George Marx Department of Atomic Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest
It is well known that it was the U.S., and soon thereafter the Soviet Union, England, France, and China, where nuclear power was accomplished. In addition, a number of highly talented physicists of other nations contributed to the success, e.g. Germans (Hans Bethe, Felix Bloch, Otto Hahn, Rudolf Peierls), Austrians (Otto Robert Frisch, Hans Halban, Lise Meitner, Victor Weisskopf), Italians (Eduardo Amaldi, Enrico Fermi, Bruno Pontecorvo, Emilio Segré). Teller used to emphasize: - It was the work of many people. - Why are just Hungarian scientists considered to be, in some sense, "aliens"?1
The birth of a legend
- Enrico Fermi was a man with outstanding talents, he had many interests outside his own particular field. He was credited with asking famous questions. There are long preambles to Fermi's questions like this:
- The universe is vast, containing myriads of stars, many of them not unlike our Sun. Many of these stars are likely to have planets circling around them. A fair fraction of these planets will have liquid water on their surface and a gaseous atmosphere. The energy pouring down from a star will cause the synthesis of organic compounds, turning the ocean into a thin, warm soup. These chemicals will join each other to produce a self-reproducing system. The simplest living things will multiply, evolve by natural selection and become more complicated till eventually active, thinking creatures will emerge. Civilization, science, and technology will follow. Then, yearning for fresh worlds, they will travel to neighboring planets, and later to planets of nearby stars. Eventually they should spread out all over the Galaxy. These highly exceptional and talented people could hardly overlook such a beautiful place as our Earth. - "And so, " - Fermi came to his overwhelming question, - "if all this has been happening, they should have arrived here by now, so where are they ? " - It was Leo Szilard, a man with an impish sense of humor, who supplied the perfect reply to Fermi's rethoric: - "They are among us," - he said, - "but they call themselves Hungarians. "
This is Francis Crick's version of the myth.2 - A saying circulated among us that two intelligent species live on Earth: Humans and Hungarians - as Isaac Asimov recalled. Hans Bethe wondered quite "seriously" whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to that of man.3 - Richard Rhodes4 has reported: - At Princeton a saying gained currency that Neumann, the youngest member of the new Institute for Advanced Studies, twenty-nine in 1933, was indeed a demigod but that he had made a thorough, detailed study of human beings and could imitate them perfectly. - The myth of the Martian origin of the Hungarian scientists who entered world history on American soil during World War II probably originated in Los Alamos. Leon Lederman, director of the Fermilab, reported possible hidden intentions5: - The production of scientists and mathematicians in the early 20th century was so prolific that many otherwise calm observers believe Budapest was settled by Martians in a plan to infiltrate and take over the planet Earth. - (See Kovács' map in this volume, p.45.) As a matter of fact, these suspicious Hungarians - Theodore von Kármán, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard - enjoyed the myth. Edward Teller became especially happy of his E.T. initials, but he complained about indiscretion, - Von Kármán must have been talking. Yankee magazine [March 1980] reported this landing in detail:
- Gabor, von Kármán, Kemeny, von Neumann, Szilard, Teller, and Wigner were born in the same quarter of Budapest. No wonder the scientists in Los Alamos accepted the idea that well over one thousand years ago a Martian spaceship crashlanded somewhere in the center of Europe. There are three firm proofs of the extraterrestrial origins of the Hungarians: they like to wander about (like gypsies radiating out from the same region). They speak an exceptionally simple and logical language which has not the slightest connection with the language of their neighbors. And they are so much smarter than the terrestrials. (In a slight Martian accent John G. Kemeny added an explanation, namely, that it is so much easier to learn reading and writing in Hungarian than in English or French, that Hungarian kids have much more time left to study mathematics.)
Valentine Telegdi recalled his youth [talk in Budapest 1989]: - For a young Hungarian abroad it may be good to hide his Hungarian descent, because if it is made known, too much will be expected of him. People will know that he is one of the Martians of exceptionally high intelligence who use that incomprehensible language. There was another profession besides science which was crowded by Hungarian talents, the cinema, - an art born from the marriage of traditional drama and modern technology.
Landing in Hollywood
- Legend has it that Hollywood was founded by Hungarians. (At least in part.)6 - Sándor Korda was born in Hungary, in the fateful year 1919 he emigrated to Germany, from there to Hollywood, but reached the peak of his career in England (The Private Life of Henry VIII and Lady Hamilton), and became Sir Alexander Korda. The names of Hungarians in Hollywood make a long list, from Adolph Zukor - born in Ricse (Paramount Pictures) to William Fox - born in Tolcsva, near Tokaj (20th Century Fox) as founders; from Michael Curtiz - born in Budapest (Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood) to Andy Vajna - born in Budapest (Rambo and Evita) as directors; from Menyhard Lengyel ( Typhoon and Ninotshka) to Joe Esterhas - born in Csákánydoroszló (Flashdance and Basic Instinct, working now on a script about the 1956 revolt of Hungary) as screenwriters; from Laszlo Kovacs - born in Budapest (Easy Riders and Free Willy) to Willy Zigmond (Close Encounter of the Third Kind and The Dear Hunter) as cinematographers; from Bela Lugosi - born in Lugos (Frankenstein and Dracula) to Zsa Zsa Gabor - born in Budapest (Moulin Rouge and A Nightmare on Elm Street) as actors, and so on. A special attraction to atoms has been shown by Ciccolina - born as Ilona Staller in Budapest (in her Orgia Atomica). There is also a list of second generation Hungarian actors like Tony Curtis - fluent in Hungarian (stylishly the Lobster Man from Mars and The Boston Strangler who Likes it Hot) through Paul Newman ( The Sting, then Exodus, followed by a Long Hot Summer) up to Leslie Howard - born László Steiner (A Free Soul, later The Scarlet Pimpernel, to be Captured! and then Gone with the Wind). (Howard was wounded in World War I; while flying an airplane near Gibraltar on a secret mission in World War II he was shot down in action, according to myth at the direct order of Hitler. ) Hungarians have been laureated by Oscar Awards: George Cukor (director), József Rufusz (cartoon director), Vilmos Zsigmond (cinematographer), Adolph Zukor (for life's work). On the wall of Zukor's office there was an inscription:
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