3 ms·
My Trial as a War Criminal (By Leo Szilard, Inventor of Nuclear Chain Reaction)
- eigenvalue 2y agoI learned about this recently and was surprised that it's not better known. Szilard simply thought through what might have happened if the US lost to the USSR after WW3. He imagined himself being put on trial for his participation in the Manhattan Project, similar to how leading Nazis were prosecuted in the Nuremberg Trials. You can read the whole thing here (it's only 8 pages long): https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2592&context=uclrev https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti... Apparently, some translated samizdat version of this story was smuggled into the USSR and was read by Sakharov (the Russian equivalent to Oppenheimer) and actually changed his opinions about the nuclear testing program they were engaged in. In general, I feel like Szilard doesn't get the attention he deserves for his huge contributions. That's probably because he really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, who thought he was rude and egotistical. Fascinating life though-- also check out his refrigerator inventions/patents that he made with Einstein after they heard a sad story of a family dying in their apartment from a leaky old fridge.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]