As OppenheimerFilm premieres in movie theaters nationwide, we explore Chicago's deep connections to the movie — emphasizing the history of the Manhattan Project at UChicago.
“Oppenheimer,” the much-anticipated blockbuster from Batman director Christopher Nolan, hits movie theaters this week.
John Mark Hansen: Well, it was largely happenstance.
You’ve written about Hyde Park’s “atomic village.” Did the scientists talk about it in those terms at the time or is that something applied in retrospect? Is that how they thought of themselves? Hansen: Well, part of it was just that they needed to get this going fast and they didn’t have anything built yet. So that’s one answer. Another answer is that they had originally, or Compton himself had originally wanted, to build the nuclear reactor that achieved the first sustainable chain reaction in 1942 — he had originally wanted to put that out at in part of the Argo Woods Forest Preserve out in Palos Hills. But the contractor didn’t get it done on time.
It seems a very short period of development to go from that first chain reaction to within, I think it was 2.5 years, the Trinity test. How was that possible? Was it the fact that the government was just throwing so much in terms of personnel and money at this project? Hansen: Well, as one might imagine, I think that there were differences in the degree to which the scientists who were involved in it felt conflicted. There were many scientists who were involved in the project who wish that we’d gotten there earlier so that the bomb might have played a role in ending the war in Europe sooner. A large number of the scientists in fact emigrated from Europe, many of them Germans who had been forced out of Germany by the Nazi regime.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
What the Film Oppenheimer Probably Will Not Talk About: The Lost Women of the Manhattan Project🎧 Unfazed by radioactivity, hiding her pregnancy. Meet Leona Woods, the only woman present for the first successful nuclear chain reaction. 🔗 Listen to this episode of the Lost Women of the Manhattan Project from LostWomenofSci and prx at
Read more »
Hollywood Flashback: In 1986, ‘The Manhattan Project’ Built a Thriller Around an Atomic BombLike Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ Marshall Brickman’s film chronicled the making of a nuclear weapon — but this one was built from green goo by a teenager.
Read more »
M. Sage conjures serene, naturalistic sounds in his old Chicago home - Chicago ReaderThe reflective solo material he’d put out on Atlanta label Geographic North and the gigabytes of other peoples’ recordings he issued via his own label Patient Sounds made him a vital part of Chicago’s music firmament. | ✍️ imleor
Read more »
DisFest comes to the Chicago Cultural Center - Chicago ReaderThe free DisFest, a celebration of disabled creativity inhabits ChiCulturCenter on Sat 7/22. Expect interactive theater games, film screenings, tech workshops, & pop-up performances from hip-hop & jazz performers, improv comedians, & acrobats. ✍️ kdc
Read more »
Who Was Oppenheimer, Really?The 'Oppenheimer' movie is upon us. Here's what history tells us about the man and the Manhattan Project.
Read more »