Manhattan Project: J Robert Oppenheimer
Human Intelligence17 Mars 2025

Manhattan Project: J Robert Oppenheimer

Naomi Alderman explores the multifaceted mind of J Robert Oppenheimer, scientific lead on the Manhattan Project, a vast, top secret scheme to build the world's first atomic bombs in World War II.

The Project was a remarkable feat of human intellect with a real, devastating human cost. It required close cooperation between the US military and a group of world-leading scientists. In many ways, Oppenheimer was a puzzling candidate for the job. He was brilliant, but fuelled by self-loathing. A physicist, he was also a student of philosophy and mysticism, interested in left-wing radical politics. Oppenheimer built the bomb, but later called the weapon's industry "the devil's work". His legacy, like the Manhattan Project itself, is infinitely complex.

Special thanks to Alex Wellerstein, historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and author of The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age (HarperCollins, 2025).

Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(37)

Exiles: Marie Curie

Exiles: Marie Curie

Naomi Alderman returns with her series that explores the minds of the greatest thinkers in history. From political theorists to scientists to inventors, authors and artists. Our world is based on thei...

5 Jan 13min

Exiles: Karl Marx

Exiles: Karl Marx

Naomi Alderman returns with her series that explores the minds of the greatest thinkers in history. From political theorists to scientists to inventors, authors and artists. Our world is based on thei...

5 Jan 14min

Live from Hay Literary Festival 2025

Live from Hay Literary Festival 2025

As a prelude to a new season of Human Intelligence on Radio 4 Naomi Alderman took the brand on the road. It was a road that lead to the upper Wye valley where Naomi and her guests Professor Rosalind C...

29 Dec 202534min

Travellers: Aristotle

Travellers: Aristotle

Aristotle was a philosopher, teacher, collector and all-round polymath. He was also, importantly, a traveller, who allowed new places, especially the rich biodiversity he encountered on the island of ...

24 Mars 202514min

Travellers: Ida Pfeiffer

Travellers: Ida Pfeiffer

Naomi Alderman looks at the mindset and legacy of Ida Pfeiffer, a woman who changed the very idea of travel, who is allowed to do it and why. Traditionally, travelling had always had a purpose – conqu...

24 Mars 202514min

Travellers: Sir Patrick Manson

Travellers: Sir Patrick Manson

Sir Patrick Manson shook the medical world when he first understood the infection route for vector-borne diseases like malaria. Naomi Alderman dissects the thinking of a scientific pioneer.In the late...

24 Mars 202514min

Travellers: Jean Rhys

Travellers: Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys' sequel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, changed the way we think about stories forever. Naomi Alderman meets a fellow novelist who put a marginalised character at the centre of the action. ...

24 Mars 202514min

Travellers: The Buddha

Travellers: The Buddha

Naomi Alderman explores the thinking of the Buddha, who, as a young prince, ventured outside the palace walls and began his journey towards enlightenment.Siddhartha Gautama lived in a life of rarefied...

24 Mars 202515min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
allt-du-velat-veta
p3-dystopia
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-vetenskapsradion
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
rss-ufobortom-rimligt-tvivel
bildningspodden
medicinvetarna
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
svd-nyhetsartiklar
det-morka-psyket
rss-spraket
sexet
vetenskapsradion
rss-ronden
pojkmottagningen
ufo-sverige
hacka-livet
rss-broccolipodden-en-podcast-som-inte-handlar-om-broccoli