Today we’ll talk about the life of Edward Teller. You hardly heard this name before if your professional life is not connected with physics. However, E. Teller is an amazing person who lived a full active life and brought something new to society. His contribution to science is invaluable, since the ideas, studies, and works of this person still form the basis for many questions in physics. The life of this person is contradictory, just as he is. Not everyone accepts his desire to support military projects aimed at cultivating nuclear power, but this does not deprive Teller of talent and an outstanding mind.
Who is it about?
Edward Teller, whose biography will be presented below, is a well-known theoretical physicist. He is also called the "father of the hydrogen bomb." This scientist made a huge contribution to spectroscopy, molecular and nuclear physics. It was he who described the effects of Renner-Teller and Jan-Teller. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller theory is still the basis for physics. The man also expanded the theory of Enrico Fermi regarding beta decay of particles. Together with N. Metropolis and M. Rosenblut in 1953 he wrote an article that served as an impetus for the use of the Monte Carlo method in statistical mechanics.
The beginning of the biography
Edward Teller was born in the winter of 1908 in Budapest. The boy was born into a Jewish family. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a pianist. In the family, the boy was not alone, but with his older sister Emma. After some time, the family became Christian, like most Jewish families at that time. From this it becomes clear that the boy’s relatives were very religious. Despite this, in an adult independent life, he became an agnostic. Teller started talking late, but he was very good at numbers and could even count the number of seconds in a year.
Student
Since the guy grew up in an atmosphere of post-war uprising in Hungary and general tension, he was imbued with aversion to fascism and communism for life. The guy could not enter a higher educational institution in Budapest due to the enforcement of the Horthy Miklos restriction . In 1926, the young man entered the Institute of Technology Karlsruhe in Germany for engineering chemistry. Two years later, he moved to live in Munich, was fond of quantum mechanics. Due to the fact that Teller was a thoughtful student, he inadvertently fell under a tram and lost his right foot. Because of this, he limped all his life and wore a prosthesis. By 1930, he had a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Leipzig. He devoted his dissertation to the description of the molecular hydrogen ion.
At this time, he met with the famous Russian physicists L. Landau and G. Gamov. The development of Teller in the mainstream of physics and philosophy was greatly influenced by his lifelong friendship with G. Plachek. It was he who contributed to the fact that Teller was able to live in Rome with E. Fermi. This determined the future scientific career of a man.
Adulthood
Edward Teller, whose photo we see in the article, devoted two years of his life to the University of Gottingen. However, in 1933, with the assistance of people from the International Rescue Committee, Teller left Germany. He spent about a year in England, another year in Copenhagen, where, incidentally, he worked under the clear guidance of N. Bohr. By 1934, he started a family, taking as his wife the sister of a childhood friend - Augusta Maria.
Just a year later, the young family moved, since Edward Teller received an offer from Gamow. He had a good position at the University of J. Washington. In the US, Teller became a professor. Together with Gamow, they dealt with nuclear, quantum, and molecular physics. Edward Teller, whose nuclear reactions are known throughout the world, discovered them in 1939. Shortly before that, he managed to discover the effect, after which he called the "Jan-Teller effect." It consisted in the fact that molecules tend to change their shape in some reactions. This, in turn, affects the course of the chemical reaction.
Bomb creator
In 1941, Teller received American citizenship. At this time, he was very interested in issues of atomic nuclear and thermonuclear energies. All this only intensified when World War II began, and the scientist became one of a group of researchers to develop the atomic bomb. T. von Karman, a friend of our hero, advised him to work with H. Bethe. Together they laid the foundation for developing a theory of shock wave propagation. After many years, it was their research that served to study questions regarding the entry of rockets into the atmosphere.
Career continuation
What did Edward Teller do next? The biography briefly provides the following chronology of events:
- From 1946 to 1952 he taught at the University of Chicago. At the same time, he became deputy director of the Los Alamos Laboratory.
- From 1953 to 1975 he continued his teaching career at the University of California at Berkeley.
- In 1954 he became the head of the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory. In 1952 he became the head of the research on the development of the hydrogen bomb. In November, conducts the first test.
- From 1957 to 1973 he directed the operation under the name "Plausher." It concerned the use of peaceful nuclei in the United States. Under the guidance of our hero, 27 explosions took place.
It is worth saying that Teller was not a moralist. He believed that the United States should have an advantage in the field of nuclear weapons. He actively opposed the ban on the use of nuclear weapons, initiated the creation of effective and inexpensive types of weapons.
Research
In addition to nuclear weapons issues, Edward Teller dealt with a number of issues. So, he studied quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, physical chemistry, cosmic ray physics. Together with the already familiar to us G. Gamov formulated in 1936 the rule of particle selection during β-decay. In 1947, he independently proved the existence of mesic atoms.
He was awarded the E. Fermi Prize "For Contribution to Nuclear and Chemical Physics" in 1962. In 1975, Teller stepped down as professor at the University of California.
In the role of adviser
The hero of the article devoted the next 30 years of his life to work as an adviser. He advised the government on nuclear weapons. In 1980, he supported President Reagan's Star Wars program. It dealt with a strategic defense initiative.
In 1979, there was a disaster at a nuclear power plant in the United States. At the same time, Teller suffered a heart attack. A little earlier, a movie called "Chinese Syndrome" was released on television. The main role in it was played by J. Fonda, who was an ardent opponent of US nuclear weapons. Later, Teller called her guilty of his attack.
In 1994, Teller visited the Russian Federal Nuclear Center at a conference.
For 20 years, the scientist has advised politicians in Israel. For three years he visited this country 6 times, lectured there on theoretical physics. It took Teller a whole year to prove to the CIA that Israel had enormous nuclear potential. Finally, in 1976, a CIA spokesman announced that he had received information from reliable sources about Israeli nuclear capabilities.
Quotes and books
Edward Teller, whose quotes are very deep, was a versatile, intelligent person. Many of his statements are still in use. The following expression is most popular: "The fact that today is science is tomorrow is technology."
In his quotations, Teller emphasized that neither mind, nor memory, nor ratings are important for a child to become a scientist, it is enough for him to have a huge interest in science.
What else did Edward Teller do? His books are still in demand. He wrote a number of works on theoretical physics. His books are distinguished by clear presentation and clarity of thought.
Summing up the article, I want to say that the scientist Edward Teller made a huge contribution to the development of science. His studies and books are an invaluable gift for all physicists. The last years of his life, the man devoted support to the project, which was to create a harbor in Alaska using thermonuclear weapons.
Throughout his life, our hero became famous not only as an excellent scientist with outstanding abilities, but also as a person with an unpredictable character. Interpersonal relationships were difficult for him, as is often the case with talented people. It is believed that he is the prototype of the protagonist from the film "Doctor Strangelove", which was released in 1964.