These Mad Hungarians were Really Martians! Quiz

Answer: Hungarians

No fair! You thought the answer was supposed to be "Martians." But that's what Szilárd said.

Edward Teller asked, "Why are just Hungarian scientists considered to be, in some sense, 'aliens'?"

This quiz is about a group of brainy Hungarian emigrants who eventually became U.S. citizens, although sometimes they wryly claimed to be Martians.

No more tricky questions, but no promises they'll all be easy....

Answer: Hungarians are "Magyars," which sounds similar to "Martians."

That's according to earthling Francis Crick, who, with fellow-earthling James D. Watson, discovered DNA's double helix structure, and may have been responsible for assigning the epithet 'Martians' to these great men of science. Since Budapest was the scientists' hometown, they were thought to be descendants of Martian invaders who had crash-landed in the vicinity. Or so went the tale.

Answer: They were all born into Jewish families.

Jewish contributions to society are staggeringly greater than their numbers.
The Martians were secular, not observant, Jews. Some had converted to Christianity or become agnostic.

Most were born into affluence; some were eldest sons, some weren't. I'm obsessive, but not enough to find out on what day of the week these guys were born!

"Tuesday" is named for "Tyr," the Nordic version of "Mars."

Answer: Franklin Roosevelt

Szilárd urged the United States to make a bomb before the Nazis did, but he wanted it to be demonstrated to the Japanese as a deterrent, not used against them. FDR received the letter, but Truman authorized the use of the bomb.

Answer: The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project produced "Little Boy," dropped on Hiroshima, and "Fat Man," dropped on Nagasaki. Martian participants included Szilárd, Eugene Wigner, John George Kemeny, Edward Teller, and John von Neumann.

Cabrini-Green was a housing project in Chicago. The Space Race was between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.

Martians for Nuclear Warfare? Yikes! Shades of H.G. Wells!

Answer: Dr. Strangelove

The movie's full title was, "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

Unlike Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Teller was not wheelchair-bound; he wore a prosthesis after losing his right foot in a streetcar accident. Decades later he would become a vocal advocate for the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative.

In 1991, Teller was awarded the very first and highly uncomplimentary Ig Nobel Peace Prize "for his lifelong efforts to change the meaning of peace as we know it." He also received dozens of honorary doctoral degrees and legitimate prestigious awards.

Answer: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Von Kármán was the JPL's first director, from 1938-1944. Two of JPL's projects are the Cassini-Huygens (Not Cabrini-Green!) mission to Saturn and, yup, the Mars rovers and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Answer: John von Neumann

The "Von Neumann Architecture" that forms the basis for your computer's RAM was of Martian design. John von Neumann suggested self-replicating machines only as a thought experiment. 21st century scientists, however, are exploring the possibility of self-replicating spacecraft, but more along the lines of cloning than involving any romance with Rhoda the Robot.

Alfred E. Neuman, "MAD"'s puckish cover scamp, is neither Hungarian nor Martian.

Martian Dennis Gabor, the "Father of Holography," wasn't related to apparent Venusians Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva, even though all four were born in Budapest.

His buddies thought Martian Eugene Wigner, a Nobel laureate, was as smart as Einstein. Among his many awards for scientific achievement is one from Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, where he chaired a committee for their annual conferences.

If Teller was the most disagreeable of the Martians, Paul Erdős was the most eccentric. Investing all his thought, energy, and money in his true love, mathematics, he retained (and often mislaid) his Hungarian passport as he wandered the globe solving problems, collecting doctorates, winning prizes, and offering many of his own.

Answer: Mars

Who but Mars?

The Greek god, Ares, corresponds to Mars.
Jupiter was the Roman equivalent of Zeus, king of the Greek gods.
Venus, like her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite, was the goddess of love and beauty.
("Men are from Mars, women are from Venus...").

Answer: Ray Walston

Bill Bixby was the young reporter and Ray Walston the stranded Martian in "My Favorite Martian." His levitating finger and swell retractable antennas riveted our juvenile imaginations.

Ray was 50 when he played Uncle Martin; at 85 he was Armitan (Anagram it! Hint: it starts with "M.") in the movie version. A year later in a commercial for AT&T he inquired about long distance rates to Martians living in the United States. Hmm, maybe he really WAS from Mars....