Australian Biography - Sir Marcus Oliphant

Sir Marcus Oliphant is an excerpt from the program Sir Marcus Oliphant (26 mins), an episode of Australian Biography Series 1 (7 × 26 mins), produced in 1991.

The Australian Biography series profiles some of the most extraordinary Australians of our time. Many have had a major impact on the nation’s cultural, political and social life. All are remarkable and inspiring people who have reached a stage in their lives where they can look back and reflect. Through revealing in-depth interviews, they share their stories – of beginnings and challenges, landmarks and turning points. In so doing, they provide us with an invaluable archival record and a unique perspective on the roads we, as a country, have travelled.

Australian Biography Series 1 is a Film Australia National Interest Program.

This Digital Resource can be used to achieve the following outcomes:
5.2 A student uses and critically assesses a range of processes for responding and composing
5.3 A student selects, uses, describes and explains how different technologies affect and shape meaning
5.6 A student experiments with different ways of imaginatively and interpretively transforming experience, information and ideas into texts
5.9 A student demonstrates understanding of the ways texts reflect personal and public worlds
5.11 A student uses, reflects on, assesses and adapts their individual and collaborative skills for learning with increasing independence and effectiveness

This material is an extract. Teachers and students should consult the Board of Studies website for more information.

While at Adelaide University in 1927, Sir Marcus Oliphant was accepted by Cambridge University, where he became part of a team whose task was to split the atom. Following the onset of World War 2, Oliphant’s research focus changed to support the war effort. Initially, he was in charge of a team that successfully developed microwave radar. Then, in November 1943, Oliphant moved to the USA to work on the Manhattan Project — the development of the first atomic bomb. Nazi Germany was at the point of developing its own atom bomb and so the race was on. Initially, the bomb was developed for use against Nazi Germany; but after their surrender before the bomb was ready, it was used to force the Japanese to surrender. Two bombs were dropped in August 1945 with devastating results — one on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki. They remain the only two atomic bombs ever used in warfare.

After the war he returned to Australia, where he publicly opposed the development of atomic weapons as a misuse of atomic power.
'I suddenly realised that anybody who has a nuclear reactor can extract the plutonium from the reactor and make nuclear weapons, so that a country which has a nuclear reactor can, at any moment that it wants to, become a nuclear weapons power. And I, right from the beginning, have been terribly worried by the existence of nuclear weapons and very much against their use’.

On his return to Australia Oliphant became the first Director of the Australian National University’s Research School of Physical Sciences. After retiring from the ANU in 1967, Oliphant became the State Governor of South Australia in 1971.

Sir Marcus Oliphant retired to Canberra in 1976 and died in 2000.

1. 1. Describe the significant event Sir Marcus Oliphant is associated with and the role he played.
   2. Explain what he means by ‘double personality’.
   3. Identify the issue that he cannot reconcile.
   4. Describe your impressions of this scientist.
2. 1. Research Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Atomic Bomb and find fifteen different facts for each.
   2. Conduct a class debate on the topic, ‘Science is too important to be left to scientists’.
3. Write a letter to the editor, media article or speech presenting your point of view on the issue, ‘Science is too important to be left to scientists’.

Literacy Activity: Focus = Listening / Interpreting

1. Why do we see the newsreel of Hiroshima at the beginning of the clip? (2 marks)
2. What two things did he need to reconcile? (1 mark)
3. Was he successful? How do we know? (2 marks)

Go to Australian Biography and select Sir Marcus Oliphant