{
  "annotation_id": "70777e64-da28-4ac4-95ad-6d90ea2c3d80",
  "date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.815000Z",
  "date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.815000Z",
  "file_hash": "bdee723eefe238a82521b79b7d655b10e77f4b98ff9794ed620325cf6076737d",
  "private": false,
  "record": {
    "abstract": "Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard worked together at Columbia in 1939-40, just\nafter nuclear fission was discovered, to ascertain the feasibility of a nuclear\nchain reaction, and then on the construction of the first nuclear reactor.\nSzilard believed a nuclear bomb could be built, and that the Germans may be\ndoing so, but Fermi was sceptical. The Anglo-American project to build a bomb\nbegan late in 1941 after Oliphant brought the Frisch-Peierls memorandum to the\nattention of U. S. physicists. Szilard recalled \"On matters scientific or\ntechnical there was rarely any disagreement[but] Fermi and I disagreed from the\nvery start of our collaboration about every issue that involved not science but\nprinciples of action in the face of the approaching war. If the nation owes us\ngratitude - and it may not - it does so for having stuck it out together as\nlong as was necessary.\" As the war with Germany was drawing to a close and the\nsuccessful construction of the atomic bombs was well underway, these two men\ntook opposing positions regarding use of the bombs.",
    "arxiv_id": "physics/0207094",
    "authors": [
      "Nina Byers"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "physics.hist-ph",
      "physics.soc-ph"
    ],
    "title": "Fermi and Szilard",
    "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0207094"
  },
  "schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
  "source": {
    "execution_id": "9f4b22e7-4167-4321-b796-1012861c2894",
    "id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
    "type": "Model",
    "variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
    "version": "0.1.0"
  },
  "user_id": 1000002
}