The Creator Of The Atom Bomb Tried To Poison His Teacher

 

Robert Oppenheimer was one of the scientists who helped to develop the atomic bomb. However, he wasn’t a stranger to unusual weaponry by this point in his life. While a student at Cambridge University, he attempted to poison his tutor with a poisoned apple, after which he narrowly avoided being expelled.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer will forever be remembered as one of the most infamous and controversial scientists in history. Originally a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942 he was recruited and took a leading role in the Manhattan Project. As the “father of the atomic bomb,” he is regarded by his supporters as helping to end World War II prematurely, so saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops, while his detractors point to the simple fact that he created the deadliest weapon in human history.
However, Oppenheimer was no stranger to controversy, as one curious incident during his formative years demonstrates. In 1924, Oppenheimer was accepted into studies at the prestigious Christ’s College of the University of Cambridge as a theoretical physicist. Here, he was placed under the tutelage of Patrick Blackett, an experimental physicist later made famous for his work on cosmic rays and paleomagnetism. This was not a successful pairing; due to his own ineptitude in the laboratory, Oppenheimer became envious of Blackett’s skills as an experimental physicist. Indeed, Oppenheimer initially wished to study experimental physics, but was prevented from doing so because of his “clumsiness” in the lab.
In 1926, in a fit of psychological despair while on vacation in Corsica, Oppenheimer confessed to his two accompanying friends that he had to return to Cambridge immediately. The reason? Before he had left for vacation, he had coated an apple in noxious laboratory chemicals and placed it on Blackett’s desk. Oppenheimer wanted to make sure that Blackett was alright.
Fortunately, he was. Unfortunately, the university’s administration had been informed of his little “prank” and intended to press charges, because prestigious institutions like Cambridge usually look down on students murdering the faculty. It was only through the intervention of his parents that Oppenheimer wasn’t charged; indeed, he was placed on academic probation and ordered to undergo regular psychiatric evaluations. Finally, at the end of 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge at the invitation of Max Born to study theoretical physics at the University of Gottingen.
Oppenheimer and Blackett eventually repaired their relationship. There’s no word about whether the apple of friendship they exchanged was also poisoned.