> Needless to mention that most leaders of the Manhattan project where former PhD students or assistants of Max Born in Göttingen, including Oppenheimer and Teller
Yes, I find this era fascinating. So many quirky personalities!
Enrico Fermi was another giant of this era, not only a brilliant theoretical and experimental physicist,
but, by all accounts, a very kind and warm person (unlike Teller ;-).
Sadly, many of them (including Fermi) died far too young of radiation-related illnesses.
I remember watching Oppenheimer,
an excellent BBC TV series with some great acting performances, especially by Sam Waterson in the lead role.
Though it also covered Oppenheimer's (communist) political affiliations, most of the series centres on the
antics of a bunch of brilliant European theoretical physicists thrown together to work on the Manhattan Project
in the middle of the New Mexico desert. :)