
Edward R. Murrow Interviews Robert Oppenheimer (1955) [video] - mr_tyzic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVCL3Rnr8xE
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ggreer
A few interesting things I noticed in the video:

• Oppenheimer mentions a young physicist named Dyson. This is Freeman
Dyson[1], who is still active today[2]. Human lives are _long_.

• Cloud chambers had been around for decades at this point, and lots of
particles make a "V" in a them.[3]

• I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to particle physics, so I don't know
the meaning of the symbols on the chalkboard. Whatever it is, I bet it's
wrong. The quark model wasn't ironed out for another decade.

• Oppenheimer was quite right in worrying more about nuclear war than
contamination from nuclear testing. Atmospheric testing would result in
increased cancer rates and birth defects. Not good, but an endurable harm. On
the other hand, global nuclear war could have ended humanity or drastically
limited our potential.

It would be very interesting to see the whole interview. Several times,
Oppenheimer struggled to explain his ideas in layman's terms. It's likely that
quite a few technical bits were edited out.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson)

2\. [http://www.wired.com/2014/03/quanta-freeman-dyson-
qa/](http://www.wired.com/2014/03/quanta-freeman-dyson-qa/)

3\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_particle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_particle)

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matude
> • Oppenheimer mentions a young physicist named Dyson. This is Freeman
> Dyson[1], who is still active today[2]. Human lives are long.

Aka the Dyson Sphere and the 'Orion' spacecraft project among many other
things.

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nullterminated
Surely Dyson is (should be!) better known for his role in establishing the
theory of Quantum Electrodynamics.

BTW, here's an excellent book, for those interested in the history of this
science. [http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Papers-Quantum-
Electrodynamic...](http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Papers-Quantum-
Electrodynamics-Schwinger/dp/0486604446)

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RockyMcNuts
Worth mentioning that this was after Oppenheimer was stripped of his security
clearance so he didn't have access to work that he himself had done on the
Manhattan Project ... his brother was blacklisted, lost his academic job, did
ranching, and founded the Exploratorium... Oppenheimer exudes a great deal of
serenity and optimism considering the times and trials he went through.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Security...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Security_hearing)

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noonespecial
_" The things we know ought to be in the public domain so people are fearful
only in the measure in which fear is justified and rational."_

and

 _" The trouble with secrecy is that it denies to the government itself the
wisdom and the resources of the whole community; of the whole country."_

Smart guy. I sure do wish that had worked out for us.

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jramo
This is terrific. His comments about Piaget and topology -- how children
master topological ideas first, easily -- is particularly wonderful.

Also: Boy they are smoking a lot!

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acqq
Smoking: he died from throat cancer, aged 62, and according to Wikipedia:
"cigarette smokers have a lifetime increased risk for head and neck cancers
that is 5- to 25-fold increased over the general population."

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rz2k
And, Edward R. Murrow died of lung cancer a couple days short of his 57th
birthday in 1965 — this was only a few months before Oppenheimer's throat
cancer diagnosis.

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Eupolemos
I browsed through the comments on YouTube for this video, thinking that surely
this video would be too niche for the harrowing YouTube-stupidity to infect.

Oh boy, was I wrong. Don't do it!; you'll wish they'd have invented something
even more potent a decade before the interview...

A wonderful interview though.

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pcunite
"It isn't the layman that's ignorant, its everybody"

[https://youtu.be/lVCL3Rnr8xE?t=18m39s](https://youtu.be/lVCL3Rnr8xE?t=18m39s)

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k_b_j
The art historian mentioned by oppie is most likely Erwin Panofsky

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nullterminated
And his son Wolfgang was a distinguished physicist & director of SLAC.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_K._H._Panofsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_K._H._Panofsky)

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shripadk
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people
cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu
scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he
should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.""

