[tt] SF Chron.: (Quantum Mechanics) Last laugh before the war

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Last laugh before the war
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/24/RVGQ2QFE2C1.DTL
[Linked by Arts & Letters Daily.]
7.6.24


Account of physicists' gathering in Denmark links personal histories and
scientific ideas

Reviewed by Joscelyn Jurich

Faust in Copenhagen
A Struggle for the Soul of Physics
By Gino Segrè
VIKING; 310 PAGES; $25.95
   _______________________________________________________________

In April 1932, six of the world's leading quantum physicists --
Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Paul Ehrenfest, Max Delbrück, Werner
Heisenberg and Lise Meitner -- gathered at Bohr's Institute for
Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss and debate
the latest developments in the field and to perform a playful spoof
of Goethe's "Faust." Such frivolity might seem incongruous, but as
Gino Segrè shows in his new book, "Faust in Copenhagen," it was not:
Bohr's institute fostered a sociable spirit of carefree,
collaborative creativity as much as it did rigorous debate and
research.

Conceived by Russian physicist George Gamow (who was unable to
attend the 1932 meeting because the Soviet authorities denied him a
passport) and written by German physicist Delbrück, their "Faust"
script was illustrated with charmingly whimsical drawings by Gamow,
who published an English translation of the play in his highly
readable "Thirty Years That Shook Physics." (A delightful selection
is scattered throughout Segrè's book.)

Staged to commemorate two events -- the 10th anniversary of Bohr's
institute and the centenary of Goethe's death -- "Faust" couldn't
have been a more apposite or ominous inspiration for the group, for
several reasons. Just months before the meeting, the positron and
neutron were discovered, and shortly after followed the first
artificial disintegration of the atomic nucleus. This performance
marked "the last moment in the lives of these scientists when they
could still laugh together at struggles between the Lord and
Mephistopheles" and becomes Segrè's inventive center and chief
metaphor. Indeed, in January 1933, Hitler came to power (four of the
seven scientists featured in the book were Jewish or part Jewish)
and subsequent group meetings were held in a Nazi-occupied Denmark.

Segrè, professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania,
begins the story in 21st century Munich, where he has come to attend
an international conference on his area of specialization, neutrino
physics. Strolling the city's streets, Segrè's thoughts turn to
Wolfgang Pauli, who first postulated the neutrino's existence and
who came to Munich in the fall of 1918. Segrè also contemplates his
own personal ties to the city: His mother and mother-in-law had also
come to Munich that fall, as did a fourth individual who would
change the course of their lives and of history: Adolf Hitler.

That he begins with the juxtaposition of these convergences is
significant; the intersections and intertwinings of personal and
public histories form one of the book's underlying and unifying
themes. As in his first book, "A Matter of Degrees," Segrè, nephew
of Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Emilio Segrè, is interested
in the links between personal histories and the history of science.
"Faust in Copenhagen" is primarily a group portrait of Bohr and
several of his most notable pupils (all of whom had "revealed their
powers" before the age of 30) spanning the years 1920 to 1932 -- but
it is also partly Segrè's subtle self-portrait.

"Faust in Copenhagen" continues yet another idea from Segrè's first
work: Science is a fundamentally human occupation, and potentially a
humanistic one. Bohr, who, Segrè argues, influenced physics even
more than Einstein, is the book's most energetically drawn example.
This will not come as a surprise to those familiar with Bohr's life
and work. Magnanimous with his students and colleagues, he was
rigorously Socratic in style yet full of childlike wonderment, a
philosopher and great humanitarian who saved 90 percent of Denmark's
Jews from extinction by arranging for their asylum in Sweden and
worked for nuclear disarmament from 1943 until his death in 1962.
The six other physicists who are the center of the book -- Dirac,
Ehrenfest, Delbrück, Heisenberg, Meitner and Pauli (who skipped the
1932 meeting to attend a party) -- are also vividly evoked, though
to a lesser extent.

Segrè's style is conversational, vivacious and amiable, recalling
the carefree spirit of Bohr (who was cast as "The Lord" in the
group's play), whom he clearly admires. Accompanying his engaging
writing are generally accessible explanations of scientific concepts
both basic and complex, which are neither dumbed down nor obtuse
(much to the delight of this lay reader, the book is both equation-
and jargon-free). Segrè speaks to the reader with enthusiasm, at
times unable to conceal his excitement about the fascinating story
he's sharing, yet his telling is deftly and dramatically structured,
providing necessary historical and scientific context, clearly and
concisely.

The playful atmosphere Bohr created and cultivated left a positive
legacy for modern science, and the very language of particle
physics, with its quarks and WIMPS (weakly interacting massive
particles) are examples, writes Segrè, along with the "flavored
quarks" and "colored gluons" on today's horizon. Here, humor is not
an indicator of superficiality or a lack of seriousness: "How else
could one have the courage to address issues as deep as the
beginning of the universe or the ultimate constituents of matter?"
Or, to quote Bohr: "There are some things that are so serious that
you can only joke about them."

The most serious point in Segrè's book comes in its final chapter,
which chronicles the despair of Ehrenfest (eerily cast as Faust in
the play). Depressed by Einstein's flight to the United States,
Hitler's increasing power and his own feelings of inadequacy in the
face of a rapidly developing quantum mechanics, he committed suicide
in 1933.

Indeed, the play's last punning lines (sung by "The Mystical
Chorus") have a resounding irony:

"Hailed with cordiality, Honored in song, Eternal Neutrality Pulls
us along."

The brief but assuredly optimistic period that Segrè details had
ended. Science could no longer be "pure, abstract, with no dangerous
unintended consequences," and the Faustian bargains faced became
both personal and professional, with global implications.

Segrè's conclusion to his fascinating story, insightfully told and
consistently engaging, remains upbeat, however. Though "big science"
prevails, research is increasingly specialized, and results
transmitted over the Internet, Bohr's spirit ultimately prevails:
Physicists are still "appropriately critical and disrespectful of
their elders, and still looking for the big ideas that will unlock
the secrets of nature."

Joscelyn Jurich is a journalist whose writing has appeared in the
New York Times, Bookforum and Publishers Weekly.