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
In a dangerous situation we have chosen the most dangerous of courses...we have chosen not to face our danger!
On May 7, a few weeks after the accident at Three-Mile Island, I was in Washington. I was there to refute some of that propaganda that Ralph Nader, Jane Fonda and their kind are spewing to the news media in their attempt to frighten people away from nuclear power. I am 71 years old, and I was working 20 hours a day. The strain was too much. The next day, I suffered a heart attack. You might say that I was the only one whose health was affected by that reactor near Harrisburg. No, that would be wrong. It was not the reactor. It was Jane Fonda. Reactors are not dangerous.
U.S. has lost a battle more important and greater than Pearl Harbor.
We must learn to live with contradictions, because they lead to deeper and more effective understanding.
Really exotic methods of propulsion . . . will have to be devised to get there. How it will be done, I do not know. Whether it will be done, I am not quite certain. But I would bet it can be done.
If there ever was a misnomer, it is "exact science." Science has always been full of mistakes. The present day is no exception. And our mistakes are good mistakes; they require a genius to correct. Of course, we do not see our own mistakes.
There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.
When you're certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool.
I think that intellectuals who end up in hell will have to read page proofs and check indexes there.
Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.
Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought.
[Chemistry] laboratory work was my first challenge. ... I still carry the scars of my first discovery-that test-tubes are fragile.
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
Two paradoxes are better than one they may even suggest a solution.