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Edward Teller: Shaping an Uncertain Future
| Article
# : |
10752 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
3,530 Words |
| Author
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Andrew Szanton
Andrew Szanton collaborated with physicist Eugene Wigner on
Wigner's memoirs and is now collaborating on the memoirs of
civil rights leader Charles Evers. |
In the spring of 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt concluded a speech to the Pan American Scientific Congress, in Washington, D.C., by saying: "If the scientists in the free countries will not make weapons to defend the freedom of their countries, then freedom will be lost." Hitler had only the day before invaded Holland and Belgium.
Attending that meeting was Edward Teller, a Hungarian-born physicist who wanted to hear Roosevelt's reaction to Hitler's latest conquest. Roosevelt's words changed Teller's life. He had seen freedom assaulted by the Nazis. "I had the strange feeling that the president was speaking to me. When he was through… my mind was made up that I should be a participant, and I have not changed it since."
For 50 years Teller has been one of the world's great physicists and has profoundly shaped both science policy and military strategy.
His work in physics is superb, and of great range: In chemical physics, his work includes a theory of molecular vibration, chemical kinetics, and molecular structure; in nuclear physics, he has contributed to theories of beta decay and nuclear structure.
Teller, more than any other single person, helped develop the hydrogen bomb. He helped establish crucial safety procedures for nuclear reactors. The excellent safety record of U.S. nuclear power plants owes much to his careful planning. Perhaps his proudest achievement is his work to help found the California weapons laboratory, Lawrence Livermore. He has served several U.S. universities with distinction, and at the age 85 is still intensely active.
But for all his activity, brilliance, and range, Teller is a polarizing figure. Friends find him charming, honest, and devoted; opponents recoil at his political beliefs and acts. It is Teller's misfortune to be best known for his role in various scientific controversies.
Three great controversies stand out in Teller's life: his role in the revocation of security clearance in 1954 for J. Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the assembly of the first atomic bomb; his opposition to nuclear test bans; and his role in developing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as "Star Wars."
The public often misunderstands scientists and complex scientific issues. But scientists themselves
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