J. Robert Oppenheimer

Description:

One of my most admired scientists ever. Who, besides being forever remembered as the leader of the Manhattan Project and thus Father of the Nuclear Bomb, was also a poet and philosopher and turned his back on his most famous scientific success when he understood its horrifying effects on life and human society. "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 Baghavad-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." I suppose we all thought that one way or another. " - Oppenheimer in an interview about the Trinity explosion, first broadcast as part of the television documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965), produced by Fred Freed, NBC White Paper.