Today in Technology History
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January 15
Today is the 95th birthday of the father of the hydrogen bomb.
Edward Teller was born in Budapest on January 15, 1908. He studied physics in Germany with Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), one of the originators of quantum mechanics. He left Germany because of Hitler, moving to Denmark, where he studied with another eminent physicist, Neils Bohr (1895-1962). Teller then briefly lived in London before finally settling in the U.S. in 1935.
During World War II, Teller worked on the Manhattan Project, the secret effort to build the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. After the war, he continued to work on weapons development, intrigued by the prospect of creating a fusion bomb. He contributed to the theoretical research and the practical development of this new weapon, and he shepherded the project from its earliest days -- earning him the nickname "father of the H-bomb."
For decades, Teller remained a prominent supporter of nuclear power, nuclear stockpiling, and weapons development. He left Los Alamos to co-found a new high-tech weapons lab, now known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He argued in favor of using small nuclear devices for demolition projects, and in the 1980s he advocated the creation of a system to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles.
Teller's career has not been without controversy. Critics have characterized him as frightening and obsessed, with a dangerous enthusiasm for weapons and a reckless willingness to exaggerate evidence in support of projects he is passionate about. He also made many enemies, at least in the scientific community, with his 1954 testimony in a hearing about the apparent communist leanings of Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), the physicist who had headed the Manhattan Project. (That hearing effectively ended Oppenheimer's career.) Teller's supporters, however, say that his excesses were forgivable in light of his goals: a strong national defense for America and the defeat of communism in the Cold War.
Dr. Teller has written several books, his most recent being a volume of memoirs published in 2001.
Related links:
Click here to read a biography of Teller.
Click here to read more about Edward Teller's role in the hearing that ended Robert Oppenheimer's career.
Click here and here read more about the early history of the H-bomb.
Click here to read about the history of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, which Teller helped to found.
Some people have theorized that the character of Dr. Strangelove was based on Dr. Teller.
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