The Martians of Science

The Martians is the engaging story of five little-known Hungarian physicists who transformed 20th century science. They emigrated to the United States from Hungary in the 1930s, and were important contributors to such importants experiments as the Manhattan Project. Variously recognized with the National Medal for Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize for physics, these five remained close friends throughout their lives. Through decades of political and social upheaval, they held onto their Hungarian identities and were fiervely opinionated and politically active, reactionaries against the fascism and anti-Semitism with which they had grown up. Based on the author's personal relationships with the subjects and many interviews with their contemporaries, The Martians is an exhaustively researched, fascinating story of an important era in American, Hungarian, and scientific history.