Born 125 years ago, the Hungarian–American physicist Leo Szilard is best remembered for being the first scientist to call for atomic bombs to be developed – before later demanding they be stopped. But as Istvan Hargittai explains, this was not the only occasion when his views evolved in unexpected directions
Leo Szilard: the physicist who envisaged nuclear weapons but later opposed their use
24 Jan 2023
Istvan Hargittai is a physical chemist and professor emeritus at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary, e-mail istvan.hargittai@gmail.com. He is currently co-authoring (with Balazs Hargittai) Brilliance in Exile: The Diaspora of Hungarian Scientists from John von Neumann to Katalin Karikó.