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Comment by Loughla | Hacker News Reader

It absolutely did, for decades. I would argue that, until the movie, more people knew the name Fermi.

Google trends would disagree with you there [0].

Anecdotally, I've only ever heard the name Fermi in the phrase Fermi Paradox. Oppenheimer I know much more about, and I only know there's a movie about him because it's all over HN this month.

I'm sure that the red scare did tarnish his name for decades, but it looks to me like those decades had ended by 2004 when Google's trends pick up.

[0] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...

Other way around for me "Fermion" "Fermi-Dirac Statistics" "Fermi Energy Level" etc. There are a lot of things in physics named after Fermi not aware of anything named after Oppenheimer.

Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

"Fermi estimation" has leaked out of physics into other areas too.

I lived just close enough to Fermilab that my exposure to both names was fairly even. Probably not true of most people though

Surely not. Oppenhiemer "creating" the Atomic Bomb is pretty widespread general knowledge. Nobody outside physics geeks has heard of Fermi.

My context is from being outside of the US though.

Oppenheimer has an Epic Rap Battle of History, Fermi doesn't.

Case closed.

>Nobody outside physics geeks has heard of Fermi.

Plenty of folks who aren't physics geeks have heard of the Fermi Paradox.

Source: Am not a physics geek.

It clearly depends on where do you live. In Italy, Fermi is mostly known, instead of Oppenheimer, as one of the creator of the atomic bomb. It feels like another Marconi/Bell case.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Panisperna_boys

I think this is actually evidence of what the poster above is referring to - the long-term effects of Oppenheimer being unfairly discredited. Fermi has streets, schools and subway stations named after him all over Italy. Oppenheimer doesn't (at least not to anywhere near the same extent), even in the US, because during the period when this might most likely have happened, towards the end of his life and shortly after his death, he was still widely regarded as being a traitor.

Anyone who has ever pondered the existence of extraterrestrial life has heard of Fermi's paradox, while only history buffs interested in WWII or Japan or the Second Red Scare or alternatively science geeks interested in nuclear explosives have ever heard of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Aren't there more people who are seriously interested in and studying WWII history than there are people who are seriously interested in and studying extraterrestrial life?

google trends seems to agree: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=world%20...

Not necessarily the bit with Oppenheimer in it. He's not hugely relevant outside making things go bang in new and exciting ways.

Whereas Fermi (in the context of the Fermi paradox) is kinda foundational, if you're in the extraterrestrial life field.

I'm a Japanese, Oppenhiemer isn't much famous name IMO, though his name may be written in textbook. How Manhattan project succeeded great is a minor topic in general. It's somewhat famous that Einstein encouraged developing of nuke and finally against for bombing. Fermi is somewhat famous for Fermi estimate.

The way I was taught, it was "yes he created the bomb, but as a manager." Which is... not entirely unfair.

For me it was absolutely Fermi. And Feynman and Teller. But Oppenheimer definitely up there.

Oh also Leo fucking Szilard! From wikipedia ...

> He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea in 1936, and in late 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb.

(Off topic) I thought Teller was the quiet one? ;-)

How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy?

Russians, Sting, 1985

-- so I would say Oppenheimer being the "inventor" of the atomic bomb was (literally) pop culture

“In the Soviet Union, a scientist is blinded by the resumption of nuclear testing, and he is reminded that Dr. Robert Oppenheimer’s optimism fell at the first hurdle.” ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards’, Billy Bragg 1988

The movie as in this new one? Are you serious?

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