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He shows that what Oppenheimer enjoyed most was forming communities of scientists and shaping a consensus among them. Oppenheimer had a way of bringing together the most brilliant and contentious minds, absorbing their arguments, and then finding a way out of disagreements and impasses. In the laboratory he was clumsy, and he did not seem to have the stamina to stay with work that would ultimately produce original results. But in the arena of science, among groups of dedicated researchers, he could weld competing factions into a smoothly functioning organization.
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