Oppenheimer Cooking an Atomic Bomb – and an Extramarital Affair

Cillian Murphy and Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy and Oppenheimer in the film (Credits: Deadline)

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904, and died on February 18, 1967. He grew up in a Manhattan apartment full of Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin. He was an American theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project Los Alamos Laboratory in World War 2.

Not only that, he was also called the father of the atomic bomb. Born in New York City to Jewish Parents, he studied chemistry at Harvard and doctorate in physics from the University of Gottingen.

He joined the physics department at the University of California Berkeley. Despite not following the Hindu faith, he quoted the Bhagavad Gita nevertheless, ‘Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Adolf Hitler made him inclined toward politics.

Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb

Nazis were proclaimed to make the first nuclear bomb. Oppenheimer then began to work on separating Uranium 235 from natural uranium and the mass of uranium needed to make such a bomb. He published contributions to newly developed quantum theory.

He did research in astrophysics, nuclear physics, and quantum field theory. He worked on the formation of black holes and quantum rules that govern the universe with enough mass in one location, even individual protons and neutrons, which end up in gravitational collapse.

He was the hero of thermonuclear war and human annihilation after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing in Japan in 1945. Oppenheimer hoped that the atomic bomb would give international control over such weapons and make war impossible.

Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer (Credits: The New York Times)

Although Oppenheimer was married to Katherine Kitty Oppenheimer, he wasn’t dedicated to one woman. Here are details about Oppenheimer Cooking an atomic bomb- and an extramarital affair.

Oppenheimer Cooking an Atomic Bomb- and an Extramarital Affair

His life isn’t just part of publications of scientific research but also fit for a movie made by Christopher Nolan. Irish star Cillian Murphy plays the scientist, and even though the major part of the story is about the atomic bomb but the Oppenheimer family and the Affair with Jean Tatlock were documented in the Manhattan Project.

He met the psychiatrist Jean Tatlock at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1930s. Oppenheimer had a budding interest in politics, and their relationship grew because she was part of the Communist Party USA.

In 1936 Spring, he was introduced to Jean Tatlock by friends, the daughter of a well-known professor of English at the University, and in autumn, they began a courting relationship, with the scientist making the first move.

They were thinking of themselves as engaged and decided to marry. Between 1939 and her death in 1944, he met her very rarely. He met Tatlock in 1943 in her San Francisco apartment. After a few months, she died.

They harbored very deep feelings for each other until she died by suicide on January 4, 1944, though there has been some confusion about whether she had been murdered by Manhattan Project Intelligence Agents. They were on and off, and his wife became pregnant.

Katherine was married to Richard Harrison when she was pregnant, but she divorced his first husband. On the other hand, scientist Oppenheimer didn’t shy away from saying that he slept with Tatlock in 1943. It is not hard to surmise that Tatlock wasn’t the only woman he laid his eyes on.

He had an alleged affair with psychologist Ruth Tolman. He was ten years older than him- and married. They had a delightful and caring affair. His love story even has a book ‘An Atomic Love Story: The Extraordinary Women in Robert Oppenheimer’s Life.’