Julius Robert Oppenheimer, one of the most important scientists of the 20th century, was born on April 22, 1904. Besides being a brilliant theoretical physicist, he is known to most in the world as the Father of the Atomic Bomb. He led Manhattan Project during World War II and developed the first nuclear weapon. After the war, he quickly became the praised war hero and was pedestaled on the cover of Time magazine. However, his life took a drastic turn in the midst of post war political drama. Oppenheimer, once a ingenious young scientist from New York and a well known household name, was made a martyr. Oppenheimer's biography, American Prometheus, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin won 2006 Pulitzer prize. University of California Berkeley dedicated an online exhibit to celebrate the centennial of Oppenheimer. The website features a great short biography that chronicles the physicist's life from his aloof childhood, charismatic adolescence to disgraced outcast.
PBS produced an incredible film, The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which documents Oppenheimer's life story and centers around his trial hearing period. Highly recommended for anyone who are interested in science or this piece of history.
Oppenheimer, a profound and some might say somewhat naive physicist who embraced the principle of science and simply wanted to fit in with the world, found himself played out in a tragic farce. So is the world since the day Trinity was exploded in Los Alamos desert sand. It marked one of the most important events in human civilization that we could destroy the entire earth with this powerful man-made weapon. The world has deviated into an irreversible destructive path since. It will never be the same.
[Image source] The Trinity Test: Detonation of the First “Gadget”, Encyclopædia Britannica Blog, http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/07/the-trinity-test-detonation-of-the-first-%E2%80%9Cgadget%E2%80%9D/
