“We knew the world would not be the same,” Robert Oppenheimer says slowly [1]. He swallows, and continues, keeping his eyes downcast. “A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.” This man, known as the stalwart powerhouse behind the Manhattan Project, now stumbles over his words. He wipes his eyes dry, trying to keep his voice level. “I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds [1].’” These words would be recorded in 1955, a decade after the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although these weapons effectively ended World War II, the devastation and destruction they wrought was echoed in Oppenheimer’s speech. Although men like Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi would remain paramount in the history of the Manhattan project, the atomic bomb would not have been possible without a more obscure man: Leo
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However, he was much more than his discoveries, or a passing figure in history books. He possessed bold intelligence, child-like wonder, and fond affinity for doling out advice. Born to a well-to-do Hungarian-Jewish family in 1898, Szilard was a “pampered child,” [2, pg 7]. Wanting to follow in the footsteps of his father, Leo sought to become an engineer. He enrolled in a technical university in Budapest in 1916, but was there only a year before being drafted as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army [3]. After falling ill with Spanish Influenza in 1917, Leo was spared from the front lines of World War I. It is thought that this single circumstance saved his life, as the regimen he was serving was completely obliterated during battle [4]. After being honorably discharged, Szilard attended school in Germany to resume his
However, he was much more than his discoveries, or a passing figure in history books. He possessed bold intelligence, child-like wonder, and fond affinity for doling out advice. Born to a well-to-do Hungarian-Jewish family in 1898, Szilard was a “pampered child,” [2, pg 7]. Wanting to follow in the footsteps of his father, Leo sought to become an engineer. He enrolled in a technical university in Budapest in 1916, but was there only a year before being drafted as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army [3]. After falling ill with Spanish Influenza in 1917, Leo was spared from the front lines of World War I. It is thought that this single circumstance saved his life, as the regimen he was serving was completely obliterated during battle [4]. After being honorably discharged, Szilard attended school in Germany to resume his