Re^7: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science

> This was the golden age of physics LanX and all played out in your backyard!

Yes the Nobel prize was mostly a German party till the 50s. Mainly because much of modern universities and education were invented by the Humboldts. Plus the polycentric structure of central Europe where each little sovereign needed at least one academy, (my region alone has maybe a dozen "capitals"). This created a very fertile ground for science and technology in the 19th century.

Britain in contrast centralized most in "Oxbridge", with classical colleges concentrating on law and theology.

> As a physics nut, I'm extremely envious because I'd love to visit Germany one day to tour all these historic sites ...

I'm afraid there is not that much to see.

I was once in Göttingen visiting a friend studying there. It's a very nice students town, but couldn't spot any boxes filled with semi-dead cats tho.

Unfortunately I needed a train to get there, the wormholes were out of service.

> including Heligoland where Heisenberg formulated Quantum Mechanics -- have you ever been there?

No, and unlikely I ever will.

It's Germany's only "real" island in the very north 40km off shore and tiny. One can go there by ship to buy tax free and enjoy local folklore fostered for tourism, but I never was much of a shanty singer.

Tho the Brits had a famous big bang experiment there, I might go to watch a rerun ...

> I find it interesting that the two biggest QM breakthroughs, by Heisenberg and Schrodinger, were both made while on holiday.

Theoretical Physics like Mathematics mainly happen inside tormented heads trying hard to find solutions and fighting against blockades.

Stories from revelations while relaxing in the nature are plenty, I somehow remember a cartoon showing Poincare (?) making a discovery while cutting trees.°

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)

Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

update

Hey... you can meet and "get physical" with Olivia Newton-John in your "backyard"! Just realized her mother was born Born ... ;-)

Update

°) Turns out that Poincaré published about such kind of subconscious creativity to solve problems in your sleep.

Comment on Re^7: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science

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Re^8: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 19, 2021 at 00:32 UTC
Very interesting! World Class physicists are extremely rare on this side of the planet. :( Australia had Mark Oliphant during WW2 and claims Dark Energy discoverer and Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt, even though he was born and raised in USA. I'll give the Kiwis the legendary Ernest Rutherford, though his nationality was officially British. > Britain in contrast centralized most in "Oxbridge" Some prominent Oxbridge physicists: Paul Dirac Roger Penrose Stephen Hawking (no Nobel prize though!) Heisenberg developed Matrix mechanics. Schrödinger developed Wave mechanics. Dirac showed they were equivalent. And predicted antimatter. Dirac was quite a character, excruciatingly awkward in social situations. His Cambridge friends defined a unit called a "dirac", one word per hour. I love the way he criticised J. Robert Oppenheimer's interest in poetry: "The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way. The two are incompatible." :) > you can meet and "get physical" with Olivia Newton-John in your "backyard"! Just realized her mother was born Born Max Born was her grandfather. Wow, that's a huge surprise! Schrödinger hated Matrix mechanics so intensely that he spoiled a romantic getaway inventing Wave mechanics. Matrices are rarely used in Physics, so most working physicists gleefully switched to the Schrödinger wave equation. Though it worked well, nobody knew what was actually waving, how to interpret Psi? Schrödinger tried to interpret its modulus squared as a charge density, but was unsuccessful. When it was later successfully interpreted (by Max Born!) as the probability amplitude, Schrödinger was horrified, saying later "I do not like quantum mechanics, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it". :)	[reply]
Re^9: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by LanX (Saint) on Sep 19, 2021 at 11:25 UTC
> Some prominent Oxbridge physicists: to avoid misunderstandings, I didn't say there aren't. Just that German (speaking) universities had much more diversity and competition in the 19th century, which played well into the 20th. Germany had 47 universities around 1800, whereas Britain only had four. ... had to compete with each other, which produced a much different outcome Update To keep this in context, "Germany" (i.e. Greater Prussia) was only united in 1871 and still was a very federalist construct with multiple kings and dukes. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]
Re^9: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by LanX (Saint) on Sep 19, 2021 at 14:52 UTC
> Dirac was quite a character, excruciatingly awkward ... one word per hour. Apparently he was quite vocal in religious matters. According to Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli said once: > Es gibt keinen Gott und Dirac ist sein Prophet. (There is no God and Dirac is his Prophet.) xD There are plenty of funny anecdotes surrounding these blokes, they've spend often time together on conferences or traveling. FWIW The University Göttingen lists Dirac among "their" 40 Nobel laureates because of his frequent visits. (Success is sexy ;) Needless to mention that most leaders of the Manhatten project where former PhD students or assistants of Max Born in Göttingen, including Oppenheimer and Teller. Steven Hawkings is another generation, I read his bestselling book and hope he was a better physicist than author. At least he made it into an episode of Star Trek and he's often referenced in the Big Bang Theory. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]
Re^10: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 19, 2021 at 22:10 UTC
> Needless to mention that most leaders of the Manhattan project where former PhD students or assistants of Max Born in Göttingen, including Oppenheimer and Teller Yes, I find this era fascinating. So many quirky personalities! Enrico Fermi was another giant of this era, not only a brilliant theoretical and experimental physicist, but, by all accounts, a very kind and warm person (unlike Teller ;-). Sadly, many of them (including Fermi) died far too young of radiation-related illnesses. I remember watching Oppenheimer, an excellent BBC TV series with some great acting performances, especially by Sam Waterson in the lead role. Though it also covered Oppenheimer's (communist) political affiliations, most of the series centres on the antics of a bunch of brilliant European theoretical physicists thrown together to work on the Manhattan Project in the middle of the New Mexico desert. :)	[reply]
Re^11: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by LanX (Saint) on Sep 19, 2021 at 22:56 UTC
Re^12: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 21, 2021 at 02:00 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^8: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by afoken (Chancellor) on Sep 18, 2021 at 14:33 UTC
Heligoland ... One can go there by ship to buy tax free Yeah, that's why it's called Fuselfelsen (booze rock). Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]
Re^9: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science by LanX (Saint) on Sep 18, 2021 at 14:39 UTC
> booze rock Nordic priorities ;-P Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]