Oppenheimer and Fermi

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special
English. Today we report about two scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer
and Enrico Fermi, who helped lead the world into the nuclear age.

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VOICE ONE:

It is July Sixteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Five. All is quiet in an
American desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suddenly there is a
terrible explosion. A huge cloud rises from the Earth. The sky turns
purple and yellow.

The first atomic bomb has been exploded. It is a test of the most
deadly weapon ever known. American officials are considering using
this weapon to try to end World War Two.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is the head
of the Los Alamos laboratory. It is the creative center of the
secret Manhattan Project, which made the explosion possible. As the
cloud rises, Mister Oppenheimer remembers words from the Hindu holy
book, the Baghavad Gita. He says: "For I am become death, the
destroyer of worlds."

VOICE TWO:

Less than one month after the test at Alamogordo, the United
States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. President Harry
Truman announced to the world about the first bomb:

ACT ONE: TRUMAN READING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMB
AT HIROSHIMA. (15 secs)

The Japanese soon surrendered. World War Two ended.

VOICE ONE:

Enrico Fermi had been the first to use a neutron to produce the
radioactive change of one element to another. He was a refugee from
Fascist Italy. He and other refugee scientists were worried that
Germany was working to develop an atomic bomb. They urged the United
States government to pay for a secret scientific effort, called the
Manhattan Project, to create the bomb. Mister Fermi helped Mister
Oppenheimer prepare the Alamogordo bomb test.

Yet later both Mister Oppenheimer and Mister Fermi spoke against
further development of nuclear weapons. Both men opposed the
hydrogen bomb.

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VOICE TWO:

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April
Twenty-Second, Nineteen-Oh-Four. Even as a boy, he showed he had
unusual intelligence. As a young man he attended Harvard University,
in the eastern United States, and Cambridge University in England.He
earned his doctorate in physics at Gottingen University, Germany, in
Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. There he worked with the famous scientist,
Max Born. By Nineteen-Thirty, Mister Oppenheimer was teaching at two
top universities on the American West Coast. His fame as a teacher
spread. Soon he was teaching the best students of physics in the
United States.

VOICE ONE:

In Nineteen-Forty-Two, Mister Oppenheimer joined the American
government's project to develop the atomic bomb. He was appointed
head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Many of his former students
worked for him on the project.

One year after the bombs were dropped on Japan, he received the
Presidential Medal of Merit for his work . In Nineteen-Forty-Seven,
he began to direct the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton
University on the East Coast.

VOICE TWO:

At the same time, Mister Oppenheimer became chairman of the
advisory committee to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He
used the position to try to make the public recognize the dangers of
nuclear power as well as its possibilities for good.

He regretted that work was being done to develop the hydrogen
bomb. He felt it was bad for both scientific and humanitarian
reasons. However, extreme tension existed between the United States
and the Soviet Union at the time. So in Nineteen-Forty-Nine
President Truman decided that work on nuclear weapons should
continue.

VOICE ONE:

J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and work were affected deeply by
Americans intense fear of Communism in the Nineteen-Fifties.

Mister Oppenheimer made an easy target for suspicious critics.
His wife had once been a Communist. Some of his friends were former
Communists. Years earlier he had suggested sharing nuclear secrets
with the Soviets. He opposed developing the hydrogen bomb.

In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Atomic Energy Commission and a
special security committee moved against Mister Oppenheimer. They
did not question his loyalty to the United States. However, they
said his personal life made him a threat to national security.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Oppenheimer had directed one of America's most important
secret scientific projects. Now this famous physicist was barred
from secret work for the government.

He published several books during this difficult period of his
life. One of the best known was "The Open Mind." The books contained
his thoughts about science. He continued teaching at Princeton
University. Again he taught many of the most important scientists of
our century.

VOICE ONE:

In time Mister Oppenheimer's work in science and teaching made
people forget the accusations against him. The government decided to
give him the highest award of the Atomic Energy Commission for his
work on atomic energy. President Lyndon Johnson presented the honor
in late Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called the Enrico Fermi Award.

J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on February
Eighteenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. He was sixty-two years old.

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VOICE TWO:

Enrico Fermi had worked with
Robert Oppenheimer and other top scientists to develop the atom
bomb. He won an award for his work in atomic energy from the Atomic
Energy Commission in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was the first time the
award was presented. Later, the honor was named for him. It
recognized Mister Fermi as one of the greatest physicists of the
Twentieth Century.

VOICE ONE:

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September Twenty-Ninth,
Nineteen-Oh-One. After his education in Italy, he studied with Max
Born in Germany, just as Robert Oppenheimer had.

Enrico Fermi returned to Italy in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. He became
that nation's first professor of theory of physics. At the time
there was almost no physics education offered in Italy

He married Laura Capon, who also was a scientist, in
Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Laura was Jewish. Later the Fermis decided to
leave Italy, because the Fascist government had begun oppressing
Jews.

VOICE TWO:

Enrico Fermi went to Stockholm, Sweden, to accept a Nobel Prize
in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. He won for producing new radioactive
elements beyond uranium. Without knowing it, he had split the atom.
However, that fact was not recognized until later.

He and his family sailed directly from Stockholm to the United
States. If he stayed in Europe, he might have been forced to work
for Nazi Germany.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Fermi taught at Columbia University in New York City. He
also was part of the American research team for the top secret
Manhattan Project

Mister Fermi led the team that created the world's first
controlled, continued nuclear-fission reaction. It happened on
December Second, Nineteen-Forty-Two, at the University of Chicago.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Fermi directed the building of the first atomic reactor
that made the reaction possible. He had invented the method with
another scientist, Leo Szilard. The reactor was put together in a
squash court under the seats of the university sports center. It
contained natural uranium placed in graphite and controlled by
pieces of cadmium and boron rods.

By, Nineteen-Forty-Four, Enrico Fermi had become a citizen of the
United States. He was asked to help Robert Oppenheimer with the
atomic bomb test at Alamogordo.

Mister Fermi returned to the University of Chicago after the war.
There he headed the Institute for Nuclear Studies, now known as the
Enrico Fermi Institute.

VOICE ONE:

Like Mister Oppenheimer, Mister Fermi recognized the dangers of
atomic energy. They both worried about the possible use of a
hydrogen bomb. With another scientist Mister Fermi wrote a
Nineteen-Forty-Seven report to the Atomic Energy Commission. The
report opposed creation of the bomb for humane reasons.

Enrico Fermi died of cancer in Chicago in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. He
was fifty-three years old.

VOICE TWO:

J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were two of the greatest
scientists of the century. They were both concerned about the
results of their discoveries that led the world into the Nuclear
Age.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It
was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in
America in VOA Special English.