Today in Science: Oppenheimer predicted black holes before he led Manhattan Project

Science meets inbox July 21, 2023: Oppenheimer before the Manhattan Project, the biggest source of food waste and a sure way to beat the heat. That and more below! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES Destroyer of Worlds Before he was the scientific leader of the U.S. Manhattan Project, the World War II–era crash program to build the first-ever atomic bombs, J. Robert Oppenheimer had written two papers on neutron stars and a visionary paper in 1939 theorizing the existence of black holes. He applied the principles of general relativity developed by Albert Einstein to determine that what we now know as a black hole can form when a star collapses.  Why this matters: At the time, the black hole paper was scarcely noticed, as Germany had just invaded Poland, launching World War II. Oppenheimer never wrote on the topic again. What the experts say: "It was influential; it was visionary," says Feryal Özel, an astrophysicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, of Oppenheimer's work on black holes and neutron stars. It's perhaps best known as a sobering example of how brilliant ideas can be overlooked, says Manuel Ortega-Rodríguez, a theoretical physicist at the University of Costa Rica. More on the Manhattan Project: Thousands of physicists, including Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman, contributed to the Manhattan Project. The development of the atomic bomb is one of the most astounding and morally tangled human achievements. Oppenheimer is the subject of the latest Christopher Nolan film, which comes out today.  –Hundreds of the scientists on the Manhattan Project were women (how cool!). Learn more about them in this podcast. --Senior editor Lee Billings talks to Alex Erstein, a nuclear historian, about the accuracy of the film, and the significance of examining our nuclear history at this point in time. –In the 1950s federal agents stormed a printing warehouse to destroy 3,000 copies of an issue of Scientific American, which had published an open rebuke of the American nuclear program, written by physicist Hans Bethe, a key scientist on the Manhattan Project.  J. Robert Oppenheimer (right) applied the principles of general relativity developed by Albert Einstein (left) in his work on neutron stars and black holes. Credit: Corbis Historical via Getty Images Waste Not Roughly a third of all food is lost during harvest, storage and transportation, or gets wasted by consumers. Researchers examined 16 years of food supply data from 164 countries to determine the losses and which food types were most wasted. Of the wasted food, meat and other animal products accounted for nearly three quarters of emissions generated during their creation and distribution.     Why this matters:  Around a third of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions comes from the global food system, but before now scientists didn't know how much food waste contributed. What the experts say: This new data could help the food industry target carbon-reducing efforts, says Prajal Pradhan, a food systems expert at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. High-income countries could focus on saving food discarded by consumers, and low- and middle-income countries could prioritize minimizing food loss during harvesting, processing, storage and transportation. Processing animal products is extremely energy intensive. For example, processing beef creates 13 times more carbon emissions than processing tomatoes. Credit: Jade Khatib TODAY'S NEWS • If you're more of a Barbie person than an Oppenheimer person, here's what Barbie's all-pink world would do to your brain (sad news, it's pretty drab). | 3 min read • Two hours before a large earthquake, the ground seems to move—infinitesimally and without causing any shaking—a new study shows. We might be one step closer to predicting the events. | 3 min read • The chances of aquatic mammals—like orcas, dolphins and whales—ever evolving to live on land again are almost nonexistent, a new study has found. | 3 min read • Examining clouds of ultracold atoms created in laboratories here on Earth, scientists might finally solve some long-standing puzzles about neutron stars. | 8 min read More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • In February a federal circuit court in Texas ruled in U.S. v. Rahimi that any person under an active domestic violence civil protection order is nevertheless constitutionally entitled to possess firearms. In its upcoming term, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of this Fifth Circuit decision, which now is the law in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. It would be dangerous to strike down "nearly 30 years of federal law under the Violence Against Women Act prohibiting individuals under a domestic violence protection order from possessing firearms," writes Jane K. Stoever, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. | 5 min read More Opinion ICYMI (Our most-read stories of the week) • Ancient 'Unknown' Script Is Finally Deciphered | 3 min read • Phoenix Roasts in Record-Breaking 110-Plus-Degree Heat, with No End in Sight | 6 min read • Stunning, Hours-Long Solar Flare Unleashes Plasma Blob | 2 min read If you're stuck in a heat wave this weekend, you've got some good options at the movie theater, and it'll give you a chance to cool off. It might not be the scientifically oriented choice, but I'm most looking forward to seeing the latest "Mission Impossible" film--check out this behind-the-scenes clip of Tom Cruise speeding a motorcycle off a cliff for one of the stunts. Although now that I think about it, this is pure physics in action.  Send me your movie reviews and any other thoughts by emailing: newsletters@sciam.com. Enjoy the weekend! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences