Theodore Brewster "Ted" Taylor (1925-2004) was an American theoretical physicist, specifically concerning nuclear energy. His higher education included a PhD from Cornell University in theoretical physics. His most noteworthy contributions to the field of nuclear weaponry were his small bomb developments at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. Although Taylor is not widely known to the general public, he is credited with numerous landmarks in fission nuclear weaponry development, including having developed the smallest, most powerful, and most efficient fission weapons ever tested by the US. Though Taylor was not considered a brilliant physicist from a calculative viewpoint, his vision and creativity allowed him to thrive in the field. The later part of Taylor's career was focused on nuclear energy instead of weaponry, and included his work on Project Orion, nuclear reactor developments, and anti-nuclear proliferation. Early life Ted Taylor was born in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 11, 1925. His mother and father were both Americans. His mother, Barbara Southworth Howland Taylor, held a PhD in Mexican literature from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and his father, Walter Clyde Taylor, was the director of a YMCA in Mexico City. Before marrying in 1922, his father had been a widower with three sons and his mother a widow with a son of her own. Taylor's four half-brothers were old enough that Ted was essentially raised as an only child. Both of his maternal grandparents were Congregationalist missionaries in Guadalajara. Taylor grew up in a house without electricity in the Atlixo 13 neighborhood of Cuernavaca. His upbringing was quiet and religious, and his home filled with books, mainly atlases and geographies, which he would read by candlelight. This interest followed him into adulthood. Taylor showed an early interest in chemistry, specifically pyrotechnics, when he received a chemistry set at the age of ten. This fascination was enhanced when a small and exclusive university in the area built a chemistry laboratory in his neighborhood, after which Taylor had access to items from local druggists that otherwise would not have been readily available, including corrosive and explosive chemicals, as well as nitric and sulfuric acids. These allowed him to conduct his own experiments. He also often read through the 1913 New International Encyclopedia, which contained extensive chemistry, for new concoctions to make. These included sleeping drugs, small explosives, guncotton, precipitates, and many more. His mother was extremely tolerant of his experimentation