Oppenheimer vs. Heisenberg: Race to the Atomic Bomb (Full Episode) | American Genius

a chain reaction creates uranium and you've got an instrument of unimaginable power so when can we expect delivery of your first super bomb every age is defined by its innovation greatest advances are born out of fierce struggles between rivals [Music] Werner Heisenberg and Robert Oppenheimer are on the front lines of a new Battlefield we're a war gentlemen every day men are dying striving to unleash the destructive power of the atomic bomb the race between Heisenberg and Oppenheimer will take War to a new frontier we'll have only enough uranium for a single bomb and change the world forever [Music] go on now for both sides Victory is the only option [Music] what the cost [Music] in the Years following World War One the German economy is in Ruins for young Germans like Werner Heisenberg the country's defeat is shattering Eisenberg like many German youth was definitely patriotic he really believed that Germany should be strong and that Germany needed to recover [Music] Heisenberg pours himself into his chosen field a new science called quantum physics [Music] quantum physics is the physics of the atom where we have bizarre Concepts like how can something disappear and reappear someplace else How can there be two places at the same time but that's what electrons do all the time [Music] Heisenberg publishes a paper that describes the limitations of what we can know about how particles behave at the subatomic level it's called the uncertainty principle and it'll forever change how quantum physics is understood in 1933 Heisenberg receives the Nobel Prize making him one of the youngest winners of all time he is now one of Germany's most important scientists just as a new party is coming to power in the country [Applause] consider the physical phenomenon on a nanoscopic scale five thousand miles away Heisenberg's work has captured the attention of another young physicist where the action is on the order of the Planck constant J Robert Oppenheimer is an ambitious college professor who also dreams of making his mark on the world he was born to a fairly well-to-do family of Jewish immigrants from Germany [Music] extremely intelligent extremely capable he's ambitious and oppenheimer's salvation in physics was being exposed to quantum mechanics and Eisenberg Oppenheimer sees Heisenberg's subatomic world as a new frontier ripe for discovery especially when he gets word of a singular breakthrough a team of Germans claim they've turned quantum theory into action [Music] split the uranium atom Oppenheimer doesn't believe it's possible until his team recreates the experiment and they see for themselves thank you a nuclear reaction releases more energy than a chemical reaction as much as 50 million times more the splitting of the atom releases a little tiny bit of energy but if you split a huge number of atoms at the same time you release an unprecedented amount of energy question on the table was could that be done the discovery means it could be possible to create a weapon of unimaginable power Oppenheimer sees it as a harrowing revelation and he's not the only one [Music] the idea of creating a nuclear bomb is a theoretical question both Oppenheimer and Heisenberg know it won't stay that way for long [Music] Hitler has rebuilt Germany into a fearsome power and has begun his conquest of Europe many German scientists have already left the country [Music] but Heisenberg stays I've never before I had the honor of addressing a Nobel Prize winner the honor is mine my superiors are concerned about your association with geophysics you mean Einstein Einstein boa white Jew everything I do is for the greater good of Germany we both want to bring order to the world needs to science useful government [Music] I will speak with him about your case foreign Heisenberg was a patriot but he was not a Nazi that left him with a serious conflict after a year of questioning the Nazis finally accept Heisenberg's loyalty in 1939 Heisenberg sets off for the United States to meet with some of the brightest Minds in nuclear physics he went to discuss the latest discoveries and so just before the outbreak of the second world war in Europe [Music] we find Heisenberg at a conference in the United States about this brand new and interesting Discovery called nuclear fish it's a gathering of the most renowned physicists in the world but with the Nazis aggressively marching through Europe their meeting is no longer just about science do you have a moment professor of course your paper in 27 on uncertainty that made me a theoretical physicist you agreed even when Einstein questioned my love unpredictable on Noble universe I couldn't agree more I hope America will be seeing more of you nowadays it seems very unlikely well you know of course you'd be welcomed with open arms welcome to work against my homeland [Music] to save the world from Hitler I have seen what the world can do to Germany thank you her doctor on your hospitality [Music] bird said basically no no I'm not going to defect foreign in fact he never was ready to throw over his patriotism for Germany by pledging his allegiance to Adolf Hitler Werner Heisenberg has just become one of the most dangerous men on Earth [Music] Atomic physicist Berner Heisenberg will stay in Nazi Germany as Europe now erupts Hitler takes Poland France and England declare war within months the Nazis are planning invasions across the continent and exploring the possibility of a nuclear bomb [Music] a chain reaction create one with uranium and you've got an instrument of unimaginable power once you knew you could get all this energy out of the nucleus you could imagine building a nuclear bomb of unbelievable destructive force said that high government response is basically this looks really like something important let's move on it [Music] so when can we expect delivery of your first super bomb as a principle is simple the process is not there are a thousand problems that have to be answered thousand questions we just begun to see I'm sure your next report will be more optimistic the Nazis order Heisenberg to get to work Heisenberg wastes no time [Music] in America the nuclear effort has barely begun until Albert Einstein the most famous physicist in the world writes a letter to President Roosevelt Albert Einstein changed the course of history he talked about a super weapon being created by Germany's finest physicists a device which will wipe out an entire City Harbor Franklin Roosevelt took this seriously in October 1941 Roosevelt initiates a top secret plan [Music] 1250 tons of uranium ore have been shipped from the Belgian Congo to New York City [Music] where nuclear scientists are already based detested the operation is dubbed the Manhattan Project [Music] I made a lot of people tonight but don't be afraid all that's missing is a star scientist to lead the effort hello three glasses of them are low please as a well-paid professor at the University of California Berkeley Robert oppenheimer's and joined the perks of academics [Music] despite his Carefree lifestyle Oppenheimer wants more Oppenheimer is ambitious he's always wanted to be seen as this Real Genius as the as a guy who could accomplish great things and Oppenheimer really wants that he really wants that accomplishment science and knowledge [Music] so the energy of a Charged Atomic oscillator theoretically associated with the electromagnetic wave itself represents the minimum amount of energy required to form an electromagnetic field army colonel Leslie Groves is in search of a scientific leader for the Manhattan Project [Music] s 19 and 20. thank you doctor Leslie Groves have a moment of your time yes Groves didn't get along with most scientists Groves is very Gruff and he has a very hard time imagining how he's going to Wrangle a bunch of theoretical physicists he can't just order these people around so when Groves is looking for the chief scientists the person who's going to be in charge he's looking for someone scientists will listen to doctor if the president were to ask you what are the three greatest challenges to producing a nuclear device what would you say Mr President number one unknown amounts of uranium ore have to be mined then processed in factories production on an industrial scale in the end we need the uranium highly refined number two we need to figure out how to pull off a chain reaction and then how to control it in a self-sustained chain reaction we need to go critical [Music] Oppenheimer had never run anything more complex than a seminar but Groves left that interview believing that nobody understood as clearly as Oppenheimer what had to be done to produce an atomic bomb now J Robert Oppenheimer is in charge of an undertaking that is among the most ambitious and faithful of the 20th century [Music] but he's already years behind his rival [Music] has the lab the uranium and the determination to build the Nazis an atomic bomb [Music] in 1942 as War spreads across Europe and the Pacific Robert Oppenheimer and Werner Heisenberg are fighting on a new kind of Battlefield now that the uranium atom has been split the nuclear age has begun and the United States and Germany are in a race to build an atomic bomb the Americans are really afraid that the Germans will get a bomb first they know the Germans have uranium they also know the Germans have Heisenberg [Music] the Nazis have already captured 1200 tons of uranium from Belgium key to the bomb is to split those uranium atoms create an uncontrolled chain reaction it's not that each little reaction releases very much energy it's that if you chain them together it has exponential growth if you could make a lot of uranium atoms split at the same time it would release a tremendous amount of energy enough to destroy an entire city for now it's just a theory unless Verner Heisenberg can prove it [Music] you had to measure that had to show that with an experiment slowly Heisenberg builds a small nuclear reactor called a pile a little lower Neutron source is placed in the center surrounded by layers of heavy water and uranium [Music] if you can detect more neutrons than you started with and will be proof that he split the nucleus of multiple atoms the first step in creating an atomic chain reaction [Music] had an excess of other topic if we have an axis of over 10 percent [Music] this was a crucial experiment you needed to prove that a chain reaction was possible before you went through the truly enormous industrial process of pulling out of natural uranium the very rare part of it that will blow up [Music] Heisenberg's experiment is a beginning and for now only one thing is certain the Nazis are on the path towards an atomic bomb while the Americans are just getting started [Music] by late 1942 as Europe suffocates under the crushing grip of the Nazis the Americans can only speculate about Germany's nuclear ambitions but they are determined to beat the Germans to the bomb this is the spot in my opinion well is it enough area you tell me General Leslie Groves and his new recruit Robert Oppenheimer need a better base of operations than Manhattans whole stuff here they need somewhere isolated away from prying eyes [Music] Oppenheimer wanted a place that was Private General Groves wanted a place we could put up a bunch of barbed wire fences and keep everybody locked away from the rest of the world to keep this program Secret Oppenheimer convinces Groves he has the answer an isolated town in New Mexico he's known since he was a boy it's 30 miles northwest of Santa Fe called Los Alamos they both went out and surveyed the area around Los Alamos where there was a building that they could use as a base of operations welcome I know you're all wondering why we brought you here to the middle of the desert gentlemen the goal of this project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast Neutron chain reaction in this tent we have some of the smartest men in the world we're a war gentlemen everyday men are dying hundreds thousand soldiers civilians that is why I'm calling on you that's in this war thank you Oppenheimer will lead the country's greatest Minds in the attempt to build an atomic bomb [Music] but the clock is ticking fast this is the ultimate race and everyone understands if Germany gets the atomic bomb first all bets are wrong [Music] oh as America fights bloody battles on the opposite sides of the globe Robert Oppenheimer seeks to bring the war to an end by unleashing the power of the atom at our current rate we'll have only enriched enough uranium for a single bomb now one is not enough Oppenheimer realizes uranium alone won't be enough so he focuses his attention on another radioactive element plutonium unlike uranium plutonium can be created in a nuclear reactor but it is far more difficult to detonate [Music] if you put a target of plutonium here and a bullet of plutonium here no matter how fast you push them together they will begin to fizzle as they call it before it hits the target unless they can solve the problem their plutonium bomb will never work [Music] in 1942 Werner Heisenberg became the first scientist to produce excess neutrons in a nuclear reactor but that was with only a small number of atoms his goal now is to create a massive chain reaction foreign becomes two two becomes four four becomes eight and within about eighty Generations you get enough energy out of enough uranium atoms to blow up a city [Music] quickly but that next step is not business [Music] Heisenberg and a scientist narrowly escaped death and his laboratory is destroyed rumors about the incident spread to the United States there is a new fear that the Nazis are closer to making an atomic bomb than ever before are you sure is it confirmed yes there were no satellites in those days we didn't really have any spies in Germany either it was one of the few Clips but it was enough to make everyone very nervous [Music] the pressure on Oppenheimer is increasing [Music] the Americans have discovered a way to manufacture plutonium for the bomb still needs to find a trigger to detonate it it was a disaster at Los Alamos Oppenheimer is seriously considered resigning as director he was so depressed because he did not see how they were going to be able to use plutonium foreign every great genius you have that Vision that picture that sends you forward for Oppenheimer he had a picture [Music] before the war he was working on black holes and he realized that when the star suddenly collapses under Gravity it can burst into a gigantic Supernova and a black hole so why not squeeze it implode it reach critical mass and then it would explode that is the secret of the plutonium bomb implosion it's the answer Oppenheimer and his team have been waiting for implosion is the idea where you have a solid ball of plutonium and you put High explosives TNT all around it and what you want to do is have all those explosives go off at exactly the same time which is really difficult foreign scientists at Los Alamos reach a Monumental breakthrough but Oppenheimer and his team can only hope they're not too late this was everyone's night terror Germany could be close to losing the war and with a couple of atomic bombs could turn a loss into a victory [Music] in the secret desert Labs of the Manhattan Project Robert Oppenheimer and his team discovered that implosion is the key to a plutonium bomb it's not enough it's a revelation that could change the race against the Nazis now they need to make it work they reorganize the entire Los Alamos lab around the implosion problem they pull in experts from other wartime projects they develop new calculational methods this becomes the major problem for Los Alamos to solve the Americans are feeling the pressure reports of Heisenberg's explosion have trickled into Los Alamos there was no way of knowing what the Germans were doing and therefore you had to do the next best thing which is to extrapolate from where they were the last time we looked and there was that pressure that urgency with the just a few pieces of information with his lab in Ruins Heisenberg is summoned to Berlin [Music] in my report I've highlights the steps I feel we have to take in order to your plants have been a complete waste of our time and money I personally debriefed the fear on your progress what should I tell him now with the war going badly for the Germans the pressure on Heisenberg is more intense than ever in December 1944 Heisenberg travels to neutral Switzerland to lecture a small group of colleagues at a physics seminar and the Americans see an opportunity to ensure the Nazis never get the bomb there was no CIA during the second world war but there was its predecess and by that I mean an early organization that was primarily military and one of its operatives was a very curious man named Mo Burke moberg is a former major league baseball player for the Boston Red Sox and that leads us to pay the interaction and he's also a spy who speaks flu in German easy interactions that's distant dependent which leads to finite costs his assignment determine whether Heisenberg is making progress on a bomb I'd like to isolate those components kill him what he's listening for is less about the signs he's looking for a loose comment where Heisenberg says we'll win the war soon or we've got a secret that you guys will soon learn and understand it's the same components May well become an integral part of the future Siri is thinking of Heisenberg gives me any he's working on a bomb program I can just shoot him right here thank you for coming ladies and gentlemen so to be on [Music] [Music] yeah he'll tell you all superiors if the fury wants a bomb I need mentally not to follow me foreign [Music] ERG left thinking they must not have anything up their sleeve he doesn't shoot him he doesn't feel neat [Music] moberg's instincts are right despite his initial success in splitting uranium atoms the accident at his lab was a major setback and Heisenberg has made little progress since in the spring of 1945 things start to go very poorly for Nazi Germany in the war Berlin is being bombed Soviets are on the horizon [Music] foreign Heisenberg continues his experiments in southern Germany but the Nazis never invest the massive resources needed to bring the atom bomb to life Hitler didn't trust his scientists he didn't take them seriously so he didn't get about the German program was behind the eight ball if you will from the beginning on May 3rd 1945 [Music] Heisenberg along with Germany's top scientists are captured by the Allies his work for the Nazis is over [Music] but is one of the world's top physicists Heisenberg is considered a valuable asset they eventually send him and a number of other German scientists to a Manor House in England to be detained and monitored to find out whether they know much about making nuclear weapons [Music] the Allies are relieved to learn that the Nazis were still years away from making an atomic bomb the Americans took a look and thought Oh my God this is all the farther they got we got this far in the summer of 1942. [Music] after two years of toil in the New Mexico desert Robert oppenheimer's only hours away from the most important moment in his life by July 1945 they eventually have enough material to make one uranium bomb and two plutonium bombs but they're so uncertain about whether the plutonium bombs would work that they have to test one first the nuclear device is nicknamed the gadget a massive dark gray sphere with 5 000 pounds of explosives surrounding the plutonium and wired with precision detonators watch this rope go on forward to simulate the weapon being dropped from a bomber the gadget will be lifted onto a 100 foot steel Tower the stress is enormous they feel that they have theoretically designed it exactly right but what about one little connection and one of the hundreds of wires that are connected to this spherical monster are they going to work but Oppenheimer and his team may have a bigger worry than the bomb not working what happens if it does they realized that there was a possibility that they hadn't figured out all the consequences of basically igniting a small star on the surface of the Earth [Music] foreign years and over two billion dollars Robert Oppenheimer has built an atomic bomb and is now ready to test it oppenheimer's great worry that night was that the implosion wouldn't work in the bomb would fizzle you never quite know what the physical world is going to teach you when you do something that's never been done before [Music] [Applause] [Music] three two one [Music] the explosion is ten thousand times hotter than the surface of the Sun equal to twenty thousand tons of TNT Oppenheimer has built the most destructive weapon the world has ever known [Music] just three weeks after the test an American plane carries an atomic bomb into Japan [Music] in an effort to end the war once and for all [Music] the world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima a military base we won the race of Discovery against the Germans we have used it in order to sharpen the agony of war in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of Young Americans it's amazing this Heisenberg says they have to just be lying there's no way they could have pulled this off there's no way they could have built a bomb it's too hard we already did all the math on that and we concluded that nobody not even the United States could make an atomic bomb during World War II three days later a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki [Music] actively ending the Second World War in view of the later alteration Heisenberg is never held responsible for his actions during the war and has returned to Germany to help rebuild the country even though Heisenberg had obviously collaborated with the Nazis during the war people decided that science in Europe needed to be restored and Heisenberg becomes this International figure of peaceful science for the rest of his life Heisenberg will claim that he intentionally hindered his work for the Nazis it'll go on to enjoy a celebrated career in Academia I have one question to you why do you want to study quantum physics [Music] Oppenheimer is dubbed the father of the atomic bomb [Music] but he's haunted by the visions of the devastation the bomb has wrought [Music] and worse the thread it now poses to the world [Music] so Heisenberg becomes this International figure of peaceful science and Oppenheimer is kind of a pariah that's the Dilemma of the atomic bomb it killed an enormous number of human beings and yet somehow and this is true put an end to world scale War probably forever it is apparel and a hope [Music] thank you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 252,881

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, Oppenheimer vs Heisenberg, The Atomic Bomb, American Genius, Travel to Epic Battlefield, Werner Heisenberg, Robert Oppenheimer, Destructive Power of Atomic Bomb, Brilliant Scientist, World War II, Weapons, Atomic Bomb, Epic Battlefields, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, Destructive Power, Face Off, The Laws of Physics

Id: me2IvJmNaKo

Length: 44min 25sec (2665 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023