HAVE you seen the movie ‘Oppenheimer’? I’m sure many of you have and for those who haven’t it tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer who led the ultra-secret Manhattan Project that led to the development of the first atomic bomb.
I devoted a year-long subject at university to the Manhattan Project that Oppenheimer led. Those brilliant young scientists, working against the clock to ensure that they made the bomb before Adolf Hitler did, were breaking unbelievable ground in doing so. Imagine if Hitler had been able to make the bomb? Where would we be now?
So, how were they able to do this? It all comes down to knowledge. As my twenty-year-old son has told me, the scientists on the Manhattan Project were developing breakthrough theories that are now taught to high school students across the country. It’s amazing how quickly the basis of this absurdly intelligent work became mainstream – not only atoms, but the parts of atoms, like protons, neutrons and electrons, and then the idea that the atom itself could be split making an explosion of a force the world had never seen before!
It’s sad that, as human,s we have seen the need to create nuclear weapons. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world without nuclear weapons? But it’s amazing that humans can, and that this is based solely on what is in the minds of brilliant scientists.
The educator in me asks the question of where these scientists’ journeys began? Who taught them? Who inspired them in their educational journey? Minds like these don’t just happen – they’re nurtured. And, more than ever, we need people who can give us scientific breakthroughs in so many areas – none more so than with the environment and our climate.
Science is an area of strength at Coolum High – we have many outstanding students who have graduated in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Psychology. I wish I could show everyone just how smart some of these students are! Maybe one day they will make a movie about something brilliant a Coolum High-educated scientist has achieved?