Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Evan Andrews [Click to enlarge]

Leo Szilard, a Jewish Hungarian-American physicist, is considered the father of the nuclear chain reaction and, consequently, the atomic bomb. Born in Hungary, he moved to Germany to study in Berlin under the likes of Einstein and Plank.

In 1933, Szilard fled to London to avoid Nazi persecution. It was there that he read an article by Ernest Rutherford stating the impossibility of harnessing atomic energy for practical purposes. Legend has it that, annoyed at such a dismissal of the idea, Szilard came up with the thought of nuclear chain reaction while waiting at a traffic light on his way to work.

In 1938, Szilard moved to the U.S. He was joined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, an expert in induced radioactivity. At this time, the Germans under Hitler were attempting to practically demonstrate a chain reaction as a precursor to the invention of the first atomic bomb.

Szilard and Fermi succeeded in demonstrating that uranium could be used to generate a chain reaction. "We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for 10 minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night, I knew the world was headed for sorrow," said Szilard.

In 1942, the pair activated the world's first nuclear reactor. After registering a net outflux of energy from the reactor, Szilard shook Fermi's hand, handed him champagne in a plastic cup and remarked that the day would go down as a black day in the history of mankind.

What drove Szilard to pursue the nuclear reactor and nuclear weapons? He was a witness to Nazi persecution and greatly feared a world in which Hitler's Germany was the sole possessor of nuclear weapons. It was this fear that led him to write a letter to President Roosevelt, co-signed by Einstein, detailing the Nazi plan and the need for a U.S. nuclear weapons program. This resulted in the establishment of the Manhattan Project.

As the project continued, Szilard became increasingly worried and dismayed at the sight of the scientists losing control of the project to the military. It had been his hope that the U.S. government would possess the farsight and integrity to ensure that it would never need to use a nuclear weapon.

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