[kj] BTATS origins

[J.Paul Owens]

> > > If you search in books on Amazon you get:
> > > Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the
> > > Atomic Scientists, by Robert Jung
> > > Was this book title chosen because of the prophecy that an
> > > explosion Brighter than... etc would destroy the world?


>From http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/1998/06/08/p12s3.htm

"Another weak point is the interpretation of the quotation from the Indian 
scripture Bhagavad-Gita which Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom 
bomb, reportedly used after witnessing the first atomic blast. Originally, 
the quote meant the universe is infinitely diverse, and if a thousand suns 
flash in the sky at the same time, it may reflect a close picture of the 
spirit of the infinity of the universe, which is difficult to comprehend.
    According to the book, "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" by Robert Jungk, 
Oppenheimer did quote the metaphor of a thousand suns. "Yet, when the 
sinister and gigantic cloud rose up in the far distance over Point Zero, he 
was reminded of another line from that source: I am become Death, the 
shatterer." The first part of the quote is a kind of philosophical view of 
the mystery of the universe that a physicist can interpret as a version of 
the Heisenberg principle of the dynamics of the observer and the observed; 
the second part is the practical destructive aspect of the scientific 
discovery."

Robi Chakravorti, PhD Sacramento, Calif.
Professor Emeritus, Sociology Dept.

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