Word: von
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Von Neumann played a vital part in the wartime atom-bomb project. After the war he continued to advise the Government on high-level scientific problems, including thermonuclear weapons and guided missiles. In 1955 he became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. His advice was instrumental in convincing the Department of Defense that a high-yield thermonuclear warhead could be made light enough to be carried across an ocean by a ballistic missile of practicable size. This thermonuclear breakthrough now dominates the thinking of the U.S. (and probably of the U.S.S.R.) about strategic warfare...
...Von Neumann lived in an age of warlike science, but not all of his practical work was concerned with war. He made key contributions to the mathematics of giant computing machines, and although computers using his theories are essential for designing thermonuclear weapons, they also have such important peacetime functions as forecasting the weather and controlling the operation of oil refineries...
...Light. Like other first-rate intellects, Von Neumann had an uncanny gift for explanation, and the wonder of clear communication in his abstruse field happened whether he was talking to a packed lecture hall or to a single listener. He would grin, draw a few symbols on the blackboard, say a few simple words and grin again. Then, little by little, a new kind of light would begin to shine on the most difficult subject...
During the summer of 1955 Von Neumann learned that he had cancer. As the disease progressed, he still kept at work, attended AEC meetings in a wheelchair as long as he was able. The last months of his life he spent in Walter Reed Army Hospital. There last week, at 53, he died...
Died. John von Neumann, 53, Hungarian-born mathematician, member since 1955 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; of cancer; in Washington, B.C. (see SCIENCE...