![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/the-scot-who-helped-build-oppenheimers-atom-bomb/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/130441619_sirsamt.jpg&description=Image caption, Sir Samuel Curran went to school at Wishaw High School and would later help establish the University of Strathclyde As war raged across Europe in 1942, a team of scientists on the other side of the Atlantic were brought together to work on a top secret project - the development of an atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project was led by the United States but a number of prominent British scientists were transferred to work on it, including Scottish physicist Sir Samuel Curran. A new film about the development of the first nuclear weapons - Oppenheimer - follows the life of the nuclear physicist who was the director of the laboratory that designed the bombs - J Robert Oppenheimer. Although Curran does not make an appearance in the film he was part of a team that worked on an important aspect of the project - the separation of isotopes of uranium. The atomic bomb would not have been possible without the process, which today is called uranium enrichment. The team's leader, American nuclear physicist Ernest Lawrence, is played by Josh Hartnett in the film. Image source, Universal Pictures Image caption, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy, who has already appeared in five Christopher Nolan films Curran was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, in 1912 but moved with his mother to live in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, shortly after his birth. He studied mathematics and natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, followed by a PhD on research into methods of detecting radiation. From there he went to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge to study, where he met nuclear pioneer Ernest Rutherford, who would die later that year. Rutherford had taught Oppenheimer some years before and was described as the "the father of nuclear physics". It was under his direction that students would become the first to split the atom in a controlled manner. When an atom is split a huge amount of energy is released and it is this reaction which makes nuclear weapons possible. Image source){kind=link}
As war raged across Europe in 1942, a team of scientists on the other side of the Atlantic were brought together to work on a top secret project – the development of an atomic bomb.
The Manhattan Project was led by the United States but a number of prominent British scientists were transferred to work on it, including Scottish physicist Sir Samuel Curran.
A new film about the development of the first nuclear weapons – Oppenheimer – follows the life of the nuclear physicist who was the director of the laboratory that designed the bombs – J Robert Oppenheimer.
Although Curran does not make an appearance in the film he was part of a team that worked on an important aspect of the project – the separation of isotopes of uranium.
The atomic bomb would not have been possible without the process, which today is called uranium enrichment.