in reply to Re^8: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science
in thread Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science

> 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

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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]
      > I remember watching Oppenheimer,

      Oh me too, when I was a kid. I probably missed many essentials, need to find it again.

      I remember the scene tho, where the General (Colonel?) is flabbergasted to find out that Oppenheimer has a Christmas tree in his living room ... xD

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
      Wikisyntax for the Monastery

      update

      the mini-series is available on youtube.

[reply]

        > the General (Colonel?) is flabbergasted to find out that Oppenheimer has a Christmas tree in his living room ... xD

        Well, you seem to be in the right place to know about Christmas Trees:

        Modern Christmas trees emerged in western Germany during the 16th century as Christians brought trees into their homes and decorated them with gingerbread, nuts and apples

        Imagining LanX now, wearing Lederhosen, while eating gingerbread, nuts and apples under the Christmas tree. Sorry, couldn't resist. :) Do you ever wear Lederhosen BTW?

        > the mini-series is available on youtube

        Thanks! Watching now. Near the end of Episode 3 (at the 53:55 minute mark) there's a conversation between General Groves and Oppie in Oppie's new Los Alamos office:

        Groves: I was wondering, do you actually celebrate Christmas? well, I mean you being different, well, Jewish?
        Oppie: We have a tree
        Groves: Good, I was wondering if you'd put that under it for me? (he hands Oppie a Christmas present)

        LanX, is that the scene you remembered?

        This mini-series lays bare the stark difference between Scientific and Military Culture ... hmmmm, given my first job was in Defence Science (where I experienced both cultures first hand), the logical next episode in this series seems to be Military Organizational Culture. :)

[reply]

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