FREE ESSAY ON MOONSHINE

MOONSHINE

Moonshine Leo Szilard was born in Hungary with a passion to save the world. His father was
a civil engineer, and his mother a loving caring women. He went to school at his
gymnasium the University of Budapest's Minta. He graduated from there in 1916 with the
Eotvos Prize. (A National Prize in Mathematics) Physics was always his passion, but there
was no career in physics in Hungary. It is also said that despite his prize Szilard
thought his skills in mathematics could not compete with his colleagues, so Szilard
turned to electrical engineering and stayed there until he was drafted into the
Austro-Hungarian Army. After the army, in 1919, Szilard decided to leave Hungary. Still
an electrical engineer, he went to the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. Also, in Berlin
were acclaimed scientists such as Albert Einstein and Max von Laue. The scientific
opportunities in Berlin were to tempting, and Szilard left the technology institute for
the University of Berlin where all the famous scientists were. Szilard went to Max von
Laue and asked for a thesis topic, this is what physicists do when they want a doctorate.
Laue gave him a very difficult problem in relative theory which Szilard worked on for the
next six months. Christmas time came and he decided to take a break and just think on his
own. During this time he came up with was how to solve a baffling inconsistency in
thermodynamics. He brought this to Albert Einstein, who liked the solution. Szilard wrote
a paper on the problem and was given his degree. Szilard starting working with Einstein
on several inventions including a refrigerator system. Also Szilard started something
called Der Bund, in English it means the band. This was a small group of around 30 to 40
elite scientists who bound together to for a small class. This group was not meant to be
a political group, but a representation of Berlin's finest scientists. Szilard got
interested in nuclear physics sometime in the 1920's. This new field had the potential to
create massive amounts of energy from the nucleus. But he did no more than think about
nuclear physics until 1932 when the possible existence of a neutron was announced. A
neutron would have no electrical charge and therefore would be able to penetrate through
the nucleus's electrical barrier. This opened many possibilities in nuclear physics. Soon
after this Szilard discovered one a H. G. Well's books called The World Set Free which
predicted a second world was in which all the major cities of the world would be
destroyed by atomic bombs (Bombs based on the liberation of atomic energy on a large
scale). Szilard said that though this book effected him, he regarded it as pure fiction.
This book probably rose questions and possibilities in his head. Szilard met with a man
named Otto Mandl in 1932 where Mandl described his theory about how to save mankind. He
said that mankind would have to launch an enterprise aimed at leaving earth. Szilard
concluded that for this to occur, atomic energy would be necessary. So he went into
experimental work in nuclear physics in a way due to his passion to save the world.
Hitler rose to power and Szilard was forced to fled to England where he helped other
refugees to find jobs in England, China, America, India, and Palestine. He kept a low
profile until he read in The Times an article that put The World Set Free and nuclear
physics in general to shame. This got Szilard thinking about atomic energy again and he
came up with an idea. It was the Chain Reaction. Which element, if placed in a chemically
unstable substance, that when split by one neutron would omit two neutrons, you would
have a nuclear reaction.