The Martians of Science

István Hargittai is Professor of Chemistry and head of the George A. Olah PhD School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and research professor at E ötv ös University. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and member of the Academia Europaea (London). He holds a PhD degree from E ötv ösUniversity, D.Sc. degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and honorary doctorates from Moscow State University, the University of North Carolina, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has lectured in some 30 countries and taught atseveral universities in the United States. He has published extensively on structural chemistry and on symmetry-related topics. His books include the Candid Science series of his collected interviews with famous scientists, The Road to Stockholm about the Nobel Prize, and Our Lives, which includes a considerable amount of autobiographical material. He and his fellow professor wife live in Budapest. Their grown children, both PhDs, live in the United States.

• Preface ; Acknowledgements ; List of Plates ; Introduction ; 1. Arrival and Departure ; 1.1 Family Origin and Early Childhood ; 1.2 Gem and Less: Gimnazium Experience ; 1.3 Background in Hungary and First Transition ; 2 Turning Points in Germany ; 3 Second Transition: to the United States ; 4 "To Protect and Defend": World War II ; 5 To Deter: Cold War ; 6 Being Martian ; 6.1 Comparisons ; 6.1.1 Szilard and Fermi ; 6.1.2 Teller and Oppenheimer ; 6.2 Traits ; 6.3 Religion and Jewishness ; 6.4 Being Hungarian ; Epilogue ; Greatness in Science ; Had They Lived ; Conclusion ; Appendix: Quotable Martians ; Notes ; Select Bibliography ; Annotated Name Index ; Subject Index

This is an important story that needs to be told, and Hargittai tells it well. Nature, November 2006.