Information AboutLeo Szilard |
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Leó Szilárd ( February 11 , 1898 – May 30 , 1964 ) was a Jew ish Hungarian - American Physicist who conceived the Nuclear Chain Reaction and worked on the Manhattan Project . He was born in Budapest and died in La Jolla , California . PERSONALITY Szilárd was well known to his colleagues as an eccentric, lightning-quick thinker who "seemed fond of startling people" with strange, seemingly incongruous, yet extremely perceptive statements and questions. He was also extremely good at predicting political events. He is said to have predicted World War I as a boy, and when the Nazi party first appeared, he predicted that it would one day control Europe . In 1934 , he foresaw the details of World War II . He then made a habit of residing in hotel rooms, with a packed suitcase always on hand. DEVELOPING THE IDEA OF THE NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION In 1933 Szilárd fled to London to escape Nazi persecution, where he read an article written by Ernest Rutherford in '' The Times '' which rejected the concept of atomic energy. Although Nuclear Fission had not yet been discovered, Szilárd was reportedly so annoyed at this dismissal that he conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for Traffic Light s to change on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury . The following year he filed for a Patent on the concept. Szilárd first attempted to create a chain reaction using Beryllium and Indium , but these Elements did not produce a chain reaction. In 1936 , he assigned the chain-reaction patent to the British Admiralty to ensure its secrecy (). Szilárd also was the co-holder, with Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi , of the patent on the Nuclear Reactor (). In 1938 Szilárd accepted an offer to conduct research at Columbia University in Manhattan , and moved to New York , and was soon joined by Fermi. After learning about nuclear fission in 1939 , they concluded that Uranium would be the element capable of sustaining a chain reaction. THE MANHATTAN PROJECT Szilárd was instrumental in the development of the Manhattan Project . It was his idea to send a confidential letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining the possibility of nuclear weapons, and to encourage the development of a program which could lead to their creation. In August 1939 he obtained Albert Einstein 's endorsement of this proposal, and the Einstein-Szilárd Letter eventually led to the establishment of research into nuclear fission by the U.S. government. Later, he moved to the University Of Chicago to continue work on the project. There, along with Fermi, he helped to construct the first "neutronic reactor", a uranium and Graphite " Atomic Pile " in which the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was achieved, in 1942 . As the war continued, Szilárd became increasingly dismayed that scientists were losing control over their research to the military, and clashed many times with General Leslie Groves , military head of the project. His resentment towards the U.S. Government was exacerbated by his failed attempt to avoid the use of the atomic bomb in War . Szilárd became a Naturalized Citizen of the United States in 1943 . VIEWS ON THE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS In 1932 Szilárd had read about the fictional "atomic bombs" described in H. G. Wells 's Science Fiction novel '' The World Set Free ''. This inspired him to be the first scientist to seriously examine the science behind the creation of Nuclear Weapon s. As a survivor of a devastated Hungary after World War I , and having witnessed the subsequent Terror Of The Reds And The Whites , Szilárd developed an enduring passion for the preservation of human life and Freedom , especially freedom to communicate ideas. He hoped that the U.S. government, which prior to ) The atomic bombings of Japan resulted in the deaths of as many as 250,000 people, the total destruction of Hiroshima , the partial destruction of Nagasaki , and led within the week to the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan . However, the use of the atomic bomb was considered by some to be humane in the sense that it halted the mass slaughter which had characterized modern Industrial Warfare . To wit, the Firebombing of Dresden , Hamburg and Tokyo caused more deaths than even Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before the war, Szilárd had considered the U.S. the one truly humane government in the world; that is why he chose to assist the U.S. with the atomic bomb. He abandoned this view after the weapons use. AFTER THE WAR In 1947 , Szilárd switched fields of study because of his horror of atomic weapons, moving from physics to molecular biology, working extensively with Aaron Novick . He proposed, in February of 1950, a new kind of nuclear weapon using Cobalt as a tamper, a Cobalt Bomb , which he said might wipe out all life on the planet. U.S. News & World Report featured an interview with Szilárd in its August 15, 1960 issue, "President Truman Didn't Understand." His penchant to use language provocatively and say things which most readers would dismiss as absurd is well evidenced in this quote from that interview, "But again, I don't believe this staging a demonstration was the real issue, and in a sense it is just as immoral to force a sudden ending of a war by threatening violence as by using violence. My point is that violence would not have been necessary if we had been willing to negotiate." He spent his last years as a fellow at the Salk Institute in San Diego . The Impact Crater Szilárd on the Lunar Farside is named for him. EXTERNAL LINKS Information
Patents
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