Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century

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Istvan Hargittai (Professor of Chemistry and Head of the George A Olah Ph.D. School of Chemistry and Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics)

Martians of Science

Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century

Istvan Hargittai (Professor of Chemistry and Head of the George A Olah Ph.D. School of Chemistry and Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics)

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English

Oxford University Press
09 May 2008

Mathematics & Sciences; History of science; Physics

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.

By: Istvan Hargittai (Professor of Chemistry and Head of the George A Olah Ph.D. School of Chemistry and Engineering Budapest University of Technology and Economics)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 580g
ISBN: 9780195365566
ISBN 10: 0195365569
Publication Date: 09 May 2008
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction ; 1. Arrival and Departure ; 2. Turning Points in Germany ; 3. Second Transition: to the United States ; 4. To protect and defend: World War II ; 5. To Deter: Cold War ; 6. Being Martian ; Epilogue ; Greatness in Science ; Had They Lived ; Conclusion ; Appendix: Quotable Martians ; Notes ; Select Bibliography ; Annotated Name Index ; Subject Index

Reviews for Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century

What a story! Five brilliant Jewish-Hungarian kids burst out of the great secondary schools of Hungary, learn their physics in Germany, and give their all to America in WWII Istv?n 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 Hoffman, Nobel Laureate, Ithaca, New York Istv?n Hargittai traces the turbulent lives of five uniquely creative scientists who survived, succeeded, and changed the world. --Arno Penzias, Nobel laureate, San Francisco This is an important story that needs to be told, and Hargittai tells it well. --Nature Hargittai's book is subtle and thoughtful. --Physics Today Charlie Munger of WESCO Financial Corporation recommended this book at the 2007 WESCO Annual Meeting: It is a hell of a book about five Hungarian physicists driven to the U.S. by Hitler, who contributed much to science her