August 2023
Bebo White is retired from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. National Laboratory at Stanford University. He currently holds faculty appointments at multiple academic institutions. He's teaching "The Manhattan Project: Personalities and Problems" with us this fall.
First things first: Have you seen “Oppenheimer” yet?
Yes! The acting is exceptional, and the visuals are amazing. It’s a very good film. I had read the book “American Prometheus” that it was adapted from and very much looked forward to the film when I first heard that it was being made. Oppenheimer has long been one of my scientific heroes and I felt some of the earlier films made about him and the Manhattan Project had left a bit to be desired.
Why is he a hero to you?
I have memories of hearing about his activism back in the 60s, which is when I was in college and getting into physics and the politics of the Cold War was still a real thing. He stood out because of his amazing diversity of interests — everything from art and literature to music. He wasn’t one-dimensional. I mean, he immersed himself in physics, of course, but he really did try to take a more humanistic and philosophical approach toward it. But in the end, he was naïve and possibly sacrificed a brilliant research and academic career to be a part of the Manhattan Project. At least, that’s how I see it. I have every book that I am aware of, written about him and a whole bookshelf dedicated to the Manhattan Project as well.
What is it about the Manhattan Project that most intrigues you?
The Manhattan Project was probably the first “moonshot” project – the term often used to describe a monumental effort and a lofty goal. In the case of the Manhattan Project, it’s about how the greatest scientific minds of their generation collaborated given unknown scientific and engineering problems, a seemingly impossible timeline, no idea of the progress that their German and Japanese colleagues might be making and all this in an oppressive security environment. But it wasn’t just about the scientists, but also their families. It was about the thousands of laborers whose wartime contributions included some of the greatest construction efforts in history.
Tell me about your career as a physicist. I understand you spent some time at the Nevada Test Site.
I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and got hired after graduation by Lockheed in Sunnyvale. This was in the late 60s. On a side note, I drove to California from North Carolina and brought along a stranger who wanted to catch a ride. That “stranger” became my wife and today is our 54th wedding anniversary.
Anyway, one of the projects I was involved in with Lockheed included underground nuclear testing and I spent a number of months at the Nevada Test Site, north of Las Vegas.
What was it like to experience a test up close?
Humbling. That’s really the only word I have for it.
By the time I was involved with testing, it was all underground. But still, the impact was huge. After detonation, the ground would swell up, almost as though changing from solid to liquid and then it came at you like a wave. And you couldn’t stand up because you’d get knocked down, as if you're at the epicenter of an earthquake. That’s the closest way I can describe it. I never saw an atmospheric test with a big mushroom cloud so I can’t compare it to that. But I’ve never forgotten the sensation. And in perspective, none of the devices whose tests I experienced were as large as those of Trinity, Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
What do you hope OLLI members take away from your course?
It’s my hope that they come away feeling that they heard a compelling story about how the nuclear age began with revolutionary science, wartime intrigue, a cast of brilliant scientific minds and just ordinary people who learned how to collaborate for the common goal of ending World War II. I also hope that OLLI members will gain a greater perspective on how this effort that happened almost 80 years ago still affects the geopolitics of today.
I can’t wrap up this interview without asking about the origin of your name “Bebo.”
I'm from North Carolina. In the South, people grow up with nicknames, which they usually shed them by the time they’re adults. As the story goes, when I was about six months old and my sister was two-and-a-half, she tried to call me “Big Boy” which came out as Bebo. It stuck.