Edward Teller, 'Father of H-Bomb,' Dies

[gulliver]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030910_10.html

<snip>
STANFORD, Calif. Sept. 10 —

Edward Teller, who played a key role in U.S. defense and energy policies for more than half a century and was dubbed the "father of the H-bomb" for his enthusiastic pursuit of the powerful weapon, died Tuesday, a spokesman for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory said. He was 95.

Teller died in Stanford, Calif., near the Hoover Institute where he served as a senior research fellow.
<snip>

[IndianaGreen]

1. A brilliant scientist

a life wasted on weapons research.

[wtmusic]

2. A brilliant scientist

who imagined using the H-bomb for creating seaports and for mining. Weird.

[Julien Sorel]

3. Yep.

Many moons ago I knew someone who worked at LL with Teller, and she used to tell me stories about him that made me think he was insane. He was brilliant, but he had one of those visionary minds that other people don't always keep up with. I'm pretty certain that he believed the U.S. could 'win' a nuclear war right up to his dying day.

[burrowowl]

4. A mad scientist

Strangelove ring a bell.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Wow, although I disagreed with Teller on almost everything,

he certainly was an important physicist. I was very surprised at this little revelation in the article.

In 1995, Teller looked back a half-century and wondered if the United States could have showed Japan the tremendous power of the bombs without destroying the cities. Some scientists had suggested at the time that a bomb be exploded in the sky miles over Tokyo harbor in hopes of scaring Japan into surrendering with a minimum of casualties.

"I think we shared the opportunity and the duty, which we did not pursue, to find ... a possibility to demonstrate" the bomb, Teller said at a 50th-anniversary forum. "Now in retrospect I have a regret."

I guess we do agree on something after all.

[punpirate]

6. Teller was...

... brilliant, egotistical and quite dangerous.

What's less known is that if the United States had continued to pursue his original design for the fusion bomb, it never would have worked. It was only after Stan Ulam and Hans Bethe corrected his original work that a working bomb was possible.

What's even less known is that Teller was the driving force behind getting Oppenheimer's security clearance pulled, because Teller was afraid that the latter's campaign for non-proliferation might inhibit research and deployment of thermonuclear weapons. There were any number of project scientists who were appalled by Teller's hatchet job. It's no surprise that Teller ended up at the very right-wing Hoover Institute.

But, ultimately, he had the basic idea on how it _could_ work, so he gets the credit.

I think he might have been the closest to a madman of all the original Manhattan project scientists. Some of his ideas were just plain goofy and downright stupid (drilling tunnels, squeezing oil and gas out of wells with thermonuclear devices, etc.).

Guess I'll have to dig out my old copy of Ric von Schmidt singing, "Edward Teller."

[fujiyama]

7. I was watching

the trial of henry kissinger the other day and they mentioned how teller supported kissinger's statement that a limited nuke war was possible...

unfortunate how one of the century's most brilliant scientists had such bizzare notions...exactly what comes to mind when you hear the term "mad scientist".

[punpirate]

8. There are possible explanations....

Not any one of which might have explained the bizarre attitudes.

First, again, his ego. Monstrous, by most accounts, and he was very sensitive to slights.

Second, he was Hungarian, and like many, but not all, Hungarians, he had a morbid fear and mistrust of the Russians. That colored his views throughout his years as a physicist.

Third, he'd had a foot cut off by the wheel of a trolley as a teenager in Budapest. There might have been some unusual psychic aberrations because of that. Certainly, it might account for some of his overreaching.

But, of all the people working on these projects, Teller, perhaps more than anyone, saw them as utilitarian tools, and not the horrid devices they were, and that notion of his went far beyond the pride of creation. What prompted that view, I doubt anyone will know for sure.

Cheers.

[nannygoat]

25. Wasn't he one of the proponents of Star Wars

missile defense system? Evil f*er.

[punpirate]

26. Yup. See other replies below.

I think a lot of that support may have come from the suggestion that the x-ray laser should be the mainstay of that system (the x-ray laser depended upon an atomic weapon as the x-ray source).

[teryang]

9. Limited nuclear war was Kissingers pet insane war plan

Actually it may have been a series of war plans. Yes, limited nuclear war (option) is possible. But it is also insane. The notion of limited nuclear war strategy being a formula for winning a nuclear war without targeting the strategic ICBM arsenal is ridiculous and extremely dangerous beyond any other idea anyone has ever had.

[0rganism]

10. Teller was to science what Kissenger is to politics

I find it somewhat amusing that Teller started publicly reprising Oppenheimer's dilemmas and concerns, half a century later. Perhaps he saw his pet nuclear holocaust as a stain on his legacy?

[hatrack]

20. Richard Rhodes had an even better description of Teller

In "Dark Sun", he referred to him as "the Richard Nixon of American science."

Incidentally, if you haven't read Rhodes' "Making of the Atomic Bomb" and "Dark Sun", you've missed two of the best books on science and history that I've ever read - they're both superb.

[punpirate]

21. A second on that...

... both excellent, well-researched books. In fact, _Dark Sun_ was where I read that Teller had an accident with a trolley in his youth, I believe.

[gratuitous]

23. I'll third the Rhodes recommendations

I read the Making of the Atomic Bomb. Excellent reportage, full of detail and nuance.

What to say about Edward Teller? A madman who controlled U.S. policy for far too long, and whose peculiar insanity infected countless others who worked and studied with him. His legacy will be with us for far too long, but at least the source is stilled at last.

[Kolesar]

11. Teller wrote a USA Today column against anti-nuclear resolutions

There was a citizen's movement during the Reagan administration to pass anti-nuclear resolutions. For example, the city of Cleveland Heights placed "anti-nuclear zone" verbiage on every city limit sign. There was one November when many communities passed anti-nuclear resolutions, so the nascent USA Today had Teller write an over-the-top attack on the idea.

At that time, I figured out that the media was being reshaped to reflect the views of the Reagan administration. I used to tell my friends that USA Today was "not a real newspaper" and urge them not to believe it.

[CWebster]

12. A brighter day

with the loss of a sick old bastard. Good riddance--may your eternity be a nuclear holocaust.

[lumpy]

13. His life is not one to be celebrated.

To my knowledge he exhibited a lack of conscience unlike Oppenheimer.

[Atlant]

15. And that, of course, is why Oppy was...

And that, of course, is why Oppy was excoriated while Teller
was revered by our government.

Atlant

[Capt_Nemo]

14. Fuck him!

As a physicist I considered a disgrace to have such bastard as a
colleague.
His propping up of the fraud that SDI was, shows that he put his own
political agenda ahead of scientific truth and technical feasability.
Good riddance!

[slappypan]

16. Dr. Strangelove

That is what I have heard physicists call him. He was not liked by his peers.

[bobthedrummer]

17. A first rate scientist

with twists and all too human kinks that dehumanized the world by counting beings as numbers and war as a formula:nuke:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Leni 101, Teller 95, Thurmond 100...

FUCK, won't ANY of the bastards die YOUNG for a change??? Or, alternatively, a good guy die of old age?

[Junkdrawer]

19. Only proves that a conscience is not conducive to longevity...

Psychopaths have long lives and longer infamy. :(

[ignatius]

22. May he receive the afterlife he deserves,

a plunge into Inferno everlasting.

[nannygoat]

24. Why do these evil f*ers all live to be so old?

I think their hate must be a natural chemotherapy or something.

[punpirate]

27. Maybe it's because...

... government protects them... including better health care and less worry about where their next meal is coming from (as compared to the rest of us).