Oppie

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

-Paul Dirac

That is a pretty famous quote. In fact, I think I've used it before. Ohh yes, in this post. But of course remarks are not made with the express intention of creating quotes. So today I provide some context. It comes from a letter Dirac wrote, and reads in full, "I understand that you are writing poetry as well as working at physics. I do not see how you can do both. In science . . ." And that letter was addressed to J.Robert Oppenheimer, the legendary director of Los Alamos during WWII, and a tragic figure by any count.

I read a biography of JRO (affectionately known as Oppie) by Abraham Pais recently. First a fact, the author passed away while in the process of completing the book, so this book reads more like a collection of essays than a coherent biography. And like any collection of essays, some are good and some I found boring. I had expected details of his Los Alamos days, but there is surprisingly little of that. The author felt there were other good books that covered those and decided to focus on other facets of JRO's life (I should probably get one of those books). Also there is not much about his personal life, but there is a lot of material on JRO's post Los Alamos political career. One important thing to note is that the author, himself a distinguished physicist, personally knew many of the players in the unfolding drama and there's a wealth of his personal observations and opinions. There are also sections about JRO's scientific contributions, and the important role he played as a mentor to younger generation of physicists. There are little interesting digressions too, like the history of the Institute, where the author was a professor and JRO became the third director. The biography is very extensively researched and draws heavily on original sources, so if you want to study these topics, this is the place to go. There is a lot of supplemental material about Oppenheimer trials by Robert Crease towards the end, but I did not read that. I felt the earlier parts gave a reasonable view of the man's life and work, and did not feel the inclination to find out exactly how the man fell.

The lesson to be drawn from JRO's life is about the great uncertainty of life. The man who became a legend in his own lifetime survived to see the dramatic fall of his public stature, to see former colleagues and friends turn into hostile enemies, or at least useless bystanders. Not that he did not make any mistakes, but the impression you get is he paid more than he deserved. As for the book, it was not everything I had wished for, but still, worth a try!