Martians of Science Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century

by Hargittai, Istvan

• ISBN13: 9780195365566
• ISBN10: 0195365569
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

If science has the equivalent of a Bloomsbury group, it is the five men born at the turn of the twentieth century in Budapest: Theodore von Karman, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, and Edward Teller. From Hungary to Germany to the United States, they remained friends and continued to work together and influence each other throughout their lives. As a result, their work was integral to some of the most important scientific and political developments of the twentieth century. Istvan Hargittai tells the story of this remarkable group: Wigner won a Nobel Prize in theoretical physics; Szilard was the first to see that a chain reaction based on neutrons was possible, initiated the Manhattan Project, but left physics to try to restrict nuclear arms; von Neumann could solve difficult problems in his head and developed the modern computer for more complex problems; von Karman became the first director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, providing the scientific basis for the U.S. Air Force; and Teller was the father of the hydrogen bomb, whose name is now synonymous with the controversial "Star Wars" initiative of the 1980s. Each was fiercely opinionated, politically active, and fought against all forms of totalitarianism. Hargittai, as a young Hungarian physical chemist, was able to get to know some of these great men in their later years, and the depth of information and human interest in The Martians of Science is the result of his personal relationships with the subjects, their families, and their contemporaries. "This is an important story that needs to be told, and Hargittai tells it well." --Nature "What a story! Hargittai, a Jewish-Hungarian like his heroes, tells the remarkable story of five immigrants, of vastly different politics, without whom American science (and the world) would not be the same." --Roald Hoffmann, Nobel laureate, Cornell University

Author Biography

Istvan Hargittai is Professor of Chemistry and head of the George A. Olah PhD School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and has lectured in some 30 countries and taught at several universities in the United States. His books include the Candid Science series of his collected interviews with famous scientists, The Road to Stockholm, and Our Lives.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xix
Arrival and Departure	p. 3
Family Origins and Early Childhood	p. 3
Gem and Less: Gimnazium Experience	p. 11
Background in Hungary and First Transition	p. 17
Turning Points in Germany	p. 33
Theodore von Karman	p. 33
Leo Szilard	p. 42
Eugene P. Wigner	p. 50
John von Neumann	p. 57
Edward Teller	p. 59
Second Transition: To the United States	p. 65
Theodore von Karman	p. 66
Leo Szilard	p. 71
Eugene P. Wigner	p. 79
John von Neumann	p. 81
Edward Teller	p. 83
"To Protect and Defend": World War II	p. 89
Theodore von Karman	p. 90
Leo Szilard	p. 96
Eugene P. Wigner	p. 115
John von Neumann	p. 122
Edward Teller	p. 126
To Deter: Cold War	p. 131
Theodore von Karman	p. 133
Leo Szilard	p. 138
Eugene P. Wigner	p. 154
John von Neumann	p. 156
Edward Teller	p. 160
Being Martian	p. 187
Comparisons	p. 187
Traits	p. 211
Religion and Jewishness	p. 225
Being Hungarian	p. 227
Epilogue	p. 229
Greatness in Science	p. 229
Had They Lived...	p. 234
Conclusion	p. 238
Sampler of Quotable Martians	p. 241
Notes	p. 253
Select Bibliography	p. 289
Chronologies	p. 295
Index	p. 303
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