Who Was the Father of the Atomic Bomb (and Why Did He Do It)?

The father of the atomic bomb was a polyglot

While a lot of people struggle to learn one or two foreign languages, Oppenheimer wanted to make everything in his life a challenge. Besides a true passion for physics and outer space, he also loved to know more about other populations and their histories, which is what determined him to learn six languages, one of them being Sanskrit.

Furthermore, because he wanted to deliver a lecture in Leiden, the Netherlands, he learned the language in only six weeks. Everybody at the lecture was impressed by his speech and his ability to speak fluent Dutch and soon after this, they nicknamed him “Opje.”

To understand the Hindu text known as the Bhagavad Gita, he had to learn Sanskrit. Right after he witnessed the mushroom cloud that formed from the atomic bomb test, this reading led him to the most well-known phrase: “Now, I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”