Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1979. január-június (33. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1979-06-21 / 25. szám
Thursday, June 21. 1979. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ *» ' -fT y 9 SCIENCE FROM HUNGARY TO THE WORLD LEO SZILARD 1898-1964 The recently published book excerpted here through the courtesy of Mrs. Szilard and the MIT PRESS, presents Szilard’s version of the facts through the tape-recorded interviews, supplemented by correspondence and other documents. “As far as I can see, I was born a scientist. I believe that many children are bom with an inquisitive mind, the mind of a scientist, and I assume that I became a scientist because in some ways I remained a child. Very often it is difficult to know where one’s set of values comes from, but I have no difficulty in tracing mine to the children’s tales which my mother used to tell me. My addiction to the truth is traceable to these tales and so is my predilection for “Saving the World.” Apart from my mother’s tales the most serious influence on my life came from a book which I read when I was ten years old. It was a Hungarian classic, taught in the schools, The Tragedy of Man. I read it much too prematurely and it had a great influence on me, perhaps just because I read it prematurely. Because I read it I grasped early in life that “it is not necessary to succeed in order to persevere.” I was the oldest of three children, and we lived in a house which belonged...originally to my grandparents. Then it was inherited by three sisters, of whom my mother was one, and each sister had a whole floor, It was a house with a large garden in the cottage district of Budapest...I remember that I was already very intensely interested in physics ’when I was thirteen. At that time I got a few playthings in physics, and I remember how overjoyed I was. v. I must have made a rather strong impression on my schoolmates, judging from the fact that they reported to me years later conversations which they had with me and which I had forgotten. One of these “memorable” conversations occured at the outset of the First World War. I was sixteen at the time, and when the war started we didn’t have a very good conception of what kind of an enterprise this was. Most people thought that the war would last just a few months and, as the German Kaiser once said, our troops would be back by Christmas. He meant Christmas , 1914. There was speculation in the class as to who might win the war, and apparently I said to them at the time that I of course did not know who would win the war, but I did know how the war ought to end. It ought to end by the defeat of the central powers, that is the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and Germany, and also end by the defeat of Russia. I said I couldn’t quite see how this could happen, since they were fitting on opposite sides, but I said that this was really what ought to happen. In retrospect I find it difficult to understand how at the age of sixteen, and without any direct knowledge of countries other than Hungary, I was able to make this statement. Somehow I felt that Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were weaker political structures than both France and England. At the same time I felt that Russia was a weaker political structure than the German Empire. I am inclined to think that my claritv of judgement reached its peak when I was sixteen, and that thereafter it did not increase any further and perhaps even declined. In 1916, one year before I was drafted, I entered Student days in Budapest, 1915. (right) Portrait at time of enrollment at the Institute of Technology in Budapest, Hungary, 1916. the Hungarian Institute of Technology as a student in order to study electrical engineering. My real interest at that time was physics, but there was no career in physics in Hungary. If you studied physics all that you could become was a high school teacher of physics-not a career that had any attraction for me. Therefore I considered seriously doing the next best thing and studying chemistry. I tought that if I studied chemistry I would learn something that was useful in physics and have enough time to pick up whatever physics I needed as I went along. This I believe in retrospect was a wise choice. But I didn’t follow it, for all those whom I consulted impressed upon me the difficulty of making a living even in chemistry, and they urged me to study engineering. I succumbed to that advice, and I cannot say that I regret it, because whatever I learned while I was studying engineering stood me in good stead later after the discovery of the fission of uranium. The war years were rather uneventful for me, even though one year before the end of the war I was drafted into the army. In Austria and Hungary, again corresponding to the set of values of those times in those localities, a young man who had high school education was automatically scheduled to become an officer, so I was sent to officers’ school. And again in accordance with the set of values of those times, I ended up third in the officers’ school of the brigade in spite of my rather unmilitary posture. Even though I was obviously not what you might call a good soldier, my teachers were impressed with my ability to grasp scientific and technical problems. Because I was able to explain how the telephone worked when nobody else in the class could explain the functioning of this mysterious gadget, I had a certain amount of standing in the class; and in spite of myunmilitary behavior I ended up third in my class which comprised the officers- to-be of that particular year. (To be continued) THE TRAGEDY OF MAN ( cont from p. 8. ) Lucifer In very truth, brave comfort dost thou take; If but the cause thou foughtest for were high; But that for which thou bearest arms to-day, To-morrow thou despisest, and dost find Thy heart was kindled by a childish whim, Didst thou not shed at Chaeronea once Thy blood, a vanquished freedom to defend? And didst thou later, not with Constantine Fight, too, his world-wide empire to create? Didst thou not perish in a martyr’s death, And afterward then not oppose the faith, And fight with weapons science lent to thee? Adam True is it, yet the issue was the same. Though foolish my intent, it fired my heart, My soul uplifted; thus it grew to be A cause most high and holy. Though the cause Were Cross or Science, liberty or might, It matters not in what form worked the cause, It yet advance the progress of mankind. Oh, lead me back to Earth to fight anew. Lucifer Already hast thou then forgot the words That spake the Scientist when he foretold Four thousand years would pass, and this thy world Should freeze, ice-bound, and conflict be no more? Adam If that our science not our fate defy But I feel, I know, that it will defy. Lucifer And then - shall there be conflict, greatness, strength Within that ordered world that Reason forms Of science and of theory, that world That thou didst gaze upon a while ago? Adam Let it but save our Earth - it too will pass, As all things that their office have fulfilled, And then the thought creative shall once more Breathe into it the flaming breath of life, Lead thou me back, for I now burn to see Upon this earth redeemed in what new cause My heart shall be enkindled. Lucifer Then return! Translated by J.C.W. Horne Renew your subscription HERITAGE 130 E 16 St. New York,NY 10003. Enclosed please find $ 3.- for renewal of ray subscription to Heritage. 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