Part I: The New Physics
// February 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // World Issues
In August 1939- a month before the outbreak of WWII, Einstein signed a letter authored by Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard addressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, advising him to fund research into the possibility of using nuclear fission as a weapon in the event that Nazi Germany may also be conducting such research.
“This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable – though much less certain – that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.”
The letter speaks of two rising worlds- the new field of subatomic physics that had been revealed in the last 40 years and a new enemy in Nazi Germany who had already seized power in Austria and part of the Czech Republic. The two worlds would be inseparably flung together, in a reaction that would change the world.
