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The Reith Lectures

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The Reith Lectures: Robert Oppenheimer - Science and the Common Understanding: Atom and Void in the Third Millennium

06/12/1953

Atom and Void in the Third Millennium

Robert Oppenheimer - Science and the Common Understanding

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Robert Oppenheimer - Science and the Common Understanding, Atom and Void in the Third Millennium

Professor Robert Oppenheimer considers some of the scientists who changed atomic physics.

Professor Robert Oppenheimer considers the scientists who changed atomic physics in the fourth Reith Lecture from his series 'Science and the Common Understanding'.

This year's Reith Lecturer is American theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer. Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, he has been described as the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project while Director of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory between 1943–45. In his Reith lectures entitled 'Science and the Common Understanding', he examines the impact of quantum and atomic theory on society.

In his fourth lecture entitled 'Atom and Void in the Third Millennium', Professor Oppenheimer explores the friction between Newtonian physics and the quantum theory of atomic systems. He describes how Maxwell's wave theory, Rutherford alpha-particle and Schrödinger's wave equation extended our understanding of the particle properties of matter.

The Reith Lectures: Robert Oppenheimer - Science and the Common Understanding

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Robert Oppenheimer examines the impact of quantum and atomic theory on society.

The American theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer examines the impact of quantum and atomic theory on the way societies view themselves and others in six Reith lectures.

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