![]() He once told a friend, “Ask me a question in Latin, and I shall answer you in Greek” I mean, what a twerp. Perhaps not surprisingly, Robert grew up pretentious and unpopular. Anything the boys wanted, he handed them on a platter. Once, when Frank mentioned he’d like to read some Geoffrey Chaucer poems, his father ran right out and bought a copy-a rare binding from 1721. ![]() Robert was born in 1904 into a New York penthouse with paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso on the wall.Īnd his father spoiled Robert and his brother Frank. His father ran a business importing textiles. How could someone spend his days wandering Corsica, eating and biking and discussing literature while a murder plot was unfolding? It was their first glimpse into the dark, twisted, Dostoyevsky-ian soul of Robert Oppenheimer. The revelation obviously horrified his friends. Then he’d left the apple on his tutor’s desk, to murder him. So before leaving on vacation, he’d injected poisonous chemicals into an apple. Oppenheimer began talking about his tutor back in Cambridge. His friends no doubt winked and nudged each other. But after some more wine, he announced himself ready to confess. Oppenheimer said he couldn’t bear to tell them. His friends were surprised-why was Robert leaving early? Then a waiter interrupted to tell Oppenheimer when the next ferry was returning to the mainland. But that night he seemed especially agitated. Now, he was always restless both mentally and physically-a fidgety fellow whose quick mind leapt from topic to topic. Over dinner a few nights later, Oppenheimer seemed agitated. Uncomfortably, the friends soon saw a bit of that torment. “He gets to the soul and torment of man.” “Dostoyevsky is superior,” Oppenheimer insisted. But another one-Robert Oppenheimer, future father of the atomic bomb-just shook his head. One declared that Tolstoy was the writer he most admired. And like many young people aching to assert themselves, they had a pretentious chat about literature. The friends ducked into an inn and huddled around a fire. For ten days, they biked around and hiked the craggy hills and stuffed themselves with seafood in decadent sauces and drank wine. In March 1926, four students from Cambridge University took a vacation in Corsica, an island off France. CreditsĪudio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Transcript ![]() These topsy-turvy science tales, some of which have never made it into history books, are surprisingly powerful and insightful. The Disappearing Spoon tells little-known stories from our scientific past-from the shocking way the smallpox vaccine was transported around the world to why we don’t have a birth control pill for men. The Science History Institute has teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean to bring a second history of science podcast to our listeners. Instead, Robert Oppenheimer fritted away his talents on trendy science and political gamesmanship-and it burned him deep in his soul.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |