Leo Szilard was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, on July 12, 1898. He studied physics at the University of Budapest, where he met Albert Einstein. After gaining his doctorate in 1921, he was hired by Eugene Wigner to be part of the writing team for Einstein's theory of general relativity. However, Szilard was not satisfied with this theory because it did not include any idea of how the universe might have originated
As a result, he developed the idea of spontaneous radioactivity while working on Einstein's theory. He published his thoughts in a paper in Nature in 1931. Szilard gave the paper to Einstein to review and then went on vacation to Vienna to meet with Niels Bohr.
Bohr read the paper and told Szilard that he had almost no knowledge of atomic physics—which was quite unusual at that time—and that it should be published by the journal Physical Review instead. The paper was eventually published in Physical Review in 1934 and received much attention as a result. In 1930, he applied for a patent on the idea of using an atomic bomb as a weapon and wrote another article on nuclear fission which appeared in Physical Review in 1933.
He also worked with John von Neumann on creating the hydrogen bomb during World War II after his arrival at Los Alamos National Laboratory
I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.Leo Szilard
We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for ten minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow.Leo Szilard
