Quoteworthy Science Misquoted

In the April issue of the APS News, J.Robert Oppenheimer is given credit for a quote that he himself took from an Indian source, the Bhagavad Gita. Does anyone find it a bit interesting that the "The Bhagavad Gita" originated in India. Oppenheimer quoted the following excerpt upon the first atomic weapon exploding at the Trinity site in Alamagordo, New Mexico, USA: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds."

Wayne Saslow
Texas A&M University


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Editor: Barrett H. Ripin
Associate Editor: Jennifer Ouellette

June 1999 (Volume 8, Number 6)

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Articles in this Issue
Nobel Luncheon, Exhibits Inspire High School Physics Students and Teachers
POPA Proposes Statement on What is Science?
APS Centennial Photographs Online
Early Years of the Physical Review
ORNL Breakthroughs Pave Way for Spinach-Based Electronic Devices
Computing with DNA
LLNL Researchers Demonstrate Fusion on a Tabletop
Bell Labs Reports Progress on 'Dick Tracy' Watch
International Desk
Festival Profile
Congressional Reception
Physicists Honored with DAMOP, Shock Compression Awards
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Letters
The Back Page
Zero Gravity: the Lighter Side of Science