<Teller Talks

I am going to get a hold of his latest book, when I get the time.

I have in my hand at this moment, the November 18, 1957 issue of TIME magazine with Teller on the cover.

Sputnik is orbiting. The US has been shocked out of its lethargy. Teller and folks like him are finally given the time of day.

In the same issue there is a sub-article called 'bright spectrum' Which talks of the US leading scientists:

Luis Alvarez, 46
Richard Feynman, 39
Murray Gell-Mann, 28
Ernest Lawrence, 56
J. Robert Oppenheimer, 53
Isidor Rabi, 59
Julian Schwinger, 39
Glenn Seaborg, 45
Claude Shannon, 41

A fascinating set of mini-biographies and a keen look into our cold-war scientific arsenal.

Some quotes from Teller in this article are as true today as they were in 1957:

Problem with the US...
"Tone deafness towards science in our society at large"

"Baseball could not fluorish without fans...but where are the science fans?"

When asked what he is doing (then at AEC Livermore Labs) he replies:

"Having Fun."

"An adventure."

He has an Atomic Alphabet for his children he was working on (I wonder if he has finished it?) :

A stands for atom; it is so small no one has seen it at all.

B stands for bombs; the bombs are much bigger. So brother, do not be fast on the trigger.

F stands for fission; that is what things do when they get wobbly and big and must split in two. And just to confound the atomic confusion, What fission has done may be undone by fusion.

H has become a most ominous letter; It means something big, if not something better.

S stands for secret; you can keep it forever - provided there's no one aboroad who is clever.

That was as far as he had gotten in 1957. (Judging by the rhymes he may have figured working on hydrogen bombs was easier than good poetry ;-)

Born in Hungary in 1908, into a Jewish family his father taught him two grim lessons:

1) He would have to emigrate to some more favorable country when he grew up.

2) as a member of a disliked minority he would have to excel the average just to stay even.

As his nation was devoured by war and then communism - Teller became the US most fervent anti-communist, cold-warrior.

"Even if the US wins the science race, there are bigger problems for tomorrow: how to live with each other on a greatly contracted globe; how to have law and order in the world; how to extend industrialization throughout the world; how to eliminate racial strife and solve the problems of the heritage of hatred left behind by oppression and past discords. In all these really difficult problems the scientific race is only a small part. But if we fail in that, we wont even have a voice in these bigger problems."

All still... painfully true in 2002.

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