Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Edward Tellerwas a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who was born in Hungary, and is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", although he claimed he did not care for the title. He made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopyand surface physics. His extension of Enrico Fermi's theory of beta decay, in the form of Gamow–Teller transitions, provided an important stepping stone in its application, while the Jahn–Teller effect and the Brunauer–Emmett–Tellertheory have retained their original formulation and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth15 January 1908
CityBudapest, Hungary
CountryUnited States of America
Edward Teller quotes about
[Chemistry] laboratory work was my first challenge. ... I still carry the scars of my first discovery-that test-tubes are fragile.
Physics without mathematics is meaningless.
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
Two paradoxes are better than one they may even suggest a solution.
There is a time for scientists and movie stars and those who have flown the atlantic to restrain their opinions lest they be taken more seriously than they should be.
In our educational institutions applied science may almost be described as a "no-man's land."
Today's science is tomorrow's technology.
The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.
My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.
If not for me, the H-bomb would have been developed in Russia first. In the U.S., we'd now be speaking Russian.
Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.
I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.
When Columbus took off, the purpose was to improve trade relations with China. That problem has not been solved to this very day, but just look at the by-products.
The eyes of childhood are magnifying lenses.