Leo Szilard: The Conscience ofa Scientist

by Tristram Coffin

PHOTOGR APH BY A RNOLD NEWMAN

REPRINTED FROM THE FEBRUARY 1964 ISSUE OF HOLIDAY MAGAZINE C 1964 THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY DR. LEO SZILARD has become for many scientists and laymen a symbol of their social responsibility. At sixty-five, after brilliant careers in nuclear physics a nd several other sciences, he continues not only to apply the genius for research that first made him famous, but to express anxiety about the uses to which society puts his work. He is founder of the Council for a Liva ble World, a v enture in wedding ethical sc ience and political action.

The scientist, whether he likes it or not, is the superman and the prophet of the 20th Century. He has vastly changed the world by splitting the atom, striding about the universe, conquering plagues, and growing as many as twenty six bushels of wheat to the acre. He has invaded philosophy, military strategy, govern­ ment and management. Scientists are now strewn about the Federal government as economists were during the New Deal. Ph.D.'s in science are so much in demand that a recent issue of the New York Times enticed them with nine pages of ads, nam­ ing salaries and conditions that would please a pasha. The gifts of science are not an unmitigated blessing, as even i~ practitioners admit. Antibiotics and public-health programs have so prolonged life and ~ ncreased the population that there may not be enough room or food for us all by the year 2000. Leo Szilard: Banging about the atmosphere has not improved the weather. There is the new problem of radioactivity. Some physicists are afflicted by the Hiroshima complex, a sense of guilt for the hor­ rors of nuclear war. The nuclear weapon and its "proliferation" create spasms of fear each time a major statesman raises his The Conscience voice. The scientist is bothered by the work he has done and the use society makes of his knowledge. Leo Szilard is a symbol of modern science, its curiosity and its morality. He is a round, benign-looking theoretical physicist ofa Scientist who between 1960 and 1963 held court in the lobby of a midtown Washington hotel and is now at the Salk Institute at La Jolla, California. Science historian Alice K. Smith suggests he is one of the five men of the past I 00 years who have done most to by Tristram Coffin change their times. (The others are Lincoln, Gandhi, Hitler and P/IOTOGRAPH B Y A RNO I.D NF.WMAN Churchill.) He is the co-inventor, with the late Enrico Fermi, of a chain-reaction system for releasing atomic energy, and has investigated the deepest mysteries in at least half a dozen varied fields. The citation on the Einstein medal awarded him in 1960 refers to his "outstanding achievement in natural sciences" and his scholarship " in the broadest areas of human knowledge." His imagination is so prolific he has been ·called the Jules Verne of science. Now sixty-five, apparently cured of a serious cancer, Dr. Szilard sits in the lobby of the DuPont Plaza Hotel when he is back in Washington, talking in animated English or German that purrs with z's. His listeners are scientists who have come from all over the world to visit him, as well as politicians, diplo­ mats, journalists and the kind of ardent young disciples whom Socrates gathered about him. He looks like a "good" character in a Grimm fairy tale, with rimless glasses and a great mane of white hair brushed back. His spirit is summed up in his confident statement, "Jf secrets exist, they can be explained." Leo Szilard belongs to the rich strain of European learning that has produced most of the towering scientific intellects of the century. He is a Hungarian, studied in Berlin and was associated there with Einstein. He did research in nuclear physics at Oxford before coming to America. He has made major contributions to thermodynamics, nuclear physics, mathematics and molecular biology. He has examined birth control, aging, cancer, nuclear

Leo Szilard: The Conscience of a Scientist

strategy and the American political system, and he The United States has produced more crank The young Szilard's first important theoretical stirred the dust wherever he passed. He is a profes­ turners than dreamers. We have a special category work was done when he was twenty-four years old sor of biophysics at the University of Chicago and in our folk humor, the "mad scientist" whose and a postgraduate student at the University of a fellow of the Salk Institute. He has driven scien­ creation is harmful or has no utility. The derisive Berlin. Von Laue suggested for his doctoral dis­ tists into the arena of politics with the moral fervor term "egghead" describes one who indulges in sertation a problem in the realm of the general of a Cotton Mather and the drama of a Fiorello pure thought. The idea of a man sitting in a hotel theory of relativity. As he recalls the episode, "At La Guardia. He also has an eerie sense of prophecy. room for days simply thinking, as Doctor Szilard Christmas I decided to take a vacation !rom my To look at Doctor Szilard, and through him at did while creating a theory of chain reaction, work on the dissertation. I thought I would just the scientist, one must examine not only the scien­ seems to us like succumbing to sloth. One legend loaf for a few weeks and think about whatever tist but the human being and the prophet-moralist. has it that he spent much of this time in the bath­ came to my mind. I started to follow up some curi­ tub: imagine the faces of senators if they heard ous ideas which came to me, and within three Scientific discovery can be compared to a light that a scientist on whom the taxpayers lavish a weeks I had written a paper on a completely un­ gradually spreading through a dark cave and re­ generous salary was taking a month away from related subject. It showed that one may derive the vealing its treasures. The most important gleam of his desk to think in a bathtub. relationship between probability and entropy from light is not a demonstrable fact that newspapers Also, we are great for specializing. If a man is the Second Law of Thermodynamics-an intricate can squeeze into a paragraph, but a theory. This is a nuclear physicist, he began specializing as an idea which became a major step toward giant as creative as a great poem or painting, since it is undergraduate; he dug himself deep into the rut computers. I didn't quite dare take the paper to drawn both from the imagination and from a disci­ in his years pursuing a Ph.D., and even deeper von Laue, but I spoke to Einstein about it. At plined mind. Few men may understand the theory, working for the Atomic Energy Commission or a first he was quite incredulous, and thought what and even a half century later it may be incompre­ private agency. He is supposed to stay put and I claimed could not be done. It didn't take him hensible to intelligent laymen. (How many lawyers not wander into other fields. Doctor Szilard was more than a few minutes, however, to get the and English professors can explain relativity?) For trained early as a physicist, but this has not kept point. Encouraged by Einstein, I telephoned von those who do understand the theory, it is a brilliant him from roaming. He picked up the techniques Laue and asked whether I might bring him a paper guiding beam in the mysterious cavern. They try of microbiology at the Cold Spring Harbor Bio­ to examine as a thesis in lieu of the assignment he'd to prove the concept and enlarge upon it, and in so logical Laboratory in Denver in 1946, at the age of given me. That evening I took the paper to his doing discover facts that have been hiding all the forty-eight ; in time he became so expert that the house in one of the Berlin suburbs. Next morning while in the dark. Eventually a whole army of less National Institutes of Health offered him an ap­ the telephone rang. It was Professor von Laue creative scientists will with patience and thorough­ pointment in this area in 1958. calling to tell me my thesis was accepted." ness convert the knowledge of " pure" science into 1 had several talks with Doctor Szilard about This established Szilard immediately as a young practical use. his life, his work and his philosophy-in a hotel fellow of great creative talent. It was a feat for a lobby, walking the winter streets, in a small cafe, graduate student to turn out I sat with Doctor Szilard in his tiny hotel office a highly original squeezed among his papers in a tiny office. Often piece of work in three weeks, one that surprised and asked him to explain to me just what a crea­ what was complex and baffling to me as a layman and pleased the great Einstein and tive scientist was and what he did. He replied with so impressed was perfectly clear to him, and my trying to reduce von Laue that he read it until late at night and an enthusiasm that was in itself revealing. At a scientific concepts to simple words must have immediately approved it. conversation or a meeting, he habitually sits with seemed to him like putting a sacred ritual into pig Three years later Szilard produced a paper a somnolent air, like a drowsy hound, sometimes of Latin. At one point he looked at me, shook his even greater scope. It touched physics, mathe­ giving the impression he is asleep. But if a remark head in a characteristically impatient gesture and matics and engineering, and established for the or question excites him, he sits up smiling and said, "You'll never understand." first time the relationship between speaks rapidly and vigorously. entropy and I asked Doctor Szilard how he happened to information. Some twenty years later the idea was "The creative scientist," he said, "has much in take up physics instead of, say, chemistry. He rediscovered by Claude Shannon as one of the common with the artist and the poet. Logical said, "By the time I was thirteen I was very much basic tenets of "information theory." Szilard's thinking and an analytical ability are necessary interested in physics. If there had been some way theory thus became the starting point for devising attributes to a scientist, but"- he paused, looking of earning a living in physics in Hungary, 1 would modern communications and thinking machines. out the window at the roofs surrounding DuPont have studied it when I reached college. However, Szilard's work led to the atom bomb, which Circle-" but they are far from sufficient for crea­ a physicist could only become a high-school made world war so monstrous a prospect. In 1928 tive work. Those insights in science which have led teacher, and this did not attract me. So I did the and 1929 he filed a patent on the idea of the cyclo­ to a breakthrough were not logically derived from next best thing. I studied engineering. [His father tron, a device to bombard the nuclei of atoms with l pre-existing knowledge; the creative processes on was an engineer.] In 1919 I went to Berlin to con­ protons at very high speeds to study their charac­ which the progress of science is based operate on tinue these studies, but after a year at the Institute teristics. (The cyclotron was invented indepen­ the level of the subconscious. of Technology I quit and moved to the University dently by Dr. Ernest 0 . Lawrence and built . at "Of course," he concluded briskly, " once a of Berlin to study physics. This was the hey-day of the Uni~ersity of California in 1929.) In 1933, breakthrough is achieved, technicians can go for physics in Berlin. Max Planck, Max von Laoe, when Szilard was thinking of becoming a biologist, a long time producing publishable results just by Walter Nernst and, later on, Ervin Schraedinger nuclear physics suddenly became more exciting: turning the crank. But in the long run, science taught at the university, and Albert Einstein was Frederic Joliot-Curie discovered artificial radio­ would run dry if all the scientists were crank turn­ there, attached to the staff of the Prussian Acad­ activity; James Chadwick discovered the neutron, ers and none of them were dreamers." emy of Sciences." which can break through the electrical barriers that surround the atomic nucleus. In the fall of would underwrite his experiments. He cabled standing the hereditary material of the cell have that year, in London, Szilard had a fresh and re­ to Oxford for his equipment, borrowed $2,000 to vindicated the faith that mysteries can be un­ warding idea. rent a gram of radium, and won permission from raveled in biology no less than in physics." "One morning," he told me with the air of a Columbia University's physics department to use Leo Szilard has stimulated a great deal of new man fishing deep into memory, "I read in the its laboratory. 1 asked him what he was trying thinking, and has produced a theory of aging in newspapers about the annual meeting of the to discover. Doctor Szilard explained, "In order to mammals which, twenty years from now, may be British Association. Lord Rutherford was re­ induce this kind of fission, uranium has to be seen as a major landmark. In a huge simplifica­ ported to have said that whoever talks about the bombarded with neutrons. The problem was to tion, he described his theory thus: "It assumes liberation of atomic energy on an industrial scale distinguish the neutrons emitted in the fission that, through a random process of 'aging hits,' a was talking moonshine. Pronouncements of ex­ process from the neutrons used to induce the large part of a chromosome of a somatic cell, or perts to the effect that something cannot be done fission. I thought of using photoneutrons from perhaps the whole chromosome, becomes ir­ have always irritated me." He smiled briefly. beryllium, which are slow, and then looking for reversibly inactivated. These 'aging hits' are not "That day, as I was walking down Southampton fast neutrons which might be emitted. This is radiation-induced; they are spontaneous, and Row and stopped for a traffic light, I was ponder­ what Dr. Walter Zinn and I did on March 3, 1939, their true nature is not yet known. [Other scien­ ing where Lord Rutherford might be in error. at Columbia. The experiment showed that about tists have suggested that the accumulation of 'What could make him turn out to be wrong?' I two neutrons are emitted in. the fission of uranium radiation from all sources may be a factor.] When asked myself. As the light turned green, and I was for each neutron absorbed." a sufficiently large number of the somatic cells of crossing the street, it occurred to me that if one This was, in the minds of many physicists, the an individual become inactivated through such could find an element that absorbs neutrons and crucial discovery in the controlled use of atomic 'aging hits;' the individual dies." can be split in such a fashion that for each neutron energy. Since his university days Doctor Szilard has it absorbs it emits two neutrons, it would be pos­ After this exciting work, Szilard teamed up with been fascinated by the nervous system. After the sible to set up a chain reaction." the late Enrico Fermi, a brilliant physicist in vol­ war. among a host of other activities, he carried At this point Doctor Szilard went to the Strand untary exile from Fascist Italy, to develop a self­ on dialogues with learned scholars on the nervous Palace Hotel, where he spent months in "retreat," sustaining chain reaction. They came fairly close system, sleep, consciousness and memory. This simply thinking through the problem. He was to it with a uranium-water system. In July, 1939, proved so exciting that faculty members at the trying to find an element to start a chain reaction. Szilard thought that a uranium-graphite system University of California at Los Angeles medical He suspected beryllium, a rare metallic element, would work, and it finally did on December 2, school wanted him to be a consultant in research of being sufficiently unstable. "It seemed con­ 1942, at the University of Chicago. on the nervous system. He declined. In May, 1958, ceivable," he said. "that if it were to absorb a the National Institutes of Health beckoned him neutron, it would fall to pieces and release two Leo Szilard was not content to be known as a as an adviser on research involving the nervous neutrons in the process. By 1934 I had developed "grand old man" of nuclear physics and make system and behavior. He accepted, but his work the theory of such a chain reaction, which in­ pompous speeches at scientific conventions. there was halted by his illness. cluded the concept of the critical mass. I filed a Besides being a splendidly creative theorist, he Birth control is another area he has invaded. provisional patent application in England for the likes to shake the tree of knowledge savagely. His interest, a continuing one, is both scientific principles involved. More often than not there is nothing in this for and humane. I asked him how he happened to get him but the joy of waking men's minds. Also it into this field, and he replied, "One of the most actually started experimenting with beryl­ satisfies, at least temporarily, his enormous lust important problems of our times is to find a lium in the summer of 1934, at St. Barthol­ for knowledge. Science benefits considerably, for method of birth control for underdeveloped coun­ omew's Hospital in London. I borrowed a its followers tend to fall gently into settled pat­ tries. In a country where arable land is short and Geiger counter. I bought a quantity of terns unless a Szilard rudely rouses them. the birthrate high, no amount of economic aid beryllium with an appreciable portion of After the war Doctor Szilard plunged into an will raise the standard of living." my savings, and I teamed up with Chal­ entirely new area, biology-the fundamental His method of attacking the problem was, as in mers, a young Englishman on the hospital staff. processes of life, the origin of living matter, the other things, energetic, direct and unusual. He set Together we improvised a series of experiments. character of the genes which pass traits on from up a panel of scientists and invited birth-control We found that beryllium emitted neutrons when it generation to generation, the problems of de­ experts to explain their theories before it. He was, was exposed to the gamma rays of radium. These generation and death. I asked him what made him by all accounts, ruthless in his questioning. Dr. so-called photoneutrons of beryllium were des­ think a physicist could crack them. William Doering, Professor of Chemistry at Yale, tir.ed to play a major role later on in solving the He replied, "The mysteries of biology are no who was on the panel, said, "Leo is almost fright­ problem of a chain reaction." less deep than the mysteries of physics were one or ening when he's on the trace of knowledge. He lit­ A scientist on the trail of a discovery is awake two generations ago, and the tools are available erally pulls men's minds apart. A great many to new knowledge. When Doctor Szilard heard of to solve them provided only that we believe they leads were developed, and it had a very stimu­ the fission of uranium by Hahn and Strassmann in can be solved. It is this belief that the physicists, lating effect." January, 1939, he "saw at once," he told me, "that chemists and geneticists have brought into biology. Doctor Szilard engaged in a dramatic personal neutrons might be emitted in the process, and that Their success is due not so much to any special battle with cancer. Characteristically, he will not uranium thus might sustain a chain reaction." skills but rather to their attitude toward the discuss his own involvement. Also, this is an area That year he came to the United States. No phenomena of nature, which the older type of in which ~cientists prefer a discreet silence; they university, foundation or government bureau biologists have lacked. Recent successes in under- do not wish to arouse hopes too early. The story began in 1959, when he became which he was organizing, and manipu­ sister, talented and beautiful, died. A ing of creating a chain reaction and seriously ill. At New York Hospital late it. Doctor Szilard smiled blandly few days later she overheard the ser­ needed her to talk to. She told me, his trouble was diagnosed as an ad­ and said, "No, Jam not afraid. In order vants say how sad it was the beautiful with the shining air of a woman recaf. vanced cancer of the bladder. A radical to manipulate me, the others would sister died and left the "naughty girl." ling dear memories, "He took me for operation was recommended as the have to be much brighter, and I don't In Hungarian the word for "naughty" long walks along the river near Ox­ only hope. From his hospital bed he think there are many of that kind." also means " useless," and the child ford. We roamed the countryside, began studying the store of knowledge Nor will he suffer boredom. He worried over this. Why was she useless? and Leo told me of the atom bomb. on cancer, both by reading and by would rather sacrifice good manners What did being useful truly mean? She It seemed, though, very faraway and making long-distance calls to cancer than endure it. A few years ago scien­ devoted her life to this quest. unreal. It was an idyllic time." experts. tists at a biology conference in Den­ One of Leo Szilard's close friends re­ She came to America in 1937 because Doctor Szilard has a capacity for ver devised the "Leo Szilard Index." lated this story to me and remarked, he felt this would be a safer place for finding the decisive fact and throwing If the great man walked out on a lec­ ·' Leo's mother devoted her life to be­ her. Here she began her medical out the less important details. In the ture after three minutes, the speaker's ing useful to her family and community. work anew. Theyweremarried inl951. end he ruled out the operation and score was about par. Ten minutes con­ In a sense he has gone beyond her and When he came to Washington, she chose radiation instead. A scientist stituted a very high rating. is trying to cure the sickness of the came with him, to live in two clut­ familiar with the case told me, " Doctor Once in · Chicago someone induced world-war." tered hotel rooms. He I ikes the imper­ Szilard provided himself with a detailed him to go to hear the Juilliard String Doctor Szilard's memories of her manence of it. It gives him a sense of and sophisticated knowledge of his own Quartet. After a few minutes he de­ are vivid. He said to me, "She used case. There are not many individuals, cided he did not enjoy chamber music to tell me children's tales, not the kind freedom. She, as a woman, prefers a even in medicine, who could be as and calmly read his newspaper through you find in a book but little tales home and the sense of its being hers. thorough as he was. His wife, herself the rest of the concert. she made up. They were designed to He also has a feeling of tenderness a doctor, was of great value. The signs Doctor Szilard leads a frugal, even instruct in a higher principle. To tell for the very young. This is expressed three years later are good. It is a most ascetic, life. To see him at dinner in a the truth was important. She told me in an almost formal manner. A friend unusual case." cheap restaurant, eating two bowls of stories of my grandfather, a man of has a three-year-old daughter to whom Today Szilard is outwardly as lively, vegetable soup and a serving of chicken, great integrity and honor, and through he will talk gravely and respectfully, ruddy and energetic as a man twenty one would suppose he was a shabby old him I grew to admire those qualities." and the child will respond in kind. years younger. He travels about the pensioner at his one filling meal of I asked him what value ethics have There seems to be a bond of inno­ land making speeches and attending the day. Yet he is fascinated by money, for the scientist. cence and trust between them that he, scientific meetings, and sees a constant which he calls "a useful tool." Doctor He replied, "A scientist must have at least, needs and seldom finds else­ stream of visitors. Szilard wrote six satirical essays-a certain qualities to be creative, and the where. sort of witty science fiction- which moral qualities are very important. In­ Leo Szilard, t·he scientist, has be­ Leo Szilard, the human being, is were published in a paperback volume telligence is not enough. There must be come an oracle of our time. The complex. To a stranger he is a figure of in 1961 under the title The Voice of a religious attitude. By that I mean an prophet and the scientist have much in awesome intellect and wit. He as­ the Dolphins. In one of these pieces, inner conviction that life has a mean­ common. They are incorruptible; they tounded a high-ranking British official Grand Central Terminal, he points out ing. Einstein said, and I agree, 'Re­ must tell the truth as they see it, no whom he met at dinner by blandly out­ that one must have a coin in order to ligion without science is blind, science matter what the penalty. They remain lining a highly secret strategic policy. use the toilet in that great edifice. And without religion is lame."' outside the structure of power. Both ·. Szilard had simply taken a few well­ during a discussion of a nuclear-test are concerned with ethics. One can Like all creative people, Leo Szilard known facts and deduced the policy ban with Soviet scientists, he made a imagine Leo Szilard crying out in the in his married life needs someone who from them. And he delighted Khru­ waggish suggestion. words of the prophet, "Where there is believes in him, encourages his dreams, shchev when they met in 1960 by pre­ "You should allow us unlimited on­ no wisdom, the people perish." shares his burdens and his grief, is will­ senting him with an injector razor and site inspections," he said, "but charge He has a prophetic sense of danger ing to squeeze her share of joy from saying, "This is a small present. It is a several million dollars for each one. If which, he will tell you, is simply put­ his triumphs, and creates the kind of very good razor, and J like it very you cheat, you will have to refund all ting two and two and two together and serene atmosphere in which he can much." Then he smiled and added, "Jf payments plus a large fine. You won't getting six. In 193 J, after the Nazis had work. Hers is the sacrificial role of the there is no war, J will send you the have to limit the inspections. The Con­ won a great bloc of seats in parliament, mother and wife, and Gertrud Weiss blades." gress and the Bureau of the Budget Szilard knew a storm was gathering, Szilard has been playing it for many Once he was talking with a senator, will." and that Jewish intellectuals must years. She left her home in Vienna to who was giving him the line that Scientists who have close contact choose between disaster and flight. He follow him to England. She abandoned democracy moves slowly because it with Doctor Szilard may be divided told me, "It became clear to me that a medical career in England and again must take into account the views of a ll into those who revere him as "a great political developments in Germany in Denver at his call. the people. Szilard listened patiently man" and others whose blood pressure would lead to trouble. I came to Amer­ They met in Berlin when he was and responded, "1 am will ing to go begins rising when his name is men­ ica with an immigration visa in De­ thirty-two, a striking young Hun­ along with the democratic principle tioned. When one professor at Harvard cember, 1931, established myself as a garian; she was twenty, a charming that one idiot is equal to one genius, heard that he was discussing disarma­ resident and returned to Germany in Viennese who had come to Germany to but I will not accept the idea that two ment with senators, he took off in 1932 to continue my srudies. From then study physics and mathematics. She idiots are worth more than one genius." alarm for Washington to tell the law­ on I literally kept two suitcases packed, was dazzled by him at once. "He was Within the scientific community Doc­ makers not to heed him. in my room at the Faculty Club at absolutely fascinating," she told me tor Szilard is known, both affectionately Szilard's wife and a few intimate Berlin-Dahlem, where I Jived." one evening as we went through his and with irritation, as "the terrible friends see him as essentially a poet of In 1933, after the Reichstag fire, he ··archives," of which she is the sole Hungarian." One well-known scientist science- highly creative, abnormally picked up his bags and left for Vienna. told me, keeper. "J highly esteem Leo, and J sensitive, intensely moral and idealis­ The next train was boarded by Nazi Once they had met, he took charge of would do anything for him except work tic and, as a consequence, troubled by soldiers; they barred all Jews from leav­ with him her life. "Why do you study physics?" ." Doctor Szilard has acknowl­ the world about him. ing Germany. Though safe himself, edged this repute with a certain pride. he asked in a typically didactic, Szilard­ Doctor Szilard saw the need to save At a meeting he had thrown into con­ As a small boy in Budapest he was ian manner. ·'You do not have the scientific talent from Hitler. A sort of fusion, he arose with all his small, ill much of the time, at home under the proper mind for it. You should switch underground railway was arranged to round dignity and announced, "I think care and influence of his mother. ln the to medicine." spirit Jewish scientists from Hitler's I can best contribute to the progress highly sophisticated, gay and aristo­ Dutifully she returned to Vienna domain, and in England Szilard helped of this conference by leaving." cratic Budapest of the late 19th Cen­ and a medical education. When this set up fellowships for these men. By tury, this tiny, very alive, selfless and was completed, he persuaded her to the autumn of 1933, when he began his Part of this is his mighty ego. This, moral Jewish mother must have been come to England. She became home­ great work on the atom, he had so too, he admits. At a Los Angeles press singular. When she was more than sixty sick and returned to Vienna. He fol­ exhausted his time and resources in conference he was asked if he was she wrote her memoirs, and in them lowed her to the Austrian capital, and this rescue operation that he was him­ afraid that Communists would infiltrate she told of an incident that shaped her after a. long talk she went back with him self hard pressed financially. a political-action group for scientists life. She was a small girl when an older In the spring of 1934 he was think- In 1936 he wrote to Gertrud We.iss, "Come to England immediately. In two dignantly refused to cooperate. target not exclusively military. Three was to beat the rest of the world to a years you will not be able to exist in Szilard was denounced, but he per­ scientists were on the committee, and draw . .. perhaps this is so devastating Vienna." He was right. sisted. He was convinced the United they in turn had consulted a scientific that man will be forced to be peace­ ln 1939 he saw that war would sweep States must make the terrible weapon panel of seven. This was a severe shock ful. The alternative to peace now is un­ over all Europe, and that England itself before Hitler did. He went to Einstein to Szilard. It was not a case of a mad­ thinkable. But unfortunately there will be some who don't think ... anyway it would be a target. He told Miss Weiss to beg him to go directly to President man using the bomb ; scientists and is over now, and God give us strength she must go to America. She was en­ Roosevelt. As Szilard recalls the e_pi­ generals were eager to test the new for the future." joying England and thought he was sode, in midsummer of 1939, "Einstein gadget, and politicians wanted to be Jn our conversations I tried to draw being an alarmist. Szilard took her to dictated a letter in German, and I used sure they got their money's worth. out Doctor Szilard on the responsibil­ an H. G. Wells movie showing scenes this as a basis for two other drafts, one At this point Leo Szilard became a ity of the scientist. He was slumped in of a future war. In the middle of the short and one long. Einstein chose the Jeremiah crying out protest against the his chair by the window, and he looked latter. J also prepared a memorandum bomb. He instigated what amounted to film he took her by the hand and said, out briefly and inquiringly into the "Are you satisfied?'' She nodded, they to enclose with Einstein's letter." The a revolt among the scientists at the huge spring afternoon. Then, speaking fast Jetter and memorandum were given to Manhattan District Project operated by walked out of the theater, and she ap­ and with an accent that became heavy the President by Alexander Sachs, who the Army. In another society he would plied for a United States visa. at times, he said, "A scientist cannot A few years earlier, when he was has since remarked that Einstein was probably have been shot for his ef­ needed only because Szilard was almost forts. He appealed to the agitated con­ maintain control over his discoveries, working during the summer at St. and he cannot prevent their being used Bartholomew's Hospital Medical Col­ unknown here. The famous letter said sciences of the atomic scientists. The immediate result was the Franck Re­ for destructive purposes. Nobody is lege in London, near St. Paul's Cathe­ in part: "Some recent work by E. Fermi port-dated June II, 1945, and written guided by moral considerations alone, dral, Doctor Szilard had to be reminded and L. Szilard, which has been com­ municated to me in manuscript, leads by Nobel Prize winner James Franck and nobody is guided by expediency of the hospital's regulations, which re­ me to expect that the element uranium and Szilard, and signed by themselves alone. The people whose actions are quired radium needles to be locked in may be turned into a new and impor­ and five other noted scientists- in the mainly guided by moral considerations a safe from six in the evening until nine tant source of energy." The mills form of a memorandum to the Secre­ represent a small minority, a few per­ the following morning. Since Szilard's started to grind, but very slowly. tary of War: cent perhaps. Among scientists this experiments often required long hours The military were indifferent. An "We found ourselves by the force of minority is larger than among the of observation, he sometimes found it Army ordnance colonel pompously events, during the past five years, in the general population, and among the difficult to abide by this rule. told Szilard, " Jt usually takes two wars position of a small group of citizens truly creative scientists this minority Prof. F. L. Hopwood, head of the to develop a new weapon. Besides, it is cognizant of a grave danger for the might even be the majority." Physics Department. said to him, "You morale, not arms, that brings victory." When 1 asked Doctor Szilard if he must understand my point of view if I safety of this country as well as for the Finally, on December 2, 1942, nine future of all mankind, of which the rest thought scientists should study history, suggest to you that you are to pay more years after Leo Szilard thought of the and politicians science, so that they attention to the customs of this hos­ of mankind is unaware .... In the past, idea while crossing a street in London, might communicate better, he replied, pital. It is the point of view of a man scientists could disclaim direct respon­ the first self-sustained chain reaction "If a scientist wants to understand cur­ who is very much aware that these sibility for the use to which mankind was achieved in an old squash court has put their disinterested discoveries. rent events, he would do well to study walls have been standing here for over under the West Stands of Stagg Field We feel compelled to take a more ac­ history. As to politicians, I would not five hundred years." at the University of Chicago. The tive stand now because [our] success ... suggest they study science. I would be "l understand that very well," said patent issued for the process names is fraught with infinitely greater dan­ quite content to have them study his­ Szilard, "but please keep in mind that Szilard and Fermi as joint inventors. gers than were all the inventions of the tory.'' He also blames the "expediency" these walls may not be standing here In 1945, with Germany collapsing in past .... Science has often peen able to of ihe political mind for wars and other ten years from now." ruins, Doctor Szilard was vastly re­ provide new methods of protection great breakdowns of civilization. The vjcinity of St. Paul's Cathedral lieved to think the weapon would not against new weapons of aggression ; but I asked if it was the tragedy of the was one of the most heavily bombed have to be used. He had no wish to be it cannot promise such efficient pro­ scientist that his advances in knowledge areas of London, and the walls Profes­ a Frankenstein, the creator of a mon­ tection against the destructive use of are used for destruction. He replied,. sor Hopwood revered were demolished ster. Then, to his horror, he learned nuclear power. ... If the United States .. This is not the tragedy of the scientist; during the London blitz. that American military leaders were were to be the first to release this new it is the tragedy of mankind." Another vision possessed Szilard in determined to drop the bomb on Japan. means of indiscriminate destruction After the war Leo Szilard studied 1939. As he made the key experiment restlessly in the field of biology. Then, ln March, 1945, he wrote a memoran­ upon mankind, she would sacrifice pub­ at Columbia, he recalls now, "All we when he was in the hospital pondering dum, which he hoped to deliver to lic support throughout the world, did was to turn a switch and watch the world, the spirit of the prophet re­ President Roosevelt, against this plan. precipitate the race of armaments and the screen of a television tube. 1f turned to him. He would go out among He argued that the United States, too, prejudice the possibility of reaching flashes of light appeared, it would mean the young; they alone had the capacity would be vulnerable to atomic attack international agreements on the future that the freeing of atomic energy would for moral outrage. He ·went initially to and should quickly bring the weapon of such weapons.'1 take place in our ljfetime. We turned under international control. lf the The signers predicted that Russia Harvard, speaking at the Law School on the switch, saw the flashes-we United States used the bomb and tried would make its own bomb within a Forum on November 14, 1961. Here watched for about five minutes-and to be its sole possessor, other nations few years. was the prophet, his hair white but the we switched off and went home. I knew would move heaven and hell to make The report was rejected. Szilard made fury of his judgment unspent, arousing then the world was headed for trouble." their own. a last forlorn attempt after the test at the young with fearful visions: "I my­ He feared Hitler would get the bomb President Roosevelt died. Doctor Alamogordo. The petition was circu­ self believe ... that our chances of get­ first. This drove him like a man be­ Szilard tried to see President Truman lated among the members of the Man­ ting through the next ten years without witched, and undoubtedly some of hls and was shunted off to James F . Byrnes, hattan Project. It urged that the bomb war are slim." Then a glimmer of hope, fellow scientists did think him a little the former South Carolina senator. not be used against Japan without a as if he were saying, follow me, my mad. He tried to persuade nuclear Byrnes, as special assistant to the Presi­ prior demonstration and an opportu­ children, to the promised land of reason. physicists outside of Germany to cen­ dent, occupied a position equivalent to nity to surrender; it also urged the Typically, Doctor Szilard did not sor their findings-that is, not pubjish the king's vizier. This was a curious government to seek a means of inter­ offer a detailed plan, but rather a series them and so keep the'know.ledge from confrontation, as if two men were national control of the weapon. Gen­ of theorems for the conduct of foreign the Nazis. On February 2, 1939, he shouting through a brick wall at each eral Leslie R. Groves, the military policy and military strategy so as to wrote to Joliot-Curie in Paris, "In cer­ other. Szilard presented his case and administrator of the Project, stopped avoid the cataclysm. Stop petty quar­ tain circumstances this [a chain reac­ was told by Byrnes, "Aren't you worry­ the circulation of the petition by declar­ reling and name-calling. Discuss in tion] might then lead to the construc­ ing too much about this?" Byrnes ing it contained "secret" information earnest a set of rules for keeping the tion of bombs which would be extremely thought the bomb should be used to and locked it up. It did not reach the peace and for disarmament. Renounce dangerous in general and particularly frighten the Russians and make them President. the first strike. Use tactical nuclear in the hands of certain governments." more "manageable." Then came Hiroshima. The guilt and weapons only to halt aggression, and This was heresy to the tradition of Some weeks later a committee ad­ despair of the atomic scientists were not on enemy soil. Keep nuclear weap­ science, which, since Galileo faced the vising the Secretary of War recom­ reflected in a letter one wrote his ons within the American command. Inquisition, had viewed any contact w.ith mended that the bomb be dropped on mother: "I am not a bit proud of the If you believe me, he said, join me. politics as unclean. Joliot-Curie in- Japan without prior warning, and on a job we have done . .. the only reason He proposed a political-action com- mitteeofreasonablemen. The members possess him. One night in October, had not been smashed; peace, or what covered with bulging paper files of the would turn over two percent of their 1962, Leo Szilard's friends saw how passes for it, still covered the land. projects he is pursuing. Some are mys­ earnings to back candidates for Con­ deeply he suffers. Since then Leo Szilard has painfully terious and involve. talks at the White gressional offices. By all accounts, he The Cuban crisis was at its height. returned to his scientific detachment and House and with foreign scientists. On was a kind of cerebral Billy Graham. President Kennedy was speaking on his research, inquiring into the mys­ his desk were notes to himself on-ex­ He caught the young people's sense of television. Russian ships were plowing teries of the molecule at the Salk Insti­ citing scientific work. I sat stiffly on alienation from the confused world of through the Caribbean, United States tute. He no longer believes the end of the edge of the bed and wondered if, their fathers, their vague but ardent naval vessels waiting to meet them. A the world is upon us. He gives it six without him and his kind, man would hopes to escape doomsday. They stood dozen or more of DoctoJ Szilard's years, and in optimistic moods even ever have left the caves. around him after the meeting, reluctant young disciples came to his hotel room longer. The last time I talked to him, A few days later another scientist to let him go. in search of reassurance. The great he said, "As long as nations abide by gave me a poetic answer to the question Doctor Szilard went on to seven man would have the answers. some code of behavior, like the United of Leo Szilard's place in the scheme of other American colleges, organized his What they saw instead was a man Nations charter, they can avoid a resort things. He went to his bookshelf, pulled Council to Abolish War with several in the depths of despair. He was the to force. To follow a course of pure out a volume of Edwin Arlington thousand subscribers, and collected a inventor of a monster which, he feared, expediency is courting disaster." Plainly Robinson's poetry and read these lines respectable sum for the 1962 Congres­ was about to destroy the world. His he felt that expediency was still being from Ben Jonson Entertains a .Man sional elections. The next year he quietly genius had been wasted on an ogre. courted in Washington and elsewhere. from Stratford: changed . the name to Council for a "What can be done?" a young The Council for a Livable World, no Livable World, having discovered that disciple asked. longer under his close personal direc­ Today the clouds are with him, but Washington thought any outfit trying "Nothing," he answered. "lt is hope­ tion, operates as a study group and anon to abolish war must be made up of less." In what was for him an emotional foreign-policy lobby, with headquarters He'll out of them enough to shake subversives or fools. and often rambling speech, he said he i1t Washington and a membership of the tree The prophet suffers more than other had failed, and the only hope was that several thousand scientists. Of life itself and bring down fruit men. Most of us go about our lives at­ the young people would pick up the Doctor Szilard sat in a comfortable unheard of. tending to our errands, enjoying our broken pieces. He was too old. chairbythewindow, thinking. His pretty And, throwing in the bruised and little pleasures and avoiding as much The next day he packed his bags and Irish secretary was waiting to take down whole together, as we can the view of the abyss. But the flew to Geneva, Switzerland. When he his words. A cup of coffee steamed on Prepare a wine to make us drunk prophet lives hourly with his fears; they returned a few weeks later, the world the window ledge. The day bed was with wonder. THE END