

What Did Bohr Do at Los Alamos? - danso
http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2015/05/11/bohr-at-los-alamos/

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itsjoesullivan
Richard Feynman provides a little color to Bohr's visit.[0]

[0]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&pg=PA132&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=%22I+also+met+Niels+Bohr.+His+name+was+Nicholas+Baker%22&source=bl&ots=etQYfhmM00&sig=rk7W-JdTN7rGciywlkMI52loh6o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=elJ3Vb8Ty8exBJXKgKgH&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20also%20met%20Niels%20Bohr.%20His%20name%20was%20Nicholas%20Baker%22&f=false)

~~~
JoshTriplett
Willingness to discuss and critically evaluate ideas no matter who they come
from, rather than blindly following people off a cliff due to fame, is a
critically useful skill.

Sadly, so is recognizing when you're working with a person who wants that and
when you're working with someone whose ego and unwillingness to admit mistakes
thrives on blind followers. Mistaking the former for the latter can be a
career-limiting moment.

------
dankohn1
If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend Michael Frayn's amazing
Copenhagen, one of the best and most intellectually stimulating plays I've
ever seen. The irony that anti-Semites relegated Jewish physicists like Bohr
to the "unappealing" theoretical roles, and that theoretical physics would
turn out to be key to the war, is almost better than fiction. And that's only
one of the many amazing concepts Frayn plays with.

~~~
pvg
_The irony that anti-Semites relegated Jewish physicists like Bohr to the
"unappealing" theoretical roles [...]_

What gave you that impression? They simply fired all the Jewish scientists
from their positions, theoretical or not. The abundance of scientists of
Jewish descent in early 20th century physics is not because antisemites made
them take up theoretical physics - the methods were much less subtle.

~~~
dankohn1
From
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik)
:

"Lenard began a core campaign to label Einstein's Relativity as Jewish
Physics. Lenard and Stark enjoyed the Nazi support because it allowed them to
undertake a professional coup for their preferred scientific theory. Under the
rallying cry that physics should be more "German" and "Aryan," Lenard and
Stark, with backing from the Nazi leadership, entered on a plan to pressure
and replace physics positions at German universities with people teaching
their preferred theories. By the late 1930s, there were no longer any Jewish
physics professors in Germany, since under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 Jews
were not allowed to work in universities."

"It is occasionally put forth that there is a great irony in the Nazis'
labeling modern physics as "Jewish science", since it was exactly modern
physics—and the work of many European exiles—which was used to create the
atomic bomb. Even if the German government had not embraced Lenard and Stark's
ideas, the German antisemitic agenda was enough by itself to destroy the
Jewish scientific community in Germany."

~~~
pvg
Right. None of this says "Jewish scientists were relegated to unappealing
theoretical roles". Atomic physics (which, incidentally, Lenard had no quarrel
with) was hot stuff, Einstein was a global superstar well before Nazis came to
have significant influence, etc. When they did gain influence, they just
started getting rid of Jewish scientists, among others. Take a look at

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_for_the_Restoration_of_the_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_for_the_Restoration_of_the_Professional_Civil_Service)

~~~
kkylin
I came across this the other day; it may be relevant to this discussion:

    
    
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg#The_Deutsche_Physik_movement

------
M8
_" On one occasion, subjects proceeded across a busy intersection against the
red light in a diagonal fashion, taking the longest route possible and one of
greatest danger. The resourceful work of Agent Maiers in blocking out one half
of the stream of automobile traffic with his car..."_

It's both funny and sad (totalitarian spying state, where spies are allowed to
break laws).

