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Szilárd, Leó

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1898-1964) Hungarian-born physicist and author, in the USA from 1937, whose The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stories (coll 1961) was published late in his celebrated career as a nuclear physicist who had been involved in the creation of the Manhattan Project. Several of these sf stories were written in the 1940s; one of these, "My Trial as a War Criminal" (Fall 1949 University of Chicago Law Review), is an early expression of the deep and often hidden fears of the scientific community about the development of the nuclear bomb. The title story, told in the form of an impersonal report, makes pioneer use of the later very popular notion that cetacean Intelligence is both vastly different and in some ways superior to that of Homo sapiens. Dolphins grow to dominate mankind, using Scientists and institutions as fronts, and the planet is saved. Also included in the collection is "Report on 'Grand Central Terminal'" (June 1952 University of Chicago Magazine; vt "Grand Central Terminal" in Great Science Fiction by Scientists, anth 1962, ed Groff Conklin), a gentle satire on archaeology (see Ruins and Futurity). [JC/DRL]

Leó Szilárd

born Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire: 11 February 1898

died La Jolla, California: 30 May 1964

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