J. Robert Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretical physicist who was a manager in the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was a bright student and popular teacher, but never made significant contributions to the field of physics and was repeatedly passed over in the awarding of Nobel Prizes. The media generally liked Oppenheimer's politics and gave him credit as "the man who built the Atomic Bomb," when in fact Oppenheimer was merely a high-level manager and did little of the theoretically or actual experimental work behind it.

Oppenheimer's main scientific contribution was to suggest the existence of black holes based on the theory of relativity, which later became popular in science magazines intended for the general public. The concept of a black hole is not falsifiable, and important requirement of any scientific hypothesis as established by Karl Popper.

Oppenheimer lived in Berkely, California, and socialized with close communist friends. When Oppenheimer opposed development of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, a congressional investigation into whether he was a communist sympathizer resulted in the revocation of his security clearance. This infuriated liberals who then never forgave conservative scientists like Edward Teller for having testified against Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer helped Congress draft the first laws covering the use and control of atomic energy.