I remember discussions with Bohr which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair; and when at the end of the discussion I went alone for a walk in the neighbouring park I repeated to myself again and again the question: Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments? Werner Heisenberg
In August 1945 the city of Hiroshima was destroyed in about nine seconds by a single atomic bomb. The man responsible for building the bomb was a gentle and eloquent physicist named J Robert Oppenheimer. The Day After Trinity, 1980
‘You may well ask why people with kind hearts and humanist feelings – why they would go and work on weapons of mass destruction.’ ibid. Hans Bethe
At the age of twenty-five he accepted an unusual dual professorship. ibid.
His left-wing activities did attract official attention. ibid.
Oppenheimer’s first job was to convince scientists and their families to join him for the duration of the war in a place he was not allowed to identify. ibid.
Oppenheimer had gathered the elite in physics, mathematics and chemistry to build the atomic bomb. ibid.
By 1944 he was in charge of a walled city of six thousand. ibid.
The professor and the general made an unlikely team. When Groves took charge of the Manhattan Project in 1942 there was barely enough plutonium in the world to cover the head of a pin. And very little uranium 235. ibid.
11th July 1945: an unmarked Pontiac sedan arrives at the MacDonald Ranch carrying the world’s entire supply of plutonium – about ten pounds. The courier demands a receipt. Approximate value – one billion dollars. ibid.
Young technicians were horrified to overhear Enrico Fermi taking side-bets on the possibility of incinerating the state of New Mexico. ibid.
More than a million civilians dead – the Japanese fought on. ibid.
Hiroshima August 6th 1945 ... more than 100,000 killed, 40,000 injured, 20,000 missing. Burns, blindness, radiation sickness. It took only nine seconds. ibid.
He [Oppenheimer] argued adamantly and publicly for the international control of atomic weapons. ibid. commentary
The arms race began in earnest. ibid.
Teller had urged ... the hydrogen bomb. ibid.
A disbelieving America saw the Russians explode a hydrogen bomb in the same year. ibid.
As many as five agents shadowed him [Oppenheimer] in a single day. ibid.
The Atomic Energy Commission found Oppenheimer a security risk. ibid.
There have been more than 1,200 atomic explosions on the face of the Earth. ibid.
The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. Mao Zedong
Like every British leader since the Second World War Harold Macmillan was convinced that independent nuclear capacity was the only way to preserve Britain’s world power status ... In exchange for a new generation of missiles for Britain he agreed to offer a Scottish sea-base for American Polaris submarines ... The new Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was fuelling the anti-establishment across Britain. Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain, BBC 2007
In July 1956 a United States B-52 crashed into an atomic bomb store at Lakenheath base in Suffolk. John Pilger, The Truth Game, ITV 1983
1942 8:00 a.m. Stagg Field, University of Chicago: The man in charge of the project is an Italian physicist called Enrico Fermi ... He will attempt to become the first man ever to harness atomic energy. Days that Shook the World s1e9: First Nuclear Reaction/Chernobyl, BBC 2003
Einstein urged Roosevelt to fund American research into nuclear chain reactions. ibid.
If today’s experiment is successful, it’ll be a giant step forward in the Allies’ effort to defeat Hitler’s war machine. ibid.
Enrico Fermi will be the first man to attempt to release and control atomic energy. ibid.
The students are known as the Suicide Squad. ibid.
No-one photographed the scene. ibid.
Fermi refuses to support the subsequent development of the Hydrogen bomb. ibid.
Scientists disagree as to when radiation will reach Australia. The atomic war has ended. On the Beach 1959 starring Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner & Fred Astaire & Anthony Perkins & Donna Anderson & John Tate & Harp McGuire & Lola Brooks & Ken Wayne & Grant Taylor & Guy Doleman & Joe McCormick et al, director Stanley Kramer, radio announcer
But why? Why did he come to Copenhagen? Copenhagen 2002 starring Stephen Rea & Daniel Craig & Francesca Annis et al, director Howard Davies, opening scene Mrs Bohr to Bohr getting off bus
There are only two things the world remembers about me. One is the uncertainty principle, the other is my mysterious visit to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941. ibid. Heisenberg’s commentary
The more I look back on it the more I think Heisenberg was the greatest of them all. ibid. Bohr
So what was Bohr? He was the first of us all. The father of it all. Modern atomic physics began when Bohr realised that quantum theory applied to matter as well as energy, 1913. ibid. Heisenberg’s commentary
He taught Relativity and they said it was Jewish physics. ibid. Bohr to wife
No-one is going to develop a weapon based on nuclear fission. ibid.
The ashes have become very cold indeed. ibid. Mrs Bohr
Mathematics becomes very odd when you apply it to people. ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr
Does one as a physicist have the moral right to work on the practical exploitation of atomic energy? ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr
Do you actually think uranium fission can be used for the construction of weapons? ibid. Bohr to Heisenberg
Niels Bohr says that in his considered judgment supplying a homicidal maniac with an improved instrument of mass murder is shall we say an interesting idea ... A really rather uninteresting idea. ibid. Bohr to Heisenberg
There was a report in a Stockholm newspaper that the Americans are working on an atomic bomb. ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr
You built the bomb. And used it on a living target. ibid.
The bomb would have been built whether he’d gone or not. ibid. Mrs Bohr to Heisenberg
That’s the point. Under my control. ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr, with Mrs Bohr
Sense is mathematics. ibid. Heisenberg
I shatter the objective universe around you, and all you can say is, There’s an error in the formulation! ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr
We turned the world inside out ... We put man back at the centre of the universe. ibid. Bohr to Heisenberg
I can only say that it worked. ibid. Heisenberg to Bohr & Mrs Bohr
The critical mass – that was the most important thing. ibid. Bohr to Heisenberg, with Mrs Bohr
And suddenly a very different and very terrible work begins to take shape. ibid. Bohr
What will be left of our beloved world? Our ruined and dishonoured and beloved world. ibid. Mrs Bohr
Hi There Dear John. Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963 starring Peter Sellers & George C Scott & Sterling Haydenn & Keenan Wynn & Slim Pickens & Peter Bull & James Earl Jones & Tracy Reed & Shane Rimmer et al, director Stanley Kubric, names imprinted on nuclear bombs
4I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. ibid. Jack Ripper
Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said? He said, ‘War is too important to be left to the generals.’ When he said that, fifty years ago, he may have been right. But now war is too important to be left to the politicians. They have neither the time nor inclination for strategic thought. ibid.
Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the war room. ibid. president
Good, then. Well then, as you say, we’re both coming through fine. Good. Well, it’s good that you’re fine, and – and I’m fine. I agree with you. It’s great to be fine. [laughs] Now then, Dmitri, you know how we’ve always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb. The BOMB, Dmitri. The hydrogen bomb. Well now, what happened is, uh, one of our base commanders, he had a sort of – Well, he went a little funny in the head. You know. Just a little funny. And uh, he went and did a silly thing. ibid. president
It’s a friendly call. Of course it’s a friendly call. Listen, if it wasn’t friendly, you probably wouldn’t have even got it. They will not reach their targets for at least another hour. I am, I am positive, Dmitri. Listen, I’ve been all over this with your Ambassador. It is not a trick. Well, I’ll tell you. We’d like to give your Air Staff a complete rundown on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes. ibid.
Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American people, than with your image in the history books. ibid. Turgidson
Muffley: How long would you have to stay down there?
Dr Strangelove: Well let’s see now ah ... cobalt thorium G ... Radioactive half-life of uh ... I would think that uh ... possibly uh ... one hundred years. ibid.
Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?