Leo Szilard -Views on the cold war, nuclear weapons -THE VOICE OF THE DOLPHINS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard

What one could surely say of Leo is that he was a zealous advocate of preserving human life,freedom and the communication of ideas in every act and advocacy he performed. His short stories (61) The Voice of the Dolphins wrestled with moral issues raised by the Cold war as the article states. His horror of atomic weapons caused his move to molecular biology and his ensuing work with Aaron Novick and in 1950 he proposed the cobalt bomb which might be the final solution for the planet.

• Aug 15 60 interview US NEWS & WORLD REPORT



• Is fiction a presage for future fact? His title story conceived of an International Biology Research Lab in Central Europe When the European Molecular Biology Laboratory was established, the library was named The Szilard Library QUOTE



• Its library was named the Szilard library



• In 62 he was part of the group who formed Council for a Livable World

Views on the use of nuclear weapons
In 1932, Szilárd had read about the
fictional "atomic bombs" described in H. G. Wells's science fiction novel The World Set Free.
This inspired him to be the first scientist to seriously examine the science
behind the creation of nuclear weapons. As a
scientist, he was the first person to conceive of a device that, using a nuclear chain
reaction as fuel, could be used as a bomb.
As a survivor of a devastated Hungary after World War
I, and having witnessed the subsequent terror
of the Reds and the Whites, Szilárd developed an enduring passion for the
preservation of human life and freedom, especially
freedom to communicate ideas.
He hoped that the U.S. government would not use
nuclear weapons because of their potential for use against civilian populations.
Szilárd hoped that the mere threat of such weapons would force Germany and/or Japan to surrender. He drafted the Szilárd petition
advocating demonstration of the atomic bomb. However with the European war
concluded and the U.S. taking heavy casualties in the Pacific, the new U.S.
President Harry Truman sided with
advisors and chose to use atomic
bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki over the protestations of Szilárd and
other scientists.

[edit]
After the war
In 1947, Szilárd switched fields of study because of his horror
of atomic weapons, moving from physics to molecular biology, working extensively
with Aaron
Novick. He proposed, in February 1950, a new kind of nuclear weapon using cobalt as a tamper,
a cobalt
bomb, which he said might wipe out all life on the planet. U.S. News &
World Report featured an interview with Szilárd in its August 15, 1960
issue, "President Truman Didn't Understand." His penchant to use language
provocatively and say things which most readers would dismiss as absurd is well
evidenced in this quote from that interview: "But again, I don't believe this
staging a demonstration was the real issue, and in a sense it is just as immoral
to force a sudden ending of a war by threatening violence as by using violence.
My point is that violence would not have been necessary if we had been willing
to negotiate."
In 1961 Szilárd published a book of short stories, The Voice
of the Dolphins, in which he wrestled with the moral and ethical issues raised
by the Cold
War and his own role in the development of atomic
weapons. The title story described an international biology research
laboratory in Central Europe. This became reality following a meeting
in 1962 with Victor F.
Weisskopf, James Watson and John
Kendrew. When the European
Molecular Biology Laboratory was established, the library was named The Szilard Library
and the library stamp features dolphins.
Szilárd married Gertrud Weiss in
1951.[7]
In 1960,
Szilárd was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He
underwent radiation therapy at New
York's Memorial
Hospital using a treatment regimen that he designed himself. A second round
of treatment followed in 1962; Szilárd's cancer remained in remission
thereafter.
In 1962, Szilárd was part of a group of scientists who founded
the Council for a
Livable World. The Council's goal was to warn the public and Congress of the
threat of nuclear war and lead the way to rational arms control and nuclear
disarmament.
He spent his last years as a fellow at the Salk
Institute in San Diego.
In May 1964,
Szilárd died in his sleep of a heart attack at
the age of sixty-six. At his memorial it was said that Death was required to
come to him while asleep, or otherwise he would have outwitted it.[citation
needed

Leo Szilard Met HG Wells -progressive intellectual

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Szilard.shtml

http://www.dannen.com/chronbio.html

1929 and 30 I believe were pivotal years for Szilard and in 30 he tried to form a group of international progressive intellectuals based on HG Wells' Open Conspiracy and this short period will be further documented in another post. That his association with HG Wells was not by chance but I could say "providential" in its fullest sense is staring me in the face as of this writing.

1929 Filed German patent application on the cyclotron. Met H.G. Wells.
Published, in Zeitschrift für Physik, his classic analysis of Maxwell's Demon,
in which he showed that the entropy of a unit of information was equal to k ln
2.
1930 Met future wife Gertrude (Trude) Weiss. Attempted to organize an
international movement of progressive intellectuals based on H.G. Wells' Open
Conspiracy. Taught theoretical physics seminar with Erwin Schrödinger and John
von Neumann. Taught seminar on nuclear physics and chemistry with Lise
Meitner.

Leo Szilard-"the world was headed for sorrow"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard

In 38 Szilard accepted a research position at Columbia in Manhattan and was joined by Fermi. They learned about nuclear fission in 39 and concluded the element uranium could sustain a chain reaction and their experiment validated significant neutron multiplication. They knew they were opening the door to nuclear weapons. Leo saw the flashes after turning the switch, turned it off and went home. "That night ,I knew the world was headed for sorrow."

The Germans were also in the race to produce a nuclear chain reaction. Their attempts to control the reaction using graphite were unsuccessful due to the method of producing graphite

• using boron carbide rods adding impurities into the graphite and disabling the whole operation


• Szilard had graphite manufacturers produce boron free graphite


• On Dec 2,1942, the first human controlled chain reaction occurred.

Szilard started the Manhattan project

1. he drafted a confidential letter to FDR explaining the possibility of nuclear weapons


2. he warned the Nazis were working on such weapons


3. encouraged development of a US program


4. In Aug 39, he approached his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein


5. convincing him to sign a joint letter to FDR -The Einstein-Szilárd letter


6. Research into nuclear fission by the US government was established and ultimately resulted in the Manhattan Project.


7. The letter was handed to General Edwin Watson


8. Szilard moved to the University of Chicago to continue work on the project


9. Along with Fermi , he constructed the first neutronic reactor- 1942 the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction


10. Szilard was dismayed that scientists were losing control of their research to the military and clashed with Gen Leslie Groves military project head. Szilard resented the US further for its use of the Atomic bomb in Japan.He thought lives could have been spared.
    

In 1938 Szilárd accepted an offer to conduct research at Columbia University
in Manhattan, and moved to New York, and
was soon joined by Fermi. After learning about nuclear fission in 1939, they
concluded that uranium would be the element
capable of sustaining a chain reaction. Szilárd and Fermi conducted a simple
experiment at Columbia and discovered significant neutron multiplication in
uranium, proving that the chain reaction was possible and opening the way to
nuclear weapons. Szilárd later described the event: "We turned the switch, saw
the flashes, watched for ten minutes, then switched everything off and went
home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow".[2]
At
around that time the Germans and others were in a race to produce a nuclear
chain reaction. German attempts to control the chain reaction sought to do so
using graphite, but these attempts proved unsuccessful. Szilárd realized
graphite was indeed perfect for controlling chain reactions, just as the Germans
had determined, but that the method of producing graphite used boron
carbide rods, and the minute amount of boron impurities in the
manufactured graphite was enough to stop the chain reaction. Szilárd had
graphite manufacturers produce boron-free graphite. As a result, the first
human-controlled chain reaction occurred on 2 December 1942.[3]

[edit]
The Manhattan Project
Szilárd was directly responsible for the creation of
the Manhattan Project. He
drafted a confidential letter to Franklin D.
Roosevelt explaining the possibility of nuclear weapons, warning of Nazi work on
such weapons and encouraging the development of a program which could lead
to their creation. In August 1939 he approached his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein and
convinced him to sign the letter, lending the weight of his fame to the
proposal.[4] The Einstein-Szilárd
letter led directly to the establishment of research into nuclear fission by
the U.S. government and ultimately to the creation of the Manhattan Project; FDR
handed the letter off to an aide, General Edwin M. "Pa" Watson
with the instruction: "Pa, this requires action!"[5] Later,
Szilárd moved to the University of
Chicago to continue work on the project. There, along with Fermi, he helped
to construct the first "neutronic reactor", a uranium and graphite "atomic
pile" in which the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was
achieved, in 1942.
As the war continued, Szilárd became increasingly
dismayed that scientists were losing control over their research to the
military, and clashed many times with General Leslie Groves, military
head of the project. His resentment towards the U.S.
government was exacerbated by his failed attempts to avoid the use of the
atomic bomb in war
through having a test organised that could be witnessed by Japanese observers
who would then have the opportunity to surrender and spare lives.[6]
Szilárd
became a naturalized citizen
of the United States in
1943.

Leo Szilard the eccentric physicist and one of 9 from Budapest who changed the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard He and nine other Jews who changed the world forever had the commonality of a nurturing city .Budapest in the early 20's and Paris in the early 20th Century. This physicist conceived the nuclear chain reaction and worked on the Manhattan project, later to be detailed. He was an engineering student at Budapest Technical but left Hungary due to rising anti semitism under Horthy. At the Berlin Institute, he continued engineering changing to Physics, taking phyics classes from Einstein,Planck and Max von Laue.

His 1922 dissertation on Thermodynamic Fluctuations was highly praised by Einstein.

• 1923 Doctorate in physics Humboldt University of Berlin



• 1924 Assistant to von Laue at University of Berlin Institute for Theoretical Physics



• 1927 Became instructor U. of Berlin



• 1928 Technical invention -German patent -linear accelerator



• 1929 German patent application on the cyclotron



• He developed the idea of the nuclear chain reaction-an image from the FERMI SZILARD neutronic reactor patent



• 1933 He fled to London to escape Nazi tyranny- There he read an article by Ernest Rutherford in The Times which rejected atomic energy for practical purposes.Szilard was annoyed at the flippant dismissal and conceived the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while walking to work at St Bartholomew's Hospital waiting for the traffic lights to change.



• Szilard was an eccentric genius,assuredly, and had bursts of the intuitive and inspiring in the most unlikely of places. His brilliance and originality were not happenstance but by design to evolve the species perhaps?

Leó Szilárd (Hungarian: Szilárd
Leó, February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian physicist who
conceived the nuclear chain
reaction and worked on the Manhattan
Project. He was born in Budapest under the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, and died in La Jolla, California.
Contents[hide]
1 Early life
2
Developing the idea of the nuclear chain reaction
3 The
Manhattan Project
4
Views on the use of nuclear weapons
5 After the
war
6
Personality
7
Honors
8 See
also
9
Notes
10
References
11 External
links

[edit]
Early life
Szilárd was born into a Jewish family from Budapest at the time
of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy before World War I as the son of a civil engineer. From
1908-1916 he attended Reáliskola in his home town. He was enrolled as an
engineering student at Budapest
Technical University in 1916 but had to join the Austro-Hungarian
Army in 1917 as officer-candidate where he was honorably discharged at the
end of the war. In 1919 he resumed engineering studies at Budapest Technical
University but soon decided to leave Hungary because of the rising antisemitism under the Horthy regime which led
to the introduction of a numerus clausus for
Jewish students at Hungary's universities. He continued engineering studies at Technische
Hochschule (Institute of Technology) in Berlin-Charlottenburg. He soon
changed to physics there and took physics
classes from Einstein, Planck,
and Max
von Laue. His dissertation on thermodynamics Über die
thermodynamischen Schwankungserscheinungen (On The Manifestation of
Thermodynamic Fluctuations) in 1922 was praised by Einstein and awarded the
highest honor. In 1923 he received the doctorate in physics from the Humboldt University of
Berlin. He was appointed as assistant to von Laue at the University of
Berlin's Institute for Theoretical Physics in 1924. In 1927 he finished his habilitation and became a
Privatdozent (instructor) in Physics at University of Berlin. During his time in
Berlin he was working on numerous technical inventions (1928 German patent application
on the linear accelerator,
1929 German patent application on the cyclotron, since 1926 work
with Einstein on the construction of a refrigerator
without moving parts (US patent 1,781,541 on November 11, 1930).

[edit]
Developing the idea of the nuclear chain reaction

An
image from the Fermi-Szilárd "neutronic reactor" patent
In 1933 Szilárd fled
to London to escape Nazi persecution, where he read an article written by Ernest Rutherford in The Times
which rejected the possibility of using atomic energy for practical purposes.
Although nuclear fission had not
yet been discovered, Szilárd was reportedly so annoyed at this dismissal that he
conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while walking to work at St Bartholomew's
Hospital waiting for traffic lights to change
on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, though his friend Jacob Bronowski notes
that he never knew Szilárd to wait for traffic lights.[1] The
following year he filed for a patent on the concept.
Szilárd first attempted to create a chain reaction using beryllium and indium, but these elements did not
produce a chain reaction. In 1936, he assigned the chain-reaction patent to the British Admiralty to
ensure its secrecy (GB patent 630726). Szilárd also was the co-holder, with Nobel Laureate Enrico
Fermi, of the patent on the nuclear reactor (U.S. Patent
2,708,656).

Janusz Korczak Muzzle on the Soul

http://korczak.com/Biography/kap-5.htm

The characters in this sequence are colorful and "on the road vintage" which located Henryk's heart" at the time.Wandering the city expanded Henryk's horizons and to serve him in good stead gaining insight into the suffering of the children.

Muzzle on the Soul
There were few who knew that Henryk Goldszmit was leading a double life. The medical student lived dutifully at home with his widowed mother, but his other self, Janusz Korczak, the tortured writer, prowled through the roughest slums of the city alone or in the company of Ludwik Licinski, a friend from the Flying University.
Four years Henryk´s senior, Licinski, a poet and ethnographer, was always on the road, giving as his full address: Warsaw. Like other writers in the Young Poland movement-as this fin de siècle literary group was called-he delighted in attacking the materialism of the bourgeoisie, whom they looked on as philistines. Licinski would succumb at an early age to tuberculosis contracted during exile in Siberia, but at this time in his brief life, he was a good companion for Henryk, who "felt he was dying in his tiny apartment with his overprotective mother." At night they wandered the sandy banks ofthe Vistula River, celebrated the name days ofprostitutes, and got drunk on "stinking" vodka." He could play on those people´ s heartstrings in the most subtle way," Licinski recalled. "The murderer Lichtarz told him: "I would give my soul for you."
Zofia Nalkowska came along one night during her "last fling" before marriage to Leon Rygier. She drank vodka from the bottle, kissed the mistress of a laundry owner, and enjoyed flirting with Licinski, who was hopelessly in love with her. Henryk felt a sense of liberation in this rough quarter too-but of a different kind. His soul, which was "howling like a dog," was being unleashed.
"I dreamed I was a poodle," Janek (a diminutive of Janusz) begins the semi-autobiographical novel that Henryk was writing at this time. "My coat was shaved. I felt somewhat cold in that attire, but knowing my master was pleased with me, I wagged my tail merrily and gazed devotedly into his eyes. . . . I had no fleas, worries or responsibilities. However, I had to be obedient and faithful while demonstrating the intelligence that is expected of a poodle."
The poodle is undone when a passerby looks at him with pity instead of admiration, his eyes saying: "This dog has a muzzle on his soul." Totally demoralized, the poodle can neither eat nor sleep, and reaches a point of such disorientation that he bites his master's hand. He is about to be shot when the author wakes up from his dream.
The book, Child of the Drawing Room, is about awakening. Janek realizes he has slept through his life trying to conform to his parents´ idea of what he should be. Feeling suicidal, as if he has "lost his soul," he leaves home with a snarl at his mother and father: "Get off my back! Get off-or I´ll bite!"
He manages to sublet the tenth bed in a room already occupied by the families of a factory locksmith and horse-carriage driver, spends his last kopeck at a bar, panhandles on the street, and follows a prostitute home. But he has no interest in seducing her. "Tell me a story" he asks, as they lie together in bed. "You're boring," is her response. "I feel sorry for you," he says, hogging all the covers as he relates the plan that he and his friend Stash once had to rehabilitate prostitutes.

Chambers of the Deep Hazardous Journey

http://www.galactic.to/rune/pyrmyst.html

More than 10 hours of descent in the most cautious manner. It was a complete exhaustion for the scouts to reach bottom.The plain metal door was so ingeniously controlled by a superior technologyso superb irrespective of thwe time era.

The journey down was more treacherous than anticipated with each step
creating a bellowing of settled dust that had to measure several inches thick on
each tread(trinn). Between each minor dust storm, the pungent odors of mildew,
slime cover treads beneath the dust, and stale air, the journey was a hazardous
one. The main fear was the possibility of choking by the dust and slipping on
the stair edges. The protruded (fremstikkende)slabs did provide some aid at
interval steps but was only adaptable for one man at a time while the other
stood on the inadequately ledged (avsats)platform. Water to wash down the dust
in their throats would have been worth all of the gold at Fort Knox and it was a
matter of concern if such a descent was to be completed, with its depth and
destination totally unknown. The thought that originally crossed two of the
minds in the beginning was the possible fact that this descent was not of any
great distance and perhaps in the translation, it could have been a tomb room
just opposite the King's Chamber.
Thirst could not be satisfied by the
sipping of bourbon, for if so, and one sipped more than he should, the effects
of the liquor could have created disastrous results with a simple fall on the
staircase. If a fall and injury occurred, it may take days or even weeks to get
out of this devil's den and a serious injury could be fatal without any medical
aid, water or food. Therefore, this descent was one of extreme caution and as a
matter of record, each step with the wait for the dust to resettle took more
than three minutes. This downward journey into the abyss of who knew where, was
one bad experience in which they was hopeful of never occurring again. This
descent took more than ten hours and an even greater apprehension was that these
steps had to be retraced back to the secret opening. The climb down put these
three scouts in such a complete state of exhaustion, by the time they reached
the bottom, they had neither the intent nor desire to ever attempt the climb
back up -ever.
At the bottom of this winding and jagged staircase 10 hours
later (which could only be described as extremely treacherous (farlig)and a
death defying attempt on one's life), they came to a small foyer(entre), laden
with many inches of dust on its marble smooth floor. This foyer contained one
rock bench or a protrusion slab similar to those at each 57th step level, a
roughly cut set of walls, an arched ceiling resembling a large half of a barrel
shell, and one heavy gauge metal door. This door had no jam, sill or hardware.
It was a plain metal door that had all the appearances of sliding upwards in the
side grooves provided in the limestone walls. How this was to be opened remained
another mystery and none of the three men had the strength to even think or
hazard a number of guesses. Fortunately, the thought did arise that such a
closure might operate in the same manner as the sliding block at the
entrance.
A verbal key and tone vibration had to be the only possible answer,
for if these key words opened the sliding rock at the top, it should, by the
same token(likeledes), open the bottom. Two incredibly long hours passed by with
no success using the same words and verbal tone. The recording used had many
variations but all had failed their experimental tries. They reverted to the
process of even reversing the tape and in doing so, one very slight movement was
noticed but if the door actually moved, it could not have been more than a tiny
fraction of the inch. Suddenly it occurred to Abouu that since we were now at
the opposite end of this passage, the reversal of the words should have been
used - in the same tone vibration. Using the words 'Urim,' meaning light or
revelation for the main stone, the reversal of this should be injected at this
time. Another dozen tries revealed nothing until one member simply mumbled the
word Genesis and apparently he struck it correctly. The giant metal door slowly
started on its upward movement - to the complete astonishment of all
concerned.
The sound was that of a motor hum, although there were no visible
motors or electricity. Thus if a motorized operation was its only means of
movement, it had to be hidden above the door or the coiling of that room or
foyer. It was now evident that once inside, this door should re-open by
replaying the words that opened the stone at the entrance. If and when they ever
reached the top of those stairs, more trials and tribulations could befall them
if they were wrong in their theories of reversed words or its re-arrangements of
the same. Whatever device these builders used in this construction, the
technologies were not only superb but also totally ingenious, regardless of the
time era.

Chambers of the Deep and Pitch black darkness

http://www.galactic.to/rune/pyrmyst.html.

These were explorers and human doubt as they were beset with dire possible entombment was foremost on their minds.The rectangular stairs covered a depth of 980 ' divisible by 7. Each set of stairs contained 57 steps with a small platform at the end provided against the outer wall, a scant slab or bench. WHY?

Chambers of the Deep Project

Once you have entered through the opening created by this sliding stone block,
you stand in pitch-blackness and observe a silence that is unmatched by a normal
or abnormal circumstance. Once you have become adjusted to such a strange
experience and know you are entombed, perhaps forever, your first reaction is a
desperate and panic-stricken urge to get out, breathe fresh air and leave this
imprisoning seclusion to another generation. During that first hour of examining
the inner side of the block, the verbal key words and the Identical tonepitch
were used over and over but to no avail. Such an experience to anyone would
create an inward fear that once there, there was no return to the outside world.
In such a darkness, even with the aid of three flash lights, you are immediately
struck by an intense claustrophobia which is only matched by the pungent odors
of mildew(bittter lukt av mugg), slime and a near-choking dust formation, that
when disturbed, floats around you in billowing clouds that tend to close off
whatever air there might be left to breathe.
This point of entry was not too
far from the built in air shafts of the Pyramid and an airway had to inwardly
extend to this stairway, for if this were not the case, life could not have been
sustained longer than the amount of air admitted when the opening was created.
Even though no trace of air movement could be detected, there was air, but not
of the freshest of scents(lukt). It was breathable only when the dust clouds
were kept at an absolute minimum, which was totally impossible. At this point,
of even a short confinement (innesperring), you begin to entertain thoughts that
no hidden tomb could be worth such an effort and sacrifice of one's initiative
and if the bottom of this stair case did lead to a tomb as indicated on those
found scrolls, it just might be empty of these historical documents, for if we
found such an opening, surely others before us could have done the very same -
and this expedition could be in vain with three lives lost until some posterity
(ettertid)of the advanced future. Your second thoughts become an even greater
reality when the flashes of light reveal the sheer narrowness of the passage,
the steep descent and the jagged walls of the limestone.
These stairs formed
a rectangular design over a large area within the core of the Pyramid and
carried you to a depth of approximately 980 feet (also divisible by the magical
seven) from the point of entry, which was located 470 feet above the ground.
This crudely cut passageway only measured a scant (knapt) 29 inches in width
with a headroom barely more than six feet. Each complete set of stairs contained
57 steps and at the end of the 57th, a small platform was provided and against
the outer wall, one scant slab (plate-)bench, barely large enough to seat one
thin man. Why these stabs were provided remains a mystery for surely they were
not designed as a resting-place in an area where no one was ever expected to
travel. The only scientific value it could have had was some sort of an inner
support or it had something to do with the original construction of such a
passageway

.