Hans Bethe

Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced Bay-tuh; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005), was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1967 for his discovery of stellar nucleosynthesis. During World War II, he was head of the Theoretical Division at the secret Los Alamos laboratory developing the first atomic bombs. His team worked out the critical mass of uranium-235 necessary to sustain the fission reaction that would enable the bomb to explode.

Quotes

• "I am not a philosopher" - comment on his work on the first nuclear bomb explosion, 1945.
• "Just a few months before, the Korean war had broken out, and for the first time I saw direct confrontation with the communists. It was too disturbing. The cold war looked as if it were about to get hot. I knew then I had to reverse my earlier position. If I didn't work on the bomb, somebody else would -- and I had thought if I were around Los Alamos I might still be a force for disarmament. So I agreed to join in developing the H-bomb. It seemed quite logical. But sometimes I wish I were more consistent an idealist." - 1968 (in Schweber, p.166)
• "After the H-bomb was made, reporters started to call Teller the father of the H-bomb. For the sake of history, I think it is more precise to say that Ulam is the father, because he provided the seed, and Teller is the mother, because he remained with the child. As for me, I guess I am the midwife." - 1968 (Schweber, p.166)