Robert J Charles Popular Books

Robert J Charles Biography & Facts

J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer; OP-ən-hy-mər; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. He was director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II and is often called the "father of the atomic bomb". Born in New York City, Oppenheimer earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1925 and a doctorate in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927, where he studied under Max Born. After research at other institutions, he joined the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a full professor in 1936. He made significant contributions to theoretical physics, including achievements in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics such as the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer–Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and early work on quantum tunneling. With his students, he also made contributions to the theory of neutron stars and black holes, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays. In 1942, Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, and in 1943 he was appointed director of the project's Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, tasked with developing the first nuclear weapons. His leadership and scientific expertise were instrumental in the project's success. On July 16, 1945, he was present at the first test of the atomic bomb, Trinity. In August 1945, the weapons were used against Japan in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. In 1947, Oppenheimer became the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and chaired the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during a 1949–1950 governmental debate on the question and subsequently took positions on defense-related issues that provoked the ire of some U.S. government and military factions. During the second Red Scare, Oppenheimer's stances, together with his past associations with the Communist Party USA, led to the revocation of his security clearance, following a 1954 security hearing. This effectively ended his access to the government's atomic secrets and his career as a nuclear physicist. Also stripped of his direct political influence, Oppenheimer nevertheless continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. In 1963, as a gesture of political rehabilitation, he was given the Enrico Fermi Award. He died four years later, of throat cancer. In 2022, the federal government vacated the 1954 revocation of his security clearance. Early life Childhood and education Oppenheimer was born Julius Robert Oppenheimer into a non-observant Jewish family in New York City on April 22, 1904, to Ella (née Friedman), a painter, and Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer, a successful textile importer. Robert had a younger brother, Frank, who also became a physicist. Their father was born in Hanau, when it was still part of the Hesse-Nassau province of the Kingdom of Prussia, and as a teenager made his way to the United States in 1888, without money, higher education, or even English. He was hired by a textile company and within a decade was an executive there, eventually becoming wealthy. In 1912, the family moved to an apartment on Riverside Drive near West 88th Street, Manhattan, an area known for luxurious mansions and townhouses. Their art collection included works by Pablo Picasso, Édouard Vuillard, and Vincent van Gogh.Oppenheimer was initially educated at Alcuin Preparatory School. In 1911, he entered the Ethical Culture Society School, founded by Felix Adler to promote training based on the Ethical Culture movement, whose motto was "Deed before Creed". Oppenheimer's father had been a member of the Society for many years, serving on its board of trustees. Oppenheimer was a versatile student, interested in English and French literature, and particularly mineralogy. He completed third and fourth grades in one year and skipped half of eighth grade. During his final year, Oppenheimer became interested in chemistry. He graduated in 1921, but his further education was delayed a year by an attack of colitis contracted while prospecting in Joachimstal during a family vacation in Czechoslovakia. He recovered in New Mexico, where he developed a love for horseback riding and the southwestern United States.Oppenheimer entered Harvard College in 1922 at age 18. He majored in chemistry; Harvard also required studies in history, literature, and philosophy or mathematics. To compensate for the delay caused by his illness, he took six courses each term instead of the usual four. He was admitted to the undergraduate honor society Phi Beta Kappa and was granted graduate standing in physics on the basis of independent study, which meant he could bypass basic courses in favor of advanced ones. He was attracted to experimental physics by a course on thermodynamics taught by Percy Bridgman. Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard in 1925 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, after only three years of study. Studies in Europe After being accepted at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1924, Oppenheimer wrote to Ernest Rutherford requesting permission to work at the Cavendish Laboratory, though Bridgman's letter of recommendation said that Oppenheimer's clumsiness in the laboratory suggested that theoretical, rather than experimental, physics would be his forte. Rutherford was unimpressed, but Oppenheimer went to Cambridge nonetheless; J. J. Thomson ultimately accepted him on the condition that he complete a basic laboratory course.Oppenheimer was very unhappy at Cambridge and wrote to a friend: "I am having a pretty bad time. The lab work is a terrible bore, and I am so bad at it that it is impossible to feel that I am learning anything." He developed an antagonistic relationship with his tutor, Patrick Blackett, a future Nobel laureate. According to Oppenheimer's friend Francis Fergusson, Oppenheimer once confessed to leaving a poisoned apple on Blackett's desk, and Oppenheimer's parents convinced the university authorities not to expel him. There are no records of either a poisoning incident or probation, but Oppenheimer had regular sessions with a psychiatrist in Harley Street, London. Oppenheimer was a tall, thin chain smoker, who often neglected to eat during periods of intense concentration. Many friends said he could be self-destructive. Fergusson once tried to distract Oppenheimer from apparent depression by telling him about his girlfriend, Frances Keeley, and how he had proposed to her. Oppenheimer did not take the news well. He jumped on Fergusson and tried to strangle him. Oppe.... Discover the Robert J Charles popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Robert J Charles books.

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  • Dealing With Difficult People Survival Guide synopsis, comments

    Dealing With Difficult People Survival Guide

    Robert J. Charles

    Want to find a way to stop someone in your life from gaslighting you without having to struggle a day longer?Time to stand up for yourself, show the world your true worth and be mo...

  • 64 Geeks synopsis, comments

    64 Geeks

    Chas Newkey-Burden

    We wouldn't have Bluetooth or WiFi today without the ingenuity of an actress once described as "the most beautiful woman in the world."And we might have had mobile messaging as ear...

  • Great Maritime Achievers in Science and Technology synopsis, comments

    Great Maritime Achievers in Science and Technology

    George MacBeath

    Generations of practical and ingenious Maritimers have given the word great things. Since the midnineteenth century, scientists have fanned out into the world from colleges and uni...

  • One Tongue Singing synopsis, comments

    One Tongue Singing

    Susan Mann

    Camille Pascal, a young, unmarried French nurse comes to South Africa with her father and her small daughter, Zara, during the closing years of the apartheid regime. The family set...

  • Then Sings My Soul Prayer Journal synopsis, comments

    Then Sings My Soul Prayer Journal

    Robert J. Morgan

    A year of journaling inspiration through the most beloved hymns, based the bestselling Then Sings My Soul series.Pastor Rob Morgan's inimitable style will help people rea...

  • All That I Have synopsis, comments

    All That I Have

    Laurent Joffrin

    On a moonlit night in 1943 an Indian princess was parachuted in to occupied France to join the Resistance as a radio operator codenamed Aurora. Daughter of a Sufi mystic, she had d...

  • Letters from Black America synopsis, comments

    Letters from Black America

    Pamela Newkirk

    Letters from Black America fills a literary and historical void by presenting the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possiblethrough the heartfelt cor...

  • A Waiting Game synopsis, comments

    A Waiting Game

    Juliet Hastings

    Kidnapping is a particularly cruel crime. Wealth and the friendship of the chief Constable are of no help to Robert and Joanna Hamilton when their young son and his nanny are held ...

  • The Good Book synopsis, comments

    The Good Book

    Andrew Blauner

    Thirtytwo prominent writers share the Bible passages most meaningful to them in this “Sunday School class you’ve been waiting for” (Garrison Keillor).The Good Book, with an introdu...

  • Speeches That Changed the World synopsis, comments

    Speeches That Changed the World

    Simon Sebag Montefiore

    Comprehensively updated with many new speeches including Earl Spencer's lament to "The extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana", Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech of 1956 signalling ...

  • The Quartermaster synopsis, comments

    The Quartermaster

    Robert O'Harrow

    “The lively story of the Civil War’s most unlikelyand most uncelebratedgenius” (The Wall Street Journal)General Montgomery C. Meigs, who built the Union Army and was judged by Abra...

  • Paris 1944 synopsis, comments

    Paris 1944

    Patrick Bishop

    A moving, dramatic social history of the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the most inspiring and momentous events of the twentieth century.The fall of Paris to the Nazis on June...

  • The Brown Reader synopsis, comments

    The Brown Reader

    Judy Sternlight

    “To be up all night in the darkness of your youth but to be ready for the day to come…that was what going to Brown felt like.” Jeffrey EugenidesIn celebration of Brown University’s...

  • Then Sings My Soul synopsis, comments

    Then Sings My Soul

    Robert J. Morgan

    Over one million copies sold! Have you ever wanted to learn more about hymns, but weren't sure where to start? Bestselling author Robert J. Morgan shares the incredible stories beh...

  • The Malfeasance Occasional synopsis, comments

    The Malfeasance Occasional

    Various Authors & Clare Toohey

    Tenderhearted, toughminded (and occasionally foulmouthed) girls take center stage in suspenseful tales that are also touching, haunting, and darkly funny. From modern cities and th...