Another Father Of The Hydrogen Bomb
CorrectionWe said, "[T]here are actually two or three singularities. One of them is the one that Ulam came up with in a conversation in 1958 with John von Neumann." Stanislaw Ulam wrote about the conversation in 1958, but Von Neumann died in February 1957.
Stanislaw Ulam would have been 100 years old Friday. Even if you don't recognize the name, you are probably familiar with his work.
Stanislaw Ulam was a mathematician who helped design the hydrogen bomb.
He was a leading figure in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, N.M., the top secret project to develop the atomic bombs that ended World War II.
Later, with Edward Teller, he helped work out the design of the thermonuclear weapons that were at the heart of the Cold War.
Stanford University professor and Weekend Edition Math Guy Keith Devlin tells host Scott Simon about Ulam's influence during the last century.
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