The Martians

This project is well underway. We'll post more news as progress is made.

Redworks will be our initial development vehicle once we quickly sort out a few minor legal and tax issues.

The project will be self-funded by the yet-to-be-established Ajabbi Foundation. More information about the maths and science will be made available at On a Sandy Beach.

The Martians is a working title for a publishing and screen project under development about how a group of Hungarian Jews revolutionised mathematics and physics between the French Revolution and WW2. The decay of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to WW1, the Russian Revolution and the rise of Hitler.

The sudden explosion of genius from late 19th and early 20th-century Budapest is one of the greatest intellectual mysteries of modern history. Historians generally agree that it wasn't a coincidence, but rather the result of a highly specific "perfect storm" of political, educational, and cultural factors unique to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Here are the primary reasons why this specific environment bred such extraordinary minds:

1. The Legendary High Schools (Gimnáziums)

The Hungarian secondary education system at the time is widely considered one of the best in human history. Following reforms in the late 19th century, the state established gimnáziums (high schools) modelled after the rigorous German classical system, but with a heavier emphasis on mathematics and hard sciences.

• Elite Teachers: Because university positions were limited, many world-class scientists and mathematicians taught at the high school level.
• The "Fasori" Phenomenon: Schools like the Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium produced John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner in the exact same generation.

2. A Hyper-Competitive Culture of Math

Hungary turned mathematics into a highly prestigious, nationwide competitive sport.

• The KöMaL Journal: Founded in 1894, this monthly high school mathematics and physics journal published incredibly difficult, creative problems. Students from all over the country mailed in their solutions, which were graded and published. This created a national, collaborative network of young geniuses who pushed each other to their absolute limits before ever reaching university.
• The Kürschák Competition: This annual, blind-graded mathematics competition identified the country's top talent, turning young mathematicians into national celebrities within academic circles.

3. Jewish Emancipation and the "Golden Age" of Budapest

Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Jews in the empire were granted full civil rights. This triggered a massive wave of urbanisation, and Budapest quickly grew into a booming, wealthy metropolis.

• The New Middle Class: Barred from traditional aristocratic roles like landownership or politics, the newly emancipated Jewish population poured their wealth and energy into education, medicine, science, and industry. Most of the "Martians" came from this highly driven, affluent Budapest Jewish bourgeoisie, where intellectual achievement was viewed as the ultimate status symbol.

4. The "Budapest Coffee House" Culture

Much like Vienna, Budapest developed a vibrant coffee house culture. Intellectuals, writers, artists, and scientists did not lock themselves in laboratories; they spent their afternoons in cafes like the New York Café or Café Centrál. Ideas from physics, psychology, literature, and economics were fiercely debated across disciplines, fostering lateral thinking, intense debate, and intellectual agility.

5. A State of Creative Anxiety

The "Martians" grew up in a world of profound instability. They witnessed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a brutal communist revolution, a violent counter-revolution, hyperinflation, and the rapid rise of virulent anti-Semitism.

• This created what Eugene Wigner called a "feeling of extreme insecurity" and an awareness that everything they owned could be taken away—except what was inside their minds.
• This background forced them to be adaptable, highly driven, and comfortable with chaos, traits that proved invaluable when they later had to solve unprecedented problems in wartime America.

"The Martians" (Hungarian: A marslakók) was a nickname for a group of exceptionally brilliant Hungarian physicists and mathematicians who emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. Most were secular Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi expansion and rising anti-Semitism in Europe.

The name originated as a joke among colleagues like Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilárd. When discussing the Fermi Paradox—asking why there is no evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life—Szilárd quipped that aliens were already here, but they simply disguised themselves as Hungarians. The moniker stuck because these scientists possessed seemingly superhuman intellects, all grew up within walking distance of each other in Budapest, and spoke English with a thick, matching accent.

Core Members of "The Martians"

While the wider group included up to 23 thinkers, the core group of five distinct "Martians" reshaped modern physics, defence, and computing:

• John von Neumann (1903–1957): Widely considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century.
• Leo Szilárd (1898–1964): The visionary physicist who conceived the nuclear chain reaction.
• Edward Teller (1908–2003): Theoretical physicist known historically as the "father of the hydrogen bomb".
• Eugene Wigner (1902–1995): Theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.
• Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963): A pioneer in aerodynamics and mathematics.

Others included:

• Denis Gabor: A physicist who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing holography.
• John G. Kemeny: A mathematician and computer scientist who co-developed the BASIC programming language.
• George Pólya: Mathematician
• Paul Erdős: One of the most prolific mathematicians in human history, known for his eccentric lifestyle and work in combinatorics and number theory.

Impact on Science and Mathematics

The Martians did not just contribute to their fields; they laid the bedrock for the technology, national security, and computational infrastructure of the modern world.

• The Von Neumann Architecture: John von Neumann designed the framework for modern digital computers. He pioneered the system where data and program instructions are stored in the same memory spaces—a fundamental structure that nearly all desktop computers, smartphones, and servers still use.
• Cellular Automata: Von Neumann created the concept of cellular automata, modelling self-reproducing systems on computer screens before the biological role of DNA was even fully understood.
• The Nuclear Chain Reaction: In 1933, Leo Szilárd conceived the idea of a neutron-driven nuclear chain reaction and patented it.
• The Manhattan Project: Recognising the threat of Nazi Germany, Szilárd drafted the famous Einstein–Szilárd letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which sparked the creation of the Manhattan Project. Von Neumann, Wigner, and Teller all performed core calculations that made the atomic bomb a reality.
• Thermonuclear Weapons: Post-WWII, Edward Teller drove the physics and design behind the first hydrogen bomb, fundamentally changing Cold War geopolitics.
• Aviation & Space Flight: Theodore von Kármán provided the mathematical and scientific foundation for modern aerodynamics. He discovered the Kármán vortex street (fluid dynamics) and helped establish the U.S. Air Force’s research wing.
• JPL Founding: Von Kármán later co-founded NASA's legendary Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
• Game Theory: John von Neumann co-created mathematical Game Theory, publishing Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour. This framework mathematically analyses strategy, risk, and decision-making, transforming modern economics, evolutionary biology, and military strategy.
• Quantum Mechanics: Eugene Wigner introduced Group Theory into quantum mechanics. His work on the symmetries of atomic nuclei earned him a Nobel Prize.
• Heuristics and Education: George Pólya wrote How to Solve It, a foundational text that systematically defined how to approach and teach mathematical problem-solving.