something incredibly wonderful happens Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up K. C. Cole MURRAY GELL-MANN I'orcwordhy AS A YOUNG MAN, FRANK OPPEI followedinHisfamous brother's fcl — growingup inaprivileged Mar household,becoming aphysicist, ontheatomic bomb, Tragically, Fr Robertboth had their careers! the Red Scare. Then their pati Robertdied an almost ruined mar came into his own, emergingfron| ofexile on a Coloiadc just a multimillion-( a revolutionthai His Exploratorit awareni wl Digitized by the Internet Archive 2010 in http://www.archive.org/details/somethingincrediOOcole Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens Books by K.C. Cole The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty First You Build a Cloud and Other Reflections on . .. Physics as a Way ofLife The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge ofEmptiness and Found Everything Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up SOMETHING INCREDIBLY FRANK OPPENHEIMER AND \s» '\ WONDERFUL HAPPENS THE WORLD HE MADE UP K.C.Cole 4 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT BOSTON NEW YORK • 2009 Copyright© 2009 byK.C. Cole ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Forinformation aboutpermission to reproduce selections fromthis book, writeto Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 6277 Sea HarborDrive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777. www.hmhbooks.com LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Cole,K.C. Somethingincrediblywonderfulhappens:FrankOppenheimerandthe worldhemadeup/K.C. Cole. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-15-100822-3 1.Oppenheimer, Frank, 1912-1985. z. Physicists—United States—Biography. I.Title. QC16.0618C65 2009 530.092—dc22 [b] 2008052954 Book design byBrianMoore Printed intheUnited States ofAmerica 987654321 DOC 10