Highlights from the Oppenheimer and the Bomb panel discussion

Tom Morton-Smith's new play Oppenheimer explores physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's scientific leadership of the Manhattan Project, which secretly developed the atomic bomb, changing both the face of science and global geopolitics forever.

In this panel discussion, which took place on 24 January 2015 at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon Avon, in partnership with the Institute of Physics, RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman explores the moral complexities surrounding Oppenheimer’s work, as well as the challenge of putting the drama on stage with playwright Tom Morton-Smith, director Angus Dean, physicist Frank Close, former literary editor of The Times, Erica Wagner and ITV science correspondent, Alok Jha.

Film by Sarah Edwards
Edited by Duncan McDonald

[Curixq]

In my masters I chose the wrong Thesis subject which made me hate physics.
Then after graduating, I read Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and read about all those great scientists working on the bomb and all the beautiful science they did. (The bomb itself may be nasty, but the science and technology is gorgeous) This convinced me to get back to physics and now I'm in a small project, which may potentially lead to a P.h.d. position later.

Just a small anecdote of how the atomic bomb can do positive things.