SCIENCE IN HUNGARY and HUNGARY IN SCIENCE

Abstract

In this invited presentation, I will attempt to give a bird’s eye view of the relationship between Hungary and science. A group of aristocrats founded the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1825. Following the defeated Revolution and War for Independence of 1848‒49 and the ensuing suppression, the Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867 opened an era of unprecedented progress in Hungary. One of its products was an outstanding network of high schools (secondary schools), cradles of creativity, whose graduates eventually earned Nobel Prizes and enriched world culture and science. World War I, the revolutions, and the autocratic and anti-Semitic Horthy era (1920‒1944) resulted in an exodus of talent and the Holocaust further decimated the country’s scientific potentials. Then, the oppressive Soviet-style political system was moving toward gradually relaxing restrictions, and allowed a certain degree of productivity in science (1948‒1989). Two decades of fledgling democracy (1990‒2010) brought about increasing competition for science for the best talents among several fields. Sadly, the current autocratic governance has caused another exodus of talent. Low-level of support for science has been characteristic for a long time in contrast with the plethora of scientific achievements, but the latter is a sum of performance at home and abroad. It is already a century that both resident and emigre scientists have been winning well-deserved recognition for their exceptional contributions. For illustration, let us have a few names. Janos Bolyai expanded geometry beyond its Euclidean foundations. Ignac Semmelweis—the “Savior of Mothers”—was a founder of medicinal antisepsis. Lorand Eotvos constructed his famous pendulum and paved the way for the theory of general relativity. George de Hevesy used radioactive labeling to follow chemical and biochemical processes. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi made fundamental discoveries in biochemical energetics. George A. Olah induced the un-reactive covalent bond to become reactive in super- acidic environment. The “Martians of Science,” Theodore von Karman, Leo Szilard, Eugene P. Wigner, John von Neumann, and Edward Teller, in addition to making fundamental discoveries in the physical sciences and computation, defended the Free World against totalitarian regimes. The list could be continued; and take one more example from a far away endeavor: Bela Bartok was not only a composer and concert pianist, but a great scholar in musicology.