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Good morning!
The long-awaited “Barbenheimer” weekend has come and passed. While many Princetonians may have flocked to see "Barbie," it is "Oppenheimer" that has the Princeton connection. The movie's filming disrupted classes in April 2022, as stars such as Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan descended onto campus.
Students have been in suspense as to the content of the scene itself. The scene at East Pyne included a line to the effect of "Don't they have newspapers at Princeton?" We at the 'Prince' take it as a shoutout.
Senior Prospect Contributor Tyler Wilson writes about the film itself and director Christopher Nolan's portrayal of the “impulsive, erratic spirit,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, the mastermind behind the development of the first atomic bomb. Wilson emphasizes the portrayal of Oppenheimer, which highlights both the a scientist manipulated by the U.S. government and the person capable of “impulsively committing acts of violence” — the man who developed the atomic bomb, only to later question its usage.
The contradictions and complexity are shared by Princeton's history on nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer himself lectured in McCosh 50 and served as the third director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University played an important role in the Manhattan Project, with Princeton researchers in Palmer Physical Laboratory experimenting with the first steps towards harnessing the nuclear chain reaction for atomic weaponry.
Today, Dr. Zia Mian, Co-Director of the University’s Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), says, “It’s about accountability. [We believe] everybody needs to know about how nuclear weapons work [and should] have a right to decide,” following decades of justification of the secrecy and damage as a result of atomic weapons. The ‘Prince’ covers these contradictions in a feature on Princeton's complicated history.
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Analysis by Olivia Chen
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