zach-Book+Review


 * In The Shadow Of the Bomb**: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist – S. S. Schweber

In the movie “Copenhagen” about Heisenberg and Bohr, the same conversation is replayed numerous times. In this conversation Heisenberg asks Bohr if physicists have the moral right to work on atomic energy. This is a very common question regarding working with atomic or nuclear energy. Atomic energy has the potential to cause massive amounts of destruction. People who worked with it had to face the consequences of people disagreeing with their work even if many others agreed with it. Unfortunately those who worked on it faced some very tough moral dilemmas. Oppenheimer and Bethe faced very tough moral decisions while working on the atomic bomb. Their morals were stretched at times and they had to face criticism no matter what they did.

__In the Shadow of the Bomb__ delves into the lives of Oppenheimer and Bethe not just during their work on the Manhattan Project, but for their whole lives. While the book itself has many purposes, its main reason for being written was to show the mindset of these two great scientists and the events that contributed to their way of thinking. In doing so, Schweber gave a very informative overview of both of their upbringings and early years into their very late years, including Oppenheimer's death.

Schweber writes in the beginning of his book that “__In the Shadow of the Bomb__ is an attempt to determine why Bethe became the embodiment of a new scientific persona: the scientist with exceptional technical expertise assuming the role of an intellectual.” Bethe underwent a very large transformation of character by working on the atomic bombs. The book sets out to prove this. Later on, it is stated that the book “is about the crisis that Oppenheimer was referring to: the fact that after the war, American physicists had to confront the possibility that 'the insight, the knowledge, the power of physical science, to the cultivation of which, the learning and teaching of which [they were] dedicated, [had] become too dangerous to be talked of.'” Schweber wants to show that science advanced so much that it has produced the ability to create truly terrible things.

Reviewing __In the Shadow of the Bomb__ is simple enough as the author writes exactly what the purpose of the book is. Rating how well this purpose was achieved along with the overall quality of the writing leads to the final review. Schweber's first purpose for writing, to show how and why Bethe became a much more well rounded person who didn’t only focus on his academics, is done very well. Bethe isn’t portrayed as a scientist who never comes out of his lab. Many of his more prominent social events are discussed. Partly because of how close Bethe was to Oppenheimer but also due to the fact that Bethe had become an extremely well known social figure, Bethe spoke at Oppenheimer’s memorial service. The two had been through a great deal together making the atomic bomb and remained friends after. The memorial service was a high profile event in the country as the two were somewhat of celebrities. A lot of care must have been taken to decide upon speakers. A regular old scientist would not be sufficient for such an event.

Bethe “became transformed by Los Alamos.” Schweber writes that he went from being a “self-sufficient and somewhat of a loner” to somebody that would be social and push towards higher moral standards. Bethe’s new personality is clearly evident by his accomplishments earlier in life compared to those after his stay in Los Alamos. Why this change occurred is fairly straight forward in that he went through a tremendous amount of growth while working on the atomic bomb. The significance of his work was enough to make anybody undergo great changes. Schweber shows Bethe’s difference in opinion of the atomic bomb and the later hydrogen bomb. While Bethe didn’t always agree with the atomic bomb his work on it incredibly greatened his status in the scientific world and among non-scientists as well. This made it easier to overlook any lingering thoughts that he had against the making of the bomb. However when the hydrogen bomb came into debate, Bethe was much more open about his disagreement. He did not have to try to advance in the world anymore, and his word meant much more after his work on the atomic bomb.

The next task of __In the Shadow of the Bomb__ was to show that Oppenheimer’s theory that science was becoming too powerful had come true. It is ironic that Oppenheimer should say this as he was one of the most significant reasons why science was becoming more powerful. Not as much as it did with Bethe, but still to an extent, the Manhattan Project advanced Oppenheimer’s status in the scientific community. He was keen on developing a successful bomb as head of the project. General Farrell writes Oppenheimer’s reaction to the Trinity test, “there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief.” With this moment, the world would never be the same. With this moment, many would say that science had become too powerful for humans hands.

One of the statements released by Bethe and several other prominent scientists of the day after the decision to allow the making of the hydrogen bomb stated, “the bomb is no longer a weapon of war but a means of extermination of whole populations.” If science hadn’t become too powerful before, it had now. A short while after sending this letter, Bethe writes, “I believe the most important question is the moral one: can we who have insisted on morality and human decency between nations as well as inside our country, introduce this weapon of total annihilation into the world.” Again, the question of morals is brought into a play. The moral responsibility of anyone involved with the bomb was tremendously large. Bethe’s morals were strongly against using a more powerful bomb than the atomic bomb and he was very adamant about it. While he had looked past certain reasons not to participate in making an atomic bomb, he could not look past his arguments again a hydrogen bomb. To him, this science had gotten far too powerful for human hands.

Schweber packs a great deal of information into a fairly small book. He gives a thorough summary of Oppenheimer and Bethe’s lives and relates many of these events to their morals. Early events in their lives help construct their moral standards before their work in Los Alamos, and later events are affected by the stress their morals underwent in their work. The events written about in the book are only a portion of the events that could possibly be included in a biography or summary of their lives, but Schweber picks which events to use that make the most sense and that are the most important to the rest of the book. Many of the things that he writes about are about somewhat dry topics yet he keeps the book flowing and interesting. A good knowledge of the Manhattan Project is very helpful before reading the book, especially knowledge of the key people involved in it. It is also very helpful to have a fair bit of knowledge of various sciences such as physics and chemistry but these are not as important as the general knowledge of the events going on in the world around the time of the atomic bomb’s construction.

__In the Shadow of the Bomb__ is written to prove two things. Schweber shows that the Manhattan Project transforms Bethe from a lonely scientist to a very prominent person in the world. He shows the process of this transition in detail and shows some of Bethe’s thoughts and morals too. Schweber also writes in his book that in a sense science has gone too far. Oppenheimer said that the physical sciences have become too dangerous. After the use of the atomic bomb, a great number of people thought that the sciences had gone too far. This thought became even more popular while there was discussion about developing the hydrogen bomb. Both of the purposes of the book are fulfilled very well by Schweber. He does this by combining a summary of Oppenheimer and Bethe, while proving the two purposes, into an interesting book about the morals of scientists under immense pressure from working on such an important project.