The Hungarian-American physicist--and later molecular biologist--Leo Szilard (1898-1964) helped initiate the atomic age and later worked for nuclear disarmament and world peace.

Leo Szilard was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February 11, 1898, the oldest of three children. His father was an engineer. "As far as I can see," he wrote, "I was born a scientist." He received most of his instruction at home until the age of ten, learning German and French with governesses. From the age of ten to 18 he went to a public school. His attraction to physics began when he was 13.

In 1916, one year before his draft into the army, he entered the Hungarian Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering. He had returned there by the summer of 1919. At the end of 1919 he went to Berlin and registered at the Technische Hochschule, which he left in mid-1920 to complete his studies at the University of...