Edward Teller: the father of the H-bomb
Edward Teller’s love of mathematical and quantum abstractions helped make armageddon a practical possibility.
Jeffrey Phillips
The words on the telegram sent by Edward Teller in December 1952 appeared to herald life-affirming news:
“It’s a boy.â€
The message, however, was in code. To those in the know, the message wasn’t about new life at all but the possibility of human extinction. It meant the world’s first test of a hydrogen bomb – a thermonuclear 'fusion' weapon 500 times more powerful than the atomic 'fission' bombs dropped on Japan – had not only worked but exceeded expectations, transforming the Pacific island of Elugelab into one giant crater.
This event was primarily responsible for Teller – a Hungarian émigré, physics professor, member of the Manhattan Project and at that point co-founder of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California – being forever dubbed “the father of the hydrogen bombâ€.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/edward-teller-the-father-of-the-h-bomb