Balázs Illényi
Celestial/Extraterrestrial Minds
György Marx: A marslakók érkezése. Magyar tudósok, akik nyugaton alakították a XX. század történelmét (The Coming of the Martians. Hungarian Scientists
who Shaped the History of the 20th Century in the West). Akadémiai Kiadó, 2000. 424 pp.
In contrast to Austria and other small countries, Hungary did not have linguistic contact with her neighbours; Hungarians form an isolated ethnic enclave in Europe. Hungarian writers could find a wider readership only by emigrating and writing in a foreign tongue. But giving up the mother tongue usually means the end of the career for a poet, or turns him into an insignificant journalist. Since World War I, the main export of Hungary has consisted of bestselling journalists, producers, music stars. They were scattered worldwide by a centrifugal force which arises when a small country has plenty of talents without the chance for their unfolding at home. But later I re-cognized that their option is only one side of the truth. This demi-monde of cafés and 'goulash-bars' of Vienna, New York and Tokyo does not represent the most valuable part of the Hungarian contribution to culture. The really valuable elements of the Hungarian 'export' were absorbed by the physics, mathematics, and biology departments of universities, furthermore by hospitals, research laboratories, state committees, and orchestras. I don't think that a comparable exodus of scientists and artists ever existed since the fall of Byzantium.
(Ubiquitous Presence)
These are the thoughts of Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), on a peculiar trait in the 20th-century history of his native land, something that is still observable today: intellectual emigration. The phases of it and the most important figures involved now feature in this volume, in which György Marx (himself a physicist of international renown) celebrates the life and work of Hungarian natural scientists who shaped the history of the West in the past hundred years. The chief merit of the book is that it does not wish to rewrite history, but takes a fresh look at epoch-making events from the Hungarian perspective, thus recharging points of contact and dates, so familiar from any textbook, with a new meaning. This is what makes his book a surprising new summary—hitherto not available in Hungarian educational and specialist literature; as he says, this is "the Hungarian version [of the history] of the release of atomic power, fast data processing, the birth of space research, the exact scientific approach to life."
Guides to Hungary most often still try to sell the country as the land of Tokay wine, paprika, goulash, Gypsy music and Hortobágy herdsmen, despite the fact, says the physicist, that the cultural heritage of the country, of which not only foreigners but Hungarians as well are insufficiently aware, is of far greater significance. For how many of you knew that matches, wolfram-filament or krypton-filled light bulbs, the ball-point pen, Rubik's cube, alternating current technology, streamlined planes, radioactive tracing, the atomic reactor, electronically programmable computers, time-sharing e-mail networks, the BASIC programming language, the word processor Word for Windows, the Pentium microprocessor or the Lunar Rover were all "born in the minds of people whose cradle rocked in Hungary"? The impressive list does not end here, and the author goes on, adding numerous details, relating first- and second-hand anecdotes, to produce an unusual and highly enjoyable history of science.
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Balázs Illényi
trained as a historian and is on the staff of the economic weekly Heti Világgazdaság.
