Recommended read: Copenhagen (play) - Michael Frayn I often forget that my favorite book of all time is a play. If youre interested in big science and big ideas then youve probably read it. If youre not interested in big science and read it, you will become interested in big science. Quantum mechanics is shrouded in mystery for good reason. No one knows why it works. The most famous philosophical approach to the worlds weirdest and most successful theory is called the Copenhagen interpretation. This was a mindset worked out by Niels Bohr, who was the Pope of science to Einsteins God and Werner Heisenberg, a genuine German Wunderkind, who provided the mathematical framework. Blah blah blah. But in 1941, years after the pair had worked together Heisenberg visited (the half Jewish) Bohr in his Danish home on official business. That business was the German bomb project. The two men, once as close as father and son, were never to be friends again. No one knows what the conversation involved. The play is never heavy handed in its use of the Uncertainty parallels, but theyre always there. Occam would suggest things were open and shut. Heisenberg was looking for advice on how to more efficiently isolate the fissionable U235, and Bohr took exception. But while some uncertainty exists, Id prefer to think the possibilities are still smeared. Copenhagen is easy to read and challenging to digest. Ive been chewing for years.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 19:38:03 +0000
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