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VOICE ONE:
I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA SpecialEnglish. Today we report about two scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimerand Enrico Fermi, who helped lead the world into the nuclear age.
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VOICE ONE:
It is July Sixteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Five. All is quiet in anAmerican desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suddenly there is aterrible explosion. A huge cloud rises from the Earth. The sky turnspurple and yellow.
The first atomic bomb has been exploded. It is a test of the mostdeadly weapon ever known. American officials are considering usingthis weapon to try to end World War Two.
J. Robert Oppenheimer is the headof the Los Alamos laboratory. It is the creative center of thesecret Manhattan Project, which made the explosion possible. As thecloud rises, Mister Oppenheimer remembers words from the Hindu holybook, the Baghavad Gita. He says: “For I am become death, thedestroyer of worlds.”
VOICE TWO:
Less than one month after the test at Alamogordo, the UnitedStates dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. President HarryTruman announced to the world about the first bomb:
ACT ONE: TRUMAN READING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMBAT HIROSHIMA. (15 secs)
The Japanese soon surrendered. World War Two ended.
VOICE ONE:
Enrico Fermi had been the first to use a neutron to produce theradioactive change of one element to another. He was a refugee fromFascist Italy. He and other refugee scientists were worried thatGermany was working to develop an atomic bomb. They urged the UnitedStates government to pay for a secret scientific effort, called theManhattan Project, to create the bomb. Mister Fermi helped MisterOppenheimer prepare the Alamogordo bomb test.
Yet later both Mister Oppenheimer and Mister Fermi spoke againstfurther development of nuclear weapons. Both men opposed thehydrogen bomb.
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VOICE TWO:
J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on AprilTwenty-Second, Nineteen-Oh-Four. Even as a boy, he showed he hadunusual intelligence. As a young man he attended Harvard University,in the eastern United States, and Cambridge University in England.Heearned his doctorate in physics at Gottingen University, Germany, inNineteen-Twenty-Seven. There he worked with the famous scientist,Max Born. By Nineteen-Thirty, Mister Oppenheimer was teaching at twotop universities on the American West Coast. His fame as a teacherspread. Soon he was teaching the best students of physics in theUnited States.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Forty-Two, Mister Oppenheimer joined the Americangovernment’s project to develop the atomic bomb. He was appointedhead of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Many of his former studentsworked for him on the project.
One year after the bombs were dropped on Japan, he received thePresidential Medal of Merit for his work . In Nineteen-Forty-Seven,he began to direct the Institute of Advanced Studies at PrincetonUniversity on the East Coast.
VOICE TWO:
At the same time, Mister Oppenheimer became chairman of theadvisory committee to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Heused the position to try to make the public recognize the dangers ofnuclear power as well as its possibilities for good.
He regretted that work was being done to develop the hydrogenbomb. He felt it was bad for both scientific and humanitarianreasons. However, extreme tension existed between the United Statesand the Soviet Union at the time. So in Nineteen-Forty-NinePresident Truman decided that work on nuclear weapons shouldcontinue.
VOICE ONE:
J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and work were affected deeply byAmericans intense fear of Communism in the Nineteen-Fifties.
Mister Oppenheimer made an easy target for suspicious critics.His wife had once been a Communist. Some of his friends were formerCommunists. Years earlier he had suggested sharing nuclear secretswith the Soviets. He opposed developing the hydrogen bomb.
In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Atomic Energy Commission and aspecial security committee moved against Mister Oppenheimer. Theydid not question his loyalty to the United States. However, theysaid his personal life made him a threat to national security.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Oppenheimer had directed one of America’s most importantsecret scientific projects. Now this famous physicist was barredfrom secret work for the government.
He published several books during this difficult period of hislife. One of the best known was “The Open Mind.” The books containedhis thoughts about science. He continued teaching at PrincetonUniversity. Again he taught many of the most important scientists ofour century.
VOICE ONE:
In time Mister Oppenheimer’s work in science and teaching madepeople forget the accusations against him. The government decided togive him the highest award of the Atomic Energy Commission for hiswork on atomic energy. President Lyndon Johnson presented the honorin late Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called the Enrico Fermi Award.
J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on FebruaryEighteenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. He was sixty-two years old.
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VOICE TWO:
Enrico Fermi had worked withRobert Oppenheimer and other top scientists to develop the atombomb. He won an award for his work in atomic energy from the AtomicEnergy Commission in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was the first time theaward was presented. Later, the honor was named for him. Itrecognized Mister Fermi as one of the greatest physicists of theTwentieth Century.
VOICE ONE:
Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September Twenty-Ninth,Nineteen-Oh-One. After his education in Italy, he studied with MaxBorn in Germany, just as Robert Oppenheimer had.
Enrico Fermi returned to Italy in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. He becamethat nation’s first professor of theory of physics. At the timethere was almost no physics education offered in Italy
He married Laura Capon, who also was a scientist, inNineteen-Twenty-Eight. Laura was Jewish. Later the Fermis decided toleave Italy, because the Fascist government had begun oppressingJews.
VOICE TWO:
Enrico Fermi went to Stockholm, Sweden, to accept a Nobel Prizein Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. He won for producing new radioactiveelements beyond uranium. Without knowing it, he had split the atom.However, that fact was not recognized until later.
He and his family sailed directly from Stockholm to the UnitedStates. If he stayed in Europe, he might have been forced to workfor Nazi Germany.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Fermi taught at Columbia University in New York City. Healso was part of the American research team for the top secretManhattan Project
Mister Fermi led the team that created the world’s firstcontrolled, continued nuclear-fission reaction. It happened onDecember Second, Nineteen-Forty-Two, at the University of Chicago.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Fermi directed the building of the first atomic reactorthat made the reaction possible. He had invented the method withanother scientist, Leo Szilard. The reactor was put together in asquash court under the seats of the university sports center. Itcontained natural uranium placed in graphite and controlled bypieces of cadmium and boron rods.
By, Nineteen-Forty-Four, Enrico Fermi had become a citizen of theUnited States. He was asked to help Robert Oppenheimer with theatomic bomb test at Alamogordo.
Mister Fermi returned to the University of Chicago after the war.There he headed the Institute for Nuclear Studies, now known as theEnrico Fermi Institute.
VOICE ONE:
Like Mister Oppenheimer, Mister Fermi recognized the dangers ofatomic energy. They both worried about the possible use of ahydrogen bomb. With another scientist Mister Fermi wrote aNineteen-Forty-Seven report to the Atomic Energy Commission. Thereport opposed creation of the bomb for humane reasons.
Enrico Fermi died of cancer in Chicago in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. Hewas fifty-three years old.
VOICE TWO:
J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were two of the greatestscientists of the century. They were both concerned about theresults of their discoveries that led the world into the NuclearAge.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Itwas produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People inAmerica in VOA Special English.