A Scientific Warrior [Edward Teller, key developer of H-Bomb]

IEEE Spectrum Magazine ^ | October 2001 | Stephen Cass

[Incorrigible]

Some great quotes from a man we are all indebted to.

IEEE's (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) Spectrum is the general interest magazine of the organization.

PBS's perspective on Edward Teller: Race for the Superbomb; Edward Teller

[sheik yerbouty]

Europe's loss was America'a gain!

[Paradox]

A bump to the great immigrants who love America and stand by her all the way!

[WyldKard]

Teller is still ALIVE?! Wow!!

I am still convinced to this day that Germany's "Ultimate Solution" policy was what ironicly kept them from getting the bomb. The vast majority of scientists at the Manhattan Project were Jews (including Fermi), a bunch of whom were trying to get the hell AWAY from the Axis. If I remember correctly, the Germans got so desperate, they had to make the remaining Jewish Physicists in Germany "Honorary Aryans.", to keep them working on their projects. (I could be wrong, but I thought thats what happened...)

It's a good thing we won when we did too. Wasn't Werner Von Braun only a couple weeks away from perfecting a rocket that could hit Manhattan, when Germany surrendered?

[Tijeras_Slim]

I take anything Teller says with a grain of salt. He is well known for "revising" his role in the history of the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Granted, he is brilliant, but his ego is bigger than his IQ.

Before flaming, I have worked in the underground test field and unrepentantly think we should go back to it.

[mlo]

Teller recently gave credit for the initial working design of the first hydrogen bomb to Richard Garwin.

[OBAFGKM]

"I take anything Teller says with a grain of salt. He is well known for "revising" his role in the history of the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Granted, he is brilliant, but his ego is bigger than his IQ."

True enough. It was undoubtedly the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam who "invented" the hydrogen bomb. Teller never forgave him for that. Nevertheless, it would not have been invented (so soon) had Teller not been in charge of the project.

Some Poetry:

"The Perils of Modern Living" by Harold P. Furth

Well up above the tropostrata
There is a region stark and stellar
Where, on a streak of anti-matter
Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller.

Remote from Fusion's origin,
He lived unguessed and unawares
With all his antikith and kin,
And kept macassars on his chairs.

One morning, idling by the sea,
He spied a tin of monstrous girth
That bore three letters: A. E. C.
Out stepped a visitor from Earth.

Then, shouting gladly o'er the sands,
Met two who in their alien ways
Were like as lentils. Their right hands
Clasped, and the rest was gamma rays.

[chimera]

I had the honor of being Edward Teller's host for an evening when he spoke at a meeting of a national society that we organized locally. He has to be the most brilliant man I have ever met, and his passion and wit are as strong and sharp as ever. Pretty amazing. Must be the strong Hungarian stock, as well as a good diet of pierogis and glonkies.

I've noticed a revisionist trend lately to downplay Teller's role in the development of thermonuclear weapons and I think such a trend is a disservice to the man and history. With clear hindsight, it is easy to see how important it was to stay a step ahead of the Soviet Bear during the Cold War years, and Teller's work helped us to do that. Western civilization might very well have been gobbled down whole otherwise.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This gives me an idea for a Christmas present for my husband. My husband worked at the Lawrence Radiation Lab (the research arm of Livermore Weapons Lab) when Teller was there. My husband was a young engineer, just out of school, and Teller was an umpty ump in the highest echelons of the Labs.

A controversy arose within our school district in 1967, and my husband and I went to the meeting. We both spoke out publicly (our first time to ever do this). We were ridiculed by a commie member of the Berkeley School Board who thought we were so old fashioned and narrow minded that we should move to Massuchusetts. The incident was written up in the paper, and we received a phone call from Mrs. Edward Teller the next day congratulating us on our wisdom and our public stand. She made sure to mention that her husband agreed with us too.

We lost the issue, moved away, but we have never forgotten the incident; and we've never been quiet and stayed home in the years since when we saw our schools, city, state, or country going astray. I guess you could say that, in a way, Dr. & Mrs. Edward Teller were responsible for making us FReepers!

[Moridin]

bttt

[Incorrigible]

Evening bump

[eniapmot]

..the question of nuclear-powered submarines came up, Los Alamos said, "It can't be done for a reasonable price." Livermore said, "It can be done," and we got the contract...

That's interesting. There are those who decry competition for not being efficient. Thanks for the post.

[eniapmot]

..... were Jews (including Fermi)...

No he wasn't.

[sruleoflaw]

I would say that you and some others really don't know what you talking about regarding Dr. Teller. I have met Dr. Teller on several occasions and read much on the Manhattan Project and the hydrogen bomb. If you and Incorrigible are so up to speed, who else besides Dr. Teller really pushed for and worked on the H-bomb (all while the Soviets were doing that work)???? As I recall, Ulam was pretty unhelpful most of the time.

[WyldKard]

No he wasn't.
(Re: Fermi being Jewish)

You are right. My bad. I looked it up. His WIFE, however, was Jewish. I'm sure that had a big hand in him defecting and helping the US out...

[MaeWest]

It was undoubtedly the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam who "invented" the hydrogen bomb...

Huh? No way. Al Gore invented the hydrogen bomb.

[PatrickHenry]

Wasn't "Dr. Strangelove" intended to be a caricature of Teller? Typical of Hollywood.

[LibWhacker]

I wish I had lived in a better time--a time where dangers like that of Hitler and Stalin had been absent.

Boy, don't we all!? And now we've got Osama. Some things never change.

I've always been floored by the laser clarity of Teller's thinking. We need a million more like him, though one is a great gift. I wish he were a young man again.