In the summer of 1950, while working in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Enrico Fermi found himself overhearing a conversation in the laboratory cafeteria about a recent UFO sighting reported in the press.

 

Talking to some colleagues, Fermi wondered how one could determine whether extraterrestrials exist.

What were the odds?

After evaluating the number of stars in the Universe, the number of planets around them with liquid water, and the evolution of some semblance of human life, the Italian physicist asked whether there might be a civilization capable of communicating with Earth or even colonizing it.

If so, he asked rhetorically:

"Where are all these extraterrestrials?" ("Where is everybody?").

Leo Szilárd promptly responded:

"Enrico, they are already among us. We call them Hungarians."

He was referring to the almost simultaneous presence on Earth of geniuses such as Edward Teller, John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, and, of course, himself.



https://extremelyinterestingfacts.quora.com/

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