Since its birth at the hands
of Planck in 1900, there was no coherent theory of quantum
physics. Theories were driven by the wish to explain observations
but there was no common approach. Between January 1925 and
January 1928 a miraculous thing happened. Three independent
and general theories of so-called 'quantum mechanics' were
published – and then shown to be equivalent!
The new players were young and full of energy but from
very different backgrounds – perhaps it is not surprising
that they tackled the challenge of formulating a more
general theory of quantum mechanics in such different
ways. Werner Heisenberg hailed from Munich and was a keen
mountain climber (often to avoid his dreadful allergy
to pollen) as well as an excellent pianist. During his
productive period and at the invitation of Bohr, he spent
some time in Copenhagen as well as in Göttingen,
where he worked with Born. Erwin Schrödinger worked
from Zurich and eventually succeeded Planck in Berlin
in 1933. Gaining inspiration from another side of nature,
he was often found in the company of one of his many female
companions. Paul Dirac was a different character altogether.
He started to study electrical engineering in Bristol
before switching to the study of mathematics in Cambridge.
Dirac was extremely reclusive and spent almost his entire
career working alone amongst the cloisters of St John's
College. |
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 - Max Karl
Ernst Ludwig Planck »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922 - Niels
Henrik David Bohr »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1932 -
Werner Karl Heisenberg »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 - Erwin Schrödinger »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 - Paul Adrien
Maurice Dirac »