• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds

 

Guest column: Explosive interest in ‘Manhattan’

Posted at 6:09 pm August 29, 2014
By Atomic Heritage Foundation 2 Comments

Cynthia C. Kelly

Cynthia C. Kelly

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The WGN America television show “Manhattan” has galvanized the interest of millions of viewers. Shown on Sunday nights, national audiences are riveted by the dramatic tension between rival groups of scientists and the omnipresent security police in Los Alamos in 1943. “Manhattan” follows the scientists as they confront the challenges of making a workable atomic bomb while dealing with an intrusive military force, intense rivalries, and strained marital relations where couples can no longer confide in each other.

The show is a blend of fact and fiction. The primary characters are entirely fictional including the main scientist, Frank Winter; Chinese-American physicist, Sidney Liao; and wunderkind Charlie Isaacs and his most attractive wife, Abby. But “Manhattan” has preserved at least two real persona, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the director of Los Alamos, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr who visits the laboratory to offer his advice.

The central tension is the race to develop two different approaches to a plutonium-based bomb. Winter believes an implosion bomb offers the best option but most of the scientists—including Oppenheimer—are more confident in a gun-type plutonium bomb similar to the design used for the uranium-based bomb. While the enmity between the two groups is exaggerated for television, “Manhattan” does a good job showing the challenges the scientists and engineers faced knowing little about the newly discovered and quite bizarre element plutonium.

In a 1965 interview with journalist Stephane Groueff, J. Robert Oppenheimer recalled: “I think the set of problems connected with implosion was the most difficult, and it required very new experimental techniques. It was not a branch of physics anyone was very familiar with. It was, from a theoretical, an observational, and a practical point of view, quite an adventure. Plutonium was a terrible test from beginning to end and never stayed quiet: it gets hot, it is radioactive, you cannot touch it, you have to coat it, and the coating always peels. It is just a terrible substance.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Entertainment, Guest Columns, Opinion, Television, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: atomic bomb, Atomic Heritage Foundation, bomb, Charlie Isaacs, Congress, Frank Winter, Germany, Hanford, implosion bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leona Marshall Libby, Los Alamos, Manhattan, Manhattan Project, Manhattan Project National Historical Park, National Park Service, Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize, Oak Ridge, oral history, plutonium, plutonium bomb, scientists, security police, Sidney Liao, television show, uranium-based bomb, Voices of the Manhattan Project, WGN America

Spotlight: Nobel laureate visits ORNL for distinguished lecture series

Posted at 9:12 pm July 28, 2014
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Delivers ORNL Lecture

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan delivers his lecture in the Iran Thomas Auditorium at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source on Monday. (Photos by Jason Richards/ORNL)

 

Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is visiting Oak Ridge National Laboratory this week (Monday and Tuesday) as part of the lab’s Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture Series in Science, Technology, and Policy.

Ramakrishnan’s talk on Monday morning was titled “How Antibiotics Block the Ribosome, the Cell’s Protein Factory.” He discussed his research on ribosome structure that earned him the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. More information on his background is available here.

His visit will include small group discussions with senior researchers, early career scientists, and postdoctoral fellows, as well as tours of the lab’s research facilities, ORNL said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Honors and Spotlight, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture Series in Science Technology and Policy, How Antibiotics Block the Ribosome the Cell's Protein Factory, Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, ribosome structure, Spallation Neutron Source, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Former energy secretary compares global warming path to Russian roulette, with gun pointed at knee

Posted at 8:04 pm February 17, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Steven Chu on Global Warming at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

During a lecture at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, former Energy Secretary Steven Chu compares global warming to Russian roulette, but with the gun pointed at a kneecap.

Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu sounded an alarm about global warming during a visit to Oak Ridge last week, comparing the current path to Russian roulette, but with the gun pointed at a knee—and with more bullets added each decade.

“Every decade you put in a bullet and you pull the trigger,” said Chu, a Stanford University professor who won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1997. “After four or five more decades, it could be fully loaded.”

The longest-serving secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Chu gave a lecture at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Wednesday.

The globe is warming, and we might not feel the full effect of the greenhouse gases emitted by humans for another half-century or more, after the ocean has been warmed, Chu said.

“We’re going to glide to a temperature that we’re not really sure about, but I can guarantee that it’s warmer than it is today because of that ocean,” Chu said. “The damage that we’ve done today will not be seen for at least 50 years.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Slider, Top Stories, Weather, Weather Tagged With: Alaska, batteries, carbon capture, carbon sequestration, carbon tax, emissions, Energy Secretary, energy use, global warming, greenhouse gases, Greenland, ice masses, Nobel Prize, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, physics, Russian roulette, Stanford University, Steven Chu, temperature increase, U.S. Department of Energy

Nobel Laureate launches Wigner Distinguished Lecture Series at ORNL

Posted at 10:53 pm October 28, 2013
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

Albert Fert

Albert Fert

Three more Nobel winners, former Intel chairman among nine confirmed speakers

Four Nobel Laureates are among nine lecturers who will be participating in the new Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture Series in Science, Technology, and Policy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Albert Fert, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, opens the series on Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. in the Iran Thomas Auditorium at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source.

“The Wigner lectures aim to invigorate scientific discovery and technological innovation and to initiate productive scientific policy debate,” said Thom Mason, laboratory director. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories Tagged With: Ada Yonath, Amit Goyal, Arun Majumdar, C.N.R. Rao, Craig Barrett, Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture Series, Eugene Wigner, Frances Arnold, Graphite Reactor, materials research, Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize, Novel Directions for Spintronics: Spin-orbitronics and Magnetic Skyrmions, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Peter Grünberg, Science Technology and Policy, Siegfried Hecker, Steven Chu, Thom Mason, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Search Oak Ridge Today

Classifieds

Public Notice: NNSA announces no significant impact of Y-12 Development Organization operations at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

ADFAC seeks contractors for five homes

Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC) is a non-profit community based agency, … [Read More...]

Public notice: Draft environmental assessment for Y-12 Development Organization at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • Basketball: Wildcats beat West in rematch
  • Basketball: Lady Wildcats undefeated in district
  • Obituaries: Jan. 23-27, 2023
  • Speakers mostly support TRISO-X fuel facility at meeting
  • UPF construction could cost more, take longer
  • Y-12 celebrates new fire station, emergency operations center
  • One person seriously injured in Wednesday crash
  • Oak Ridge EM prepared for cold weather to prevent failures
  • Covenant Health donating land for Roane State health science center
  • School board approves aviation career path
A Twitter List by OakRidgeToday

Recent Comments

  • John Huotari on Power to TRISO at Horizon could cost $13 million
  • John Huotari on Lawsuit seeks 2020 election audit, voting machine restriction
  • Peter Scheffler on Lawsuit seeks 2020 election audit, voting machine restriction
  • Peter Scheffler on Power to TRISO at Horizon could cost $13 million
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Tracy Powers on Planning Commission to consider Main Street apartments, plan revisions

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2023 Oak Ridge Today