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Judging Edward Teller, by Istvan Hargittai, another Hungarian from a subsequent generation who met Teller, the story of the life of this prominent nuclear engineer / scientist is told from start to finish using an excellent narrative style and attention to the details of Teller's life that keep the pages turning. The story begins with the birth of Teller in Hungary on January 15, 1908, his early life and early scientific training in Hungary. Then his continued training in Germany and later, study in American academia, and of course his role in the development of nuclear weapons. Teller is associated with four other Hungarian scientists of his age who made outstanding contributions to their own fields - Leo Szilard, Theodore Von Karman, John Von Neuman, and Eugene Wigner [and Edward Teller.] All the people Teller knew were international people and his story as developmental of a great mind is compelling and is told substantively while evading overriding but salient topics such as the nazification of Central Europe during his youth, the bitter battles of World Wars I and II, and other conflicts that obviously battered European society and caused many to emigrate outside the continent permanently after WWI, for example. That this story leaves out people like Andrew Grove of Intel, another of Teller's young colleagues is a kind of snub, unless these people were indeed very unaware of each other which is unlikely.
The text examines anew the development of the hydrogen bomb in a way any reader can comprehend and largely avoids political considerations, but does illustrate the importantly damaging spying the soviets did on the U.S. nuclear program. It is in all respects a moral triumph and a practical one that Teller's hydrogen bomb was never used, but that it has carried much weight as a talisman of superiority for the U.S., and rightly so, in any talks about arms that took place between the Americans and U.S.S.R. / R.F. up to this day. For another review,
click here.
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