The Making of Oppenheimer: The Extraordinary, the Ordinary and the Genius

The Making of Oppenheimer.

Are geniuses made or born? Is hard work the single most important ingredient that transforms the “ordinary” into the “extra-ordinary”?

Ever since I was a child, I was intrigued by the life of great men and women.

People often told me “He achieved this despite that”. But few told me “How?”.

My love for biographies. Boredom in in the dorm. Hobby for writing. Together these three pushed me towards exploring my curiosities once again.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer, popularly known for the atom bomb and referred to as the “Destroyer of the Worlds” is amongst the top geniuses who continues to fascinate me.

Here are some amazing facets of Oppenheimer’s life, often overlooked, which played a pivotal role in his making:

1. Learning Habit, Family Influences, and Privileges

Oppenheimer was a child prodigy with a voracious appetite for reading. He was a curious learner whose horizons spanned from Greek classics to minerology and chemistry. His curiosity, desire to understand the word better, and his reading habit propelled him to excel academically.

His admission to the prestigious Minerology Club of New York City at the age of 11, and graduation from the Alcuin Preparatory School a year and half earlier than the standard time speak of his educational brilliance.

He was a hard-working student, an avid learner who enjoyed the privilege of being born in a rich family. This enabled him to received high quality education initially through the Alcuin Preparatory School and later via the Ethical Culture Society School, two of New York’s best educational establishments of the time.

Later during his time at Cambridge, the same privileged background enabled him get through the not-so-famous “poison incident”.

He inherited aesthetic views on the structure of existence and universe from his mother, a painter, while he developed an interest in minerology through his German grandfather.

His enrollment at Harvard at the age of 18 and his completion of PhD by 23 are some of the testimonials of his remarkable academic abilities, and his attitude of excellence.

2. Unhappiness and Depression

One of the unknown facets about Oppenheimer’s life is his battle with depression and anxiety.

In the fall of 1925, Oppenheimer entered Cambridge to pursue higher learning in physics. However, Oppenheimer’s interests did not perfectly align with the university’s academic culture.

Cambridge was more about experimental physics and Oppenheimer had to do heaps of lab work, which he did not enjoy. So, despite being surrounded by great minds like Ernest Rutherford and James Chadwick, Rutherford remained deeply unhappy.

He found the lab work a “terrible bore” and his room in the college a “miserable hole”.

Biographers state that during his time at Cambridge his mental health took such a deep dive that he even “poisoned” an apple with chemicals from his lab and left it on the desk of his then tutor Patrick Blackett.

During his time at Cambridge, Oppenheimer suffered from a cocktail of intoxication issues from homesickness and schizophrenia to a troubled relationship with his head tutor, Patrick Blackett (the same person who he tried to poison).

It is said that Oppenheimer would have been expelled from Cambridge for the “poisoned apple” incident had his father not lobbied the university not to press civilian charges against him.

Nevertheless, Oppenheimer was put on probation and agreed to have regular sessions of counselling with a physiatrist.

3. Mentorship and Self-Discovery

In the summer of 1926, Oppenheimer travelled from Cambridge to the University of Gottingen. The Head of the Physics Department there was none other than Max Born, who had just coined the term “quantum mechanics”.

While Cambridge was more about experimental physics, Gottingen was largely about theoretical physics.

It was at Gottingen where Oppenheimer discovered that his real interest lied in the theoretical physics.

Oppenheimer discovered his real interest at Gottingen and thrived under the mentorship of Max Born. His mental health improved, he got along well, and soon his talent got recognized.

Finally he had become: “The right man at the right place at the right time.”

4. Contextual Quote, Infamous Incident

In a 1965 NBC News documentary called “The Decision to Drop the Bomb”, Oppenheimer said the following lines onscreen:

“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 multiarmed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’

Perhaps this is amongst the most infamous quotes for mankind. It reminds of the heinous destruction the dropping of the atomic bomb brought to the cities of Hiromasa and Nagasaki.

However, in the context of Bhagwat Geeta, the holy Hindu scripture, it has more to do with the idea of duty and responsibility.

“Destroyer of the world” is a form the God Krishna takes in order to build credibility and convince the warrior prince Arjuna that it is his duty to fight in the battlefield regardless of whether the enemy was someone dear or respectable.

Oppenheimer, in this context, would most likely mean it was something indispensable, a part of his duty although undesirable. Similar to the warrior prince Arjuna, who had to shoot arrows on his teachers and family elders in the battlefield.

Oppenheimer was a genius, an ordinary and had the extra-ordinary in him. He was as complex as any other human being, who can inspire you to be an explorer, while reminding you that at times even the “Father of the Atom Bomb” required mental support.