Word: quantum
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Ultimate goal of science-so distant that it is hardly more than an iridescent ideal- is to construct a unified system which will represent in exact terms all the phenomena of nature. Quantum mechanics is an exact, mathematical system for dealing with atoms and radiation. So named because its fundamental principle is that energy is exchanged in separate, indivisible bundles called quanta, quantum mechanics has been powerfully developed by such giants of physics as Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Dirac (Nobel Prizewinners all). It has interpreted the laws of radiation, the laws of specific heat, the details of atomic...
...theoretical physics. On hand were Denmark's Niels Bohr and France's Louis de Broglie. Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger of Germany and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac of England had been expected but did not appear. These five men alone have created almost the whole structure of Quantum Mechanics, which deals mathematically with the mathematically complex innards of the atom. Presumably, Herren Heisenberg and Schrodinger were forbidden to attend because of the Nazi Government's antipathy for the League of Nations. Why Dirac of democratic Britain did not appear was not disclosed. Physicist Heisenberg's paper...
...physicists' talk was lively and brilliant. But they spent most of their time trying to find some way to mend the painful gap between Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, bickering politely about the validity and application of physical theories, asking themselves what physical reality is after all. Bohr criticized de Broglie and almost everyone present criticized Sir Arthur Eddington. Altogether they gave the impression of giants wallowing in a quagmire...
Einstein's Relativity was practically complete in 1915, and Quantum Mechanics had its fullest flowering in the 19205. Since then, theoretical physics has been bogged down in ever-deepening sinks of paradox and abstraction, while experimental physics has forged gaily ahead, with the discovery of the neutron and positron, of artificial radioactivity, of heavyweight hydrogen...
...most productive years of a topflight theoretical physicist appear to be about the same as those of a championship tennis player. Most of the five bigwigs of Quantum Mechanics did their most important work when they were very young men. Heisenberg, for example, laid down his celebrated Uncertainty Principle (relating to the position and velocity of electrons) when he was 26; Dirac mathematically deduced the existence of the positive electron when he was 28. Once a theorist has constructed a powerful new theory, he is likely to become fond of it and spend much energy polishing and protecting...