 In December 1940 Reich wrote to Albert Einstein saying he had a scientific discovery he wanted to discuss , and , in January 1941 , visited Einstein at his home in Princeton , where they talked for nearly five hours . He told Einstein that he had discovered a " specific biologically effective energy which behaves in many respects differently to all that is known about electromagnetic energy . " He said it could be used against disease , and as a weapon " in the fight against the Fascist pestilence " . ( Einstein had signed a letter to President Roosevelt in August 1939 to warn of the danger of Nazi Germany building an atom bomb , and had urged the United States to establish its own research project . ) Einstein agreed that if an object 's temperature could be raised without an apparent heating source , as Reich was suggesting , it would be " a bomb . " 
