![]() ![]() When the lights changed and Szilard stepped into the road, the horrific consequences became apparent. Those two neutrons could divide two further nuclei, releasing four neutrons. If a chemical element were to be bombarded with neutrons, a nucleus could absorb a neutron, split into smaller parts and emit two neutrons in the process. Anyone who was looking for a source of power from the transformation of atoms, Rutherford had famously said, was talking “moonshine”.Īs he waited at a set of traffic lights at Russell Square, a terrible thought suddenly struck Szilard. It had reported a speech given by Ernest Rutherford, who had rejected the idea of using atomic energy for practical purposes. One day in September 1933, Leo Szilard was walking along Southampton Row in London, musing about an article he had just read in The Times. (Courtesy: Argonne National Laboratory/AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives) But as Istvan Hargittai explains, this was not the only occasion when his views evolved in unexpected directions Safety in numbers Photographed after the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic (fission) bomb in 1949, Leo Szilard believed that peace could only be maintained if both sides had equal numbers of such hugely destructive weapons.
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