Outliers: The Story of Success · chapter 4 · id outliers-c4-02-robert-oppenheimer-tried-to-po

“Robert Oppenheimer tried to poison his tutor at Cambridge with chemicals, yet talked his way out of expulsion, demonstrating practical intelligence -- while Chris Langen, despite superior IQ, could not navigate bureaucratic obstacles at university.”

needs contextconfidence: medium⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending

Receipts

Bird & Sherwin (2005), American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, KnopfFLAGGED: DOI not in registry

The poisoning incident at Cambridge is documented in Oppenheimer biographies. Oppenheimer left a poisoned apple on Patrick Blackett's desk. Cambridge put him on probation rather than expelling him, partly due to his family's connections and his own persuasive abilities.

Replication Index - Independent verificationsource alive

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.