“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” – J Robert Oppenheimer.

There are many examples of people from history

who are immensely famous in their field but who are not necessarily that well

known otherwise. J Robert Oppenheimer is one of those figures. If you have an interest

in physics or the history of the Second World War, then you will likely have

heard of him, but otherwise, you may not. It is also true that the significance

of the contributions a person made during their lifetime may be diluted with

time and so although he may not be a household name today, there was a time

when J Robert Oppenheimer was one of the most famous scientific minds on the

planet and whose achievements shaped 20th-century physics and beyond.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York

City on 22 April 1904. His parents were Jewish and had emigrated to the United

States from Germany in the late 1880s. Oppenheimer had an enduring love of learning

throughout his childhood. He had a voracious appetite for knowledge and advanced

so quickly through his classes that he finished his third and fourth grades in

the same year. He also skipped most of the 8th grade.

He was accepted by Harvard at the age of 18

and although his favourite study subject was chemistry, Harvard at the time

required its students to have a broader repertoire of knowledge which included

philosophy, mathematics, literature, and history. J Robert Oppenheimer was

nothing if not brilliant and by taking six courses a term he managed to catch

up very quickly in the fields where he was considered weaker.  By his first year, he was accepted to

graduate standing in physics due to the extra personal study he had been doing.

This meant that he would not be required to take the entry-level classes in

physics and was able to take the advanced level ones instead, effectively

allowing him to skip ahead.

It was not long before he discovered his true passion, which was theoretical physics, gaining significant note and accolades along the way. He even assisted a Nobel prize-winning physicist during the 1930s. By 1936 he was a full professor at Berkeley although his theoretical research continued to keep him quite busy as well. During his time at Berkeley, the FBI under J Edgar Hoover started to take an interest in J Robert Oppenheimer as he was showing some communist tendencies. He had close friends and family who were either active in the communist party or who had previously been members, including his wife Kitty, his lover Jean Tatlock and his brother Frank.

His genius did not go overlooked though, and with

war escalating in Europe, the United States became concerned that it would

eventually be drawn fully into the conflict. Consequently, even before the

attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the event which drew

the USA into an all-out war, President Franklin D Roosevelt had approved an

idea to harness the power of the atom and to as quickly as possible, develop

the atomic bomb. By the middle of 1942, J Robert Oppenheimer had been selected

to help lead the team that would eventually do so. Due to the security

clearance required to lead such a team, the FBI’s interest also grew and

Oppenheimer’s home was bugged as he was put under close surveillance.

Oppenheimer and others began considering

possible site locations for nuclear testing and Oppenheimer felt that an area

known as Los Alamos Ranch School outside of Santa Fe in New Mexico might fit

the bill. Oppenheimer had fallen in love with the southwester...