Sky-High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish

[longship]

33. Well, you are selective in your history here.

Szilard was one of the many physicists who abandoned physics for biological research after the war.

You really didn't bother to watch Bronowski's essay, did you. Szilard spent his last years at Salk Institute, not Los Alamos. He was prominent among physicists who petitioned Roosevelt to, instead of dropping the bomb on Japan, demonstrate its power in a non-killing demonstration to international observers, including the Japanese.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt died and in the shuffle of the transfer of power the letter may not have gotten to Truman's desk. Whatever happened, Truman opted to use the bomb against Japan, twice. His rationale was the number of GIs who would have died invading the Japanese homeland. History will never say who was correct, the scientists, or Truman. But make no mistake here, Szilard was foremost in advocating against the bomb's use, if not the premier and prominent among physicists of that sentiment. He did write the Einstein letter, but he did it because he realized that the genie was already out of the bottle and Germany had the same information as everybody.

Now Teller was an asshole from day one. He has been called the father of the H-bomb, but his first design tested was a dud -- it fizzled. So not only was he an asshole who wanted to make a bomb which was unnecessary and which responsible physicists opposed, including Oppenheimer, Szilard, and many others, he politically opposed those who opposed his saber rattling. He single-handedly destroyed Oppie for his opposition to The Super. Read about Oppie and you will know.

Please do not lecture me about history on this. As one educated in physics and this history, I know the players and the side they took.

Szilard was always against the use of the bomb. To state otherwise is to show ignorance of the man's character, and of the actual history.

You really didn't bother viewing Bronowski's essay, did you? That's your loss, my friend. You will never understand Leo Szilard until you do.

I don't know what history you are reading. I recommend Richard Rhodes' two books on the bombs as a start. Then, take some physics classes to understand the scientific/political milieu in the late thirties when physicists realized that world war was upon us and that there was no stopping the development of atomic weaponry. That was the situation that made Szilard, in spite of his previous attempts to keep atomic energy secret, to petition Roosevelt with the Einstein letter that Germany could develop such a beast. Indeed, Teller may have been part of that sentiment. But Szilard and Teller were continents apart (so to speak) by the time it came to using the bomb and developing the super.

Read Rhodes' books.