Scientific Discoveries

Ruth Kerr Jakoby: My name is Dr. Ruth Kerr Jakoby. J-A-K-O-B-Y. I was born September 2, 1929. I am eighty-five years old. On September 2, I will be eighty-six. Alex Wellerstein: My birthday is September 5, so we can both be Virgos together. Where were you born? Jakoby: Palo Alto, California. Wellerstein: You said you […]

Richard Rhodes: You said [Richard] Courant’s work added realism? Ted Taylor: Yeah. Rhodes: How so? Taylor: By going over various tricks for dealing with the discontinuities, the singularities in the hydrodynamics. I had the impression that he was very helpful to people like Bob Richtmyer. I don’t know that Richard himself came up with anything […]

[Thanks to Ronald K. Smeltzer for donating the record “To Fermi with Love” to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Narrator: Only thirty-one months had passed since Stagg Field. What followed the Trinity event is now history. Within forty-eight days of its demonstration near Alamogordo, the atomic bomb formally brought World War II to an abrupt end on […]

Richard Rhodes: How did you get involved in the program? Marshall Rosenbluth: Well, you can probably guess. I’ve already told you that I was a student of [Edward] Teller’s. I was in the Navy during the war and then went back to the University of Chicago where my parents were living, to graduate school, and […]

Stephane Groueff: [Enrico] Fermi was not considered as a foreigner? William Sturm: Oh, no. Groueff: There was no jealousy by the American top scientists? Sturm: No, no, no, no. Science at this level is absolutely international. There is an international aspect. Groueff: Did he speak good English? Sturm: No, a heavy accent. Groueff: Heavy accent but— […]

Stephane Groueff: Okay, now it’s recording. Dr. Foote, you started telling me from the beginning— Frank G. Foote: Knowing nothing about the uranium, and this was supposed to be my new business; I’d go over to the library to find out what was known. Groueff: In 1942? Foote: In 1942, August. Ordinarily, you’d expect this […]

Charles Critchfield: Is that your book, by the way? Richard Rhodes: Yes. Critchfield: Making of the Atomic Bomb? Rhodes: Yes. Critchfield: I’ve always heard it, Making of the Bomb. No, I didn’t know it was your book. Rubby Sherr sent me that, and he also sent me excerpts from two or three other books on the bomb. Rubby was […]

Charles Critchfield was a mathematical physicist assigned to work on the development of gun-type fission weapons, and eventually implosion-type weapons, at Los Alamos. He returned to Los Alamos in 1952 to work on the development of the hydrogen bomb. In this interview, Critchfield explores the personalities of his fellow Manhattan Project scientists, including Edward Teller, […]

Ted Taylor: I think Carson Mark is the most valuable resource to talk to about what happened in those days at Los Alamos. At Livermore, [Edward] Teller, certainly. Richard Rhodes: Teller won’t talk to me, I’m afraid. He’s decided I’m the enemy. Taylor: Herb York I think is anxious for the story to be told correctly. […]

Reed Srere: Hi, I am Reed Srere – R-e-e-d S-r-e-r-e. I am recording this oral history for the Atomic Heritage Foundation on June 3 [2015] in Washington, DC. Please state your name. David Fox: I am David Fox. I live in Providence, Rhode Island. My father was a physicist on the Manhattan Project in Manhattan. […]