Nukes and the Scientists
“I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds.” - The line Oppenheimer remembered from the Bhagavad Gita Robert Jungk wrote this great book titled Brighter Than a Thousand Suns about the “atomic scientists” who contributed to the building of the atomic bomb: via theory, via exhortations to build it, and via direct participation in its construction. Later it talks of how they reacted after the nukes were actually used. Around the time Hitler came to power, the theories had identified the enormous energy waiting to be unleashed in the atom. The German scientist, Heisenberg, explained why people like him agreed to build the Nazi bomb: “(If anyone protests), he will naturally finish up a few days later in a concentration camp.” Non-Aryan scientists were persecuted and fled Germany. The exodus continued from other parts of Europe as the Nazis marched on. Most of these scientists were terrified at the prospect of Nazi Germany bui...