Left: Frank and brother J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Center; Young Frank. Right:
The budding physicist.
Photos courtesy Michael Oppenheimer.
Frank and fellow physicists pioneered
devices for investigating cosmic
rays. The detectors were
borne
aloft by weather balloons.
After being blacklisted from physics
research during the McCarthy
era, Frank moved to a cattle
ranch in Pagosa Springs, Colorado,
where he developed his "hands-on"
approach to science teaching
at a local high school.
Right: Frank secured the Palace of
Fine Arts
in San Francisco and
opened the doors of the
Exploratorium
in 1969. Below: Early staff
meetings were intimate and sometimes
raucous
gatherings, as the educational
future of the
museum was forged.
Right: A pinhole portrait of Frank created
by Exploratorium
artist and exhibit
developer Bob Miller. This photo
was taken
during an eclipse of
the sun, and each of the tiny
images
is in the shape of the
partially obscured sun.
