esis that the gravitational constant had varied significantly since the birth of the universe—a hypothesis of Paul Dirac, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. In his lecture, Teller stated that if such variations had existed, the Sun would have been so luminous that the oceans would have likely boiled over during past epochs. However, fossil evidence shows life thrived. “His argument combined geology, astrophysics, biology, and paleontology,” says Wood. “It was a staggering tour de force. He prepared his talk in his spare time, while he was leading the charge toward modern thermonuclear weapons. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this guy really knows physics.’ I never forgot that seminar.”
Teller’s rare combination of deep knowledge and boundless imagination was evident even in his last years. (See the box below.) Less than two weeks before he died, Teller asked to see new data supporting an accelerating expansion of the universe. Three days before his death, Teller, Wood, and Nuckolls held a long discussion about advanced energy systems for the future.
Impressive Record of Physics
During the first phase, which immediately followed the discovery of quantum mechanics, Teller made contributions to a host of physics disciplines, including statistical mechanics, quantum theory, molecular physics, condensed-matter physics, surface physics, magnetism, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. (See the box below.) These contributions remain fundamental parts of current scientific knowledge and understanding.
Teller’s early work on molecular physics provided insights to the dynamics of polyatomic molecules, thus deeply influencing subsequent development in the area of physical chemistry. Perhaps the most important part of this work was the discovery of the Jahn–Teller effect describing the distortion of nominally symmetric molecules. The Jahn–Teller effect is ubiquitous in chemical and solid-state physics.
Teller also proposed what became the basic adsorption model in surface physics, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller equation of state, which accounts for the adsorbate atom’s simultaneous tendencies to attach and evaporate. It is still applied in surface physics. In addition, the exactly solvable Ashkin–Teller model in statistical physics continues to provide insight into the thermodynamics of phase transitions. Teller was also a major contributor to the Monte Carlo computational method often called the Metropolis algorithm, which Computing in Science and Engineering selected as one of the 10 most important computational algorithms of the 20th century.
In 1936, Teller and Gamow made a key contribution to the rapidly developing field of nuclear physics in their paper on beta decay, which described how a nucleon could flip its spin during the decay transition when emitting an electron and an antineutrino. This phenomenon is now called a Gamow–Teller transition, the discovery of which turned out to be a large step toward the modern Standard Model of elementary particles. The Teller–Gamow paper also unexpectedly led to an understanding of nuclear energy generation in the Sun.
In the late 1940s, with Fermi and Victor Weisskopf, Teller showed conclusively that the mu meson (or muon) could not be the then-sought Hideki Yukawa pi meson (or pion). In another contribution, the Lyddane–Sachs–Teller relation described the dielectric constant needed to explain how photons propagate in salts. This relation proved, in turn, to be a fruitful analogy, leading Maurice Goldhaber and Teller to predict strong universal gamma-ray absorption resonances in nuclei.
Life at the Laboratory
At Livermore, Teller pushed for novel nuclear weapon designs and smaller warheads. In particular, in 1956, he proposed to the Navy the development of thermonuclear warheads small and light enough to be carried on submarine-launched ballistic missiles. That successful program, much of which was carried out while Teller served as Laboratory director from 1958 to 1960, established Livermore’s reputation for innovative nuclear design. In 1998, Teller reflected, “The Laboratory is