Episode
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Watch The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer
In this chapter

Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare explain the scope of their Oppenheimer scientist ranking. They use the film's characters as a starting point for discussing contributions to fundamental research, rather than attempting a complete history of the Manhattan Project.

Transcript

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0:53scientists that were featured in the Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer. Interestingly, we are going to talk about the science from the ground up today, even though this is a ranking episode, because this is from first principles.

1:24Many people are already familiar with the Manhattan Project, one of our greatest sort of scientific endeavors in recent memory, and this was memorialized in the Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer. And although there were hundreds of scientists involved in the Manhattan Project itself, only 26 of them were featured in the film. >> That's right. Only 26, 25 physicists and one mathematician. And these characters make an appearance in the film, not just being mentioned offhand. So, we're going to focus on just these 26 individuals. Christopher Nolan omitted a lot of people because one of the things he was

2:04doing with the movie was

From the episode
  1. EP 39

    The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer

    A movie cast list turned into a deep dive on quantum mechanics, black holes, nuclear physics, and the greatest minds of the 20th century.

    The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer

History of SciencePhysicsNuclear Physics