Einstein Didn’t Help with the Manhattan Project
The Oppenheimer movie shows a terrifying dramatization of what might happen if the Manhattan Project misfired. It could have caused an unstoppable chain reaction. The fireball from the a-bomb would keep going…and going… and not stop until it consumed the entire Earth in an apocalyptic fireball. To avoid this horror from coming true, Oppenheimer in the movie consulted Albert Einstein to look over the work. But as much as Oppenheimer respected Einstein, he considered him out of date.
A good colleague, but according to American Prometheus authors, historians Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, “not a working scientist.” Oppenheimer did consult with a colleague outside of the Manhattan Project, but it wasn’t Einstein, it was Nobel Prizewinner Arthur Compton, who was working from a Manhattan Project satellite in Chicago. Nolan had Einstein in the ‘consultation’ role because he is a familiar face and name to non-physicist audiences.
