at this point, and lots of particles make a "V" in a them.[3]
• I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to particle physics, so I don't know the meaning of the symbols on the chalkboard. Whatever it is, I bet it's wrong. The quark model wasn't ironed out for another decade.
• Oppenheimer was quite right in worrying more about nuclear war than contamination from nuclear testing. Atmospheric testing would result in increased cancer rates and birth defects. Not good, but an endurable harm. On the other hand, global nuclear war could have ended humanity or drastically limited our potential.
It would be very interesting to see the whole interview. Several times, Oppenheimer struggled to explain his ideas in layman's terms. It's likely that quite a few technical bits were edited out.
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by nullterminated on Monday October 05, 2015 @02:51AM
(#10330273)
"I don't know the meaning of the symbols on the chalkboard. Whatever it is, I bet it's wrong."
Those symbols demonstrate empirical knowledge of the relationship between baryons, their masses, and their quantum numbers. It's not wrong in any sense, other than the underlying order wasn't yet understood.
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by RockyMcNuts on Sunday October 04, 2015 @11:11PM
(#10329784)
Worth mentioning that this was after Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance so he didn't have access to work that he himself had done on the Manhattan Project ... his brother was blacklisted, lost his academic job, did ranching, and founded the Exploratorium... Oppenheimer exudes a great deal of serenity and optimism considering the times and trials he went through.
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by acqq on Sunday October 04, 2015 @05:57PM
(#10328992)
Smoking: he died from throat cancer, aged 62, and according to Wikipedia: "cigarette smokers have a lifetime increased risk for head and neck cancers that is 5- to 25-fold increased over the general population."
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by rz2k on Sunday October 04, 2015 @07:03PM
(#10329165)
And, Edward R. Murrow died of lung cancer a couple days short of his 57th birthday in 1965 — this was only a few months before Oppenheimer's throat cancer diagnosis.
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by Eupolemos on Monday October 05, 2015 @02:51AM
(#10330274)
I browsed through the comments on YouTube for this video, thinking that surely this video would be too niche for the harrowing YouTube-stupidity to infect.
Oh boy, was I wrong. Don't do it!; you'll wish they'd have invented something even more potent a decade before the interview...
Re:Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [vi...
by shripadk on Sunday October 04, 2015 @09:01PM
(#10329473)
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.""
• Oppenheimer mentions a young physicist named Dyson. This is Freeman Dyson[1], who is still active today[2]. Human lives are long.
• Cloud chambers had been around for decades at this point, and lots of particles make a "V" in a them.[3]
• I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to particle physics, so I don't know the meaning of the symbols on the chalkboard. Whatever it is, I bet it's wrong. The quark model wasn't ironed out for another decade.
• Oppenheimer was quite right in worrying more about nuclear war than contamination from nuclear testing. Atmospheric testing would result in increased cancer rates and birth defects. Not good, but an endurable harm. On the other hand, global nuclear war could have ended humanity or drastically limited our potential.
It would be very interesting to see the whole interview. Several times, Oppenheimer struggled to explain his ideas in layman's terms. It's likely that quite a few technical bits were edited out.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
2. http://www.wired.com/2014/03/quanta-freeman-dyson-qa/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_particle
Those symbols demonstrate empirical knowledge of the relationship between baryons, their masses, and their quantum numbers. It's not wrong in any sense, other than the underlying order wasn't yet understood.
cf The Baryon Octet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_Way_(physics)
Aka the Dyson Sphere and the 'Orion' spacecraft project among many other things.
BTW, here's an excellent book, for those interested in the history of this science. http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Papers-Quantum-Electrodynamic...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Security...
and
"The trouble with secrecy is that it denies to the government itself the wisdom and the resources of the whole community; of the whole country."
Smart guy. I sure do wish that had worked out for us.
Also: Boy they are smoking a lot!
Oh boy, was I wrong. Don't do it!; you'll wish they'd have invented something even more potent a decade before the interview...
A wonderful interview though.
https://youtu.be/lVCL3Rnr8xE?t=18m39s