The Strangest Man

Home > Other > The Strangest Man > Page 76
The Strangest Man Page 76

by Graham Farmelo


  Bristol University Engineering Society’s visit to Messrs Douglas’s Works (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/10/F128).

  Charles Dirac, c.1933 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/15/FID).

  Felix Dirac, 1921 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/15/FIJ).

  6 Julius Road, Bristol.

  Max Born entertaining his younger colleagues at his home in Göttingen, spring 1926 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/14/F6).

  Some members of the Kapitza Club, after a meeting c. 1925 (courtesy Giovanna Blackett).

  Patrick Blackett and Paul Ehrenfest, c.1925 (courtesy Giovanna Blackett).

  Isabel Whitehead and her husband Henry, with their son Henry, 1922 (courtesy Archives, The United Theological, Bangalore, India).

  Dirac at a meeting in Kazan, Russia, 12 October 1928 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/14/F12).

  Heisenberg’s mother, Schrödinger’s wife, Flo Dirac, Dirac, Heisenberg and Schrödinger (AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives).

  Extract from a letter from Dirac to Manci Balazs, 9 May 1935 (courtesy Monica Dirac).

  Dirac and Manci on their honeymoon, Brighton, January 1937 (courtesy Monica Dirac).

  The Dirac family in the garden of their Cambridge home, c.1946 (courtesy Monica Dirac).

  Dirac and Manci with a party during a crossing of the Atlantic on the SS America, 2 April 1963 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/14/F63).

  Dirac and Richard Feynman at a conference on relativity, Warsaw, July 1962 (photograph by A. John Coleman, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today collection).

  Dirac at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, c.1958 (courtesy Monica Dirac).

  The Diracs’ home in Tallahasse, 223 Chapel Drive.

  Kapitza and Dirac at the Hotel Bad Schachen, Lindau, summer 1982 (FSU, Dirac archive, 1/14/F98).

  One of the last photographs taken of Dirac, Tallahassee, c.1983 (courtesy Monica Dirac).

  Index

  ‘PD’ indicates Paul Dirac

  2001: A Space Odyssey (film) 1, 2

  Aarhus, Denmark 1

  Abstein, Dr W. Robert 1

  action principle 1, 2, 3, 4

  Adcock, Frank 1

  Adler, Dorothy and Sol 1

  Adrian, Edgar 1

  Aesthetic Movement 1, 2n42

  algebra 1, 2, 3 Grassmann 1, 2

  non-commutative 1

  American Physical Society, annual meeting of (New York, 1959) 1

  American Science News Service 1

  Amsterdam Ehrenfest’s suicide in 1, 2

  Betty and Joe Teszler live in 1, 2, 3, 4

  Betty and Joe flee from their home 1

  Anderson, Carl 1, 2, 3, 4 chooses the name positron 1

  ‘The Apparent Existence of Easily Deflectable Positives’ 1, 2, 3

  Anglo-French Society of Sciences 1

  anti-electrons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10n29 Blackett and Occhialini’s discovery 1, 2

  see also positrons and anti-matter

  anti-matter anti-quarks 1

  the Big Bang 1, 2

  PD predicts its existence 1, 2, 3, 4

  surplus of matter over anti-matter 1

  a universe made from equal amounts of matter and anti-matter 1, 2

  anti-Semitism 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n16

  Apollo space programme 1, 2

  Aquitania (liner) 1

  Arbuckle, Fatty 1, 2n4

  Armstrong, Neil 1

  Arts School, Cambridge 1

  Asperger’s Syndrome 1, 2n13

  Asuma Bura, MS 1

  Atiyah, Sir Michael 1, 2

  atomic bomb see nuclear weapons

  Atomic Energy Commission 1

  atomic physics and classical laws 1

  PD attends Tyndall’s lectures 1

  PD writes on 1, 2

  see also quantum theory, quantum physics atoms

  atom visualized as a mechanical device 1

  Balmer’s formula for hydrogen spectrum 1, 2

  Bohr’s work on atomic structure 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  electrons as a constituent of 1

  energy levels 1

  heavy 1, 2

  Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus 1, 2

  Austria, Hitler’s invasion of (1938) 1, 2

  autism 1, 2 n7, 3n13, 4n24

  aviation industry 1, 2, 3

  Avon Gorge 1

  Aydelotte, Frank 1, 2

  Ayer, A. J. 1

  Baker, Henry 1, 2

  his tea parties 1, 2, 3

  appearance 1

  personality 1

  and the Greeks’ love of beauty 1

  Balázs, Nandor 1n18, 2n45

  Balázs, Richard 1, 2n33

  Baldwin, Stanley 1

  Balmer, Johannes: formula for hydrogen spectrum 1, 2, 3

  Baltimore Dairy Lunch, Princeton (the Balt) 1, 2

  bare electron 1, 2

  bare energy 1

  Barnes, Julian: Flaubert’s Parrot 1

  Baron-Cohen, Simon 1

  Batchelor, George 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n3

  Battle of Britain 1, 2

  BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation (later Company)) 1, 2, 3, 4

  Home Service 1

  PD declines numerous interviews 1, 2n10

  Start the Week (Radio 1 programme) 2

  Beatles, The 1, 2, 3

  Beaufort, Lady Margaret 1, 2, 3

  beauty

  Baker’s fascination with the Greeks’ love of beauty 1

  concept of 1, 2n41, 3n42

  discussion between PD and Heisenberg 1

  of a fundamental theory in physics 1

  Kant and 1, 2n54

  in mathematics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Moore on 1

  PD’s first recorded mention of 1

  in vogue as a concept at Cambridge 1, 2

  Beeston Hall School, West Runton, Norfolk 1, 2n2

  Belgium, Queen of (Elisabeth of Bavaria) 1

  Bell, James 1, 2, 3n16, 4n54

  Bell Laboratories, New Jersey 1

  Bendall, John 1

  Beria, Lavrentiy 1, 2

  Berlin

  global capital of theoretical physics 1

  Oppenheimer in 1

  Einstein in 1, 2

  anti-Semitism 1

  nuclear fission discovered in 1

  Debye in 1

  Berlin Wall, fall of (1989) 1

  Bernal, Desmond 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

  Berne, Switzerland 1

  Bethe, Hans 1n26

  Bhabha, Homi 1, 2, 3n36

  Bialobrzeski, Czeslaw 1n22

  Big Bang 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Birge, Raymond 1

  Birmingham 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Bishop Road Junior School, Bristol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n31, 10n1

  Bishopston, Bristol 1, 2, 3

  Bismarck, Prince Otto von 1

  black holes 1

  blackbody radiation 1, 2, 3, 4

  Blackett, Patrick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  serves in World War I 1

  personality 1

  influences PD 1

  appearance 1

  resents Kapitza 1

  experimental physics 1

  attempted poisoning by Oppenheimer 1

  and cosmic rays 1, 2, 3

  anger at Rutherford’s despotic style 1

  discovery of the anti-electron 1, 2

  revelations at the Royal Society 1

  supports the Labour Party 1

  family 1

  and nuclear fission 1

  a wartime Government scientific adviser 1

  and manufacture of a nuclear weapon 1

  and the Manhattan Project 1

  refused a visa for the Soviet Union (spring 1945) 1

  Nobel Prize 1, 2n36

  Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire 1

  Bloomsbury Group 1

  Blumenfeld, Helaine 1, 2, 3, 4n16, 5n35

  Blumenfeld, Yorrick 1, 2

  Blunt, Anthony 1

  Boer War 1, 2

  Bohr, Margrethe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Bohr,
Niels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14n1

  theory of atomic structure 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  PD’s mastery of his atomic theory 1

  Nobel Prize for physics 1

  visits Cambridge 1

  appearance 1, 2

  personality 1, 2, 3, 4 and Rutherford 5

  gloomy about the state of quantum physics 1

  and Heisenberg’s theory of 1925 1, 2

  PD’s visit to the Institute 1, 2, 3

  concern with words 1, 2

  PD on 1, 2

  on PD 1

  complementarity principle 1

  coat of arms 1

  defends Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle 1

  and a relativistic equation of the electron 1, 2

  response to PD’s hole theory 1, 2, 3

  and PD’s Bristol lecture 1, 2

  at the 1930 Solvay Conference 1

  and the neutrino 1

  represented in a special version of Faust 1

  and Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor 1

  and philosophy 1

  and the positron 1

  and the bas-relief of Rutherford 1

  his mansion 1, 2, 3n47

  congratulates PD on his Nobel Prize 1

  party to honour the Nobel Prize winners 1

  and Shankland’s results 1

  death of his eldest son 1

  at Rutherford’s memorial service 1

  and nuclear fission 1, 2

  meeting with Heisenberg (1941) 1

  escapes from occupied Denmark 1n53

  and genetics 1

  death 1

  Bohr orbits 1

  Bollobas, Gabriella 1

  Bolshevik Party 1

  Bolshevik Revolution (1917) 1, 2, 3

  Bolshevism 1, 2, 3, 4

  Bolshevo, near Moscow 1, 2

  Bombay (Mumbai) 1, 2

  Bordeaux, France 1, 2

  Born, Gustav 1

  Born, Max 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7n10

  quantum mechanics named by 1

  and PD’s first paper on quantum mechanics 1

  works with Heisenberg and Jordan at Göttingen 1, 2

  and Heisenberg’s quantum theory 1

  and Jordan’s work on Fermi-Dirac statistics 1

  interpretation of Schrödinger’s waves 1

  quantum probabilities 1

  appearance 1

  personality 1

  and Oppenheimer’s behaviour 1

  surprised at PD’s knowledgeability 1 and field theory 2

  and the rise of anti-Semitism in Göttingen 1, 2

  and the Dirac equation 1

  nervous breakdown 1

  considers emigration 1

  appointment at Cambridge 1

  resents PD’s Nobel Prize 1

  message from the Nazi Government 1

  professorship in Edinburgh 1

  in the Lake District with PD 1

  PD asks him to support Heisenberg 1

  Nobel Prize 1

  death 1

  Bose, Satyendra 1, 2n20

  bosons 1

  Boston, Massachusetts 1

  Boston University: PD’s lecture (1972) 1

  Boulton, Edmund 1

  Boys Smith, John 1

  bra 1

  Bradman, Sir Donald 1, 2

  Bragg, Sir Lawrence 1, 2n63

  Bragg, William 1

  Bridges, Robert: A Testament of Beauty 1, 2

  Brighton, PD’s honeymoon in 1, 2 Bristol

  Charles Dirac settles in 1, 2

  described 1, 2, 3

  and Catholicism 1

  aviation industry 1, 2, 3, 4

  First World War 1, 2

  protestors baton-charged by police (1932) 1

  Second World War 1, 2, 3

  Bristol Aeroplane Company 1, 2n56

  Bristol Central Library 1

  Bristol Citizens’ Recruiting Committee 1

  Bristol Downs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Bristol Evening News 1

  Bristol Records Office 1

  Bristol Shiplovers’ Society 1

  British Aeroplane Company 1

  British Aerospace 1n1

  British Aircraft Corporation 1n56

  British and Colonial Aeroplane Company 1

  British Association for the Advancement of Science

  meeting (Bristol, 1930) 1, 2, 3

  meeting (Leicester, 1933) 1, 2

  British Thomson-Houston Company, Rugby 1, 2

  Broad, Charlie 1, 2, 3

  Professor of Philosophy at Bristol 1

  as a lecturer 1, 2, 3n40

  treatment of relativity 1

  and PD’s interest in philosophy 1

  moves to Cambridge 1

  Brookhaven National Laboratory 1

  Brown, Dan: Angels and Demons 1

  Brown, Miss Josephine 1, 2n5, 3n6

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 1, 2, 3, 4

  Budapest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

  Bukharin, Nikolai 1

  Bulletin of the Soviet Academy of Sciences 1

  Bullock, W.H. 1n19

  Bunin, Ivan 1

  Bush, George, Snr. 1

  Butler, Samuel: The Way of all Flesh 1

  Byron, Lord 1, 2, 3n32

  Cadet Corps 1

  California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

  Cambodia, US invasion of 1

  Cambridge described 1, 2, 3, 4

  Manci’s dislike of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Socialist Society march (1933) 1

  wartime 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7n32

  VE-Day celebrations 1

  celebration of Japan’s surrender 1

  Cambridge Borough Cemetery (now Cambridge City Cemetery), Bristol 1n59

  Cambridge Review 1, 2, 3, 4

  Cambridge Union 1, 2

  Cambridge University mathematics as its largest department 1

  social life 1, 2

  opposition to the General Strike 1

  Marxist scientists’ efforts to establish radical politics 1

  applications from refugee scientists 1

  in the Second World War 1

  women in 1, 2n28

  offers a professorship to Oppenheimer 1

  Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics 1

  PD moves to Florida State 1, 2

  Canadian Rockies 1

  Canford Cemetery, Westbury on Trym, Bristol 1

  canonically conjugate variables 1n27

  Cardoza Kindersley workshop, Cambridge 1n27

  Cario family 1, 2, 3

  Carpenter, Edward, Dean of Westminster 1, 2

  Carroll, Lewis: Alice through the Looking Glass 1

  Carter, Jimmy 1

  Carus, Paul: Reflections on Magic Squares 1

  Casimir, Hendrik 1

  Caucasus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Cavendish Avenue, Cambridge (No.7) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

  Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Rutherford succeeds J. J. Thomson 1

  seminars 1, 2

  PD talks on quantum discoveries 1

  ode to the electron 1

  Millikan’s presentation on cosmic rays 1, 2

  Chadwick’s work on the neutron 1

  splitting of the atom 1

  discovery of the anti-electron 1

  and the Nobel Prize (1933) 1

  Bragg succeeds Rutherford 1

  Second World War 1

  Cavendish Physical Society: annual dinner 1

  Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 1

  centrifugal jet stream method 1, 2, 3

  CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) 1, 2

  Chadwick, James 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  and cosmic rays 1

  ‘Possible Existence of the Neutron’ 1, 2

  Chamberlain, Neville 1, 2, 3, 4

  Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan 1, 2

  Channel Islands 1

  Chaplin, Charlie 1

  Charlesworth, Martin
1, 2, 3, 4n46

  Cher 1, 2, 3

  Chicago 1, 2, 3, 4

  Chopin, Fryderyk 1, 2

  Christie, Agatha 1

  Christ’s College, Cambridge 1

  Chukovsky, Korney: Crocodile 1, 2n29

  Churchill, Sir Winston 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Churchill College, Cambridge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n37

  Civil Defence offices, St Regis 1

  Clark, Sir Kenneth (later Lord) 1

  classical mechanics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  classical physics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Cleese, John and Chapman, Graham: Monty Python’s Flying Circus script 1

  Clifton Suspension Bridge 1

  Clinton, Bill 1

  Clinton, Hillary Rodham 1, 2n41

  cloud chamber 1, 2, 3

  Cockcroft, Lady Elizabeth 1, 2, 3, 4n37

  Cockcroft, Sir John 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16n33

  Cold War 1, 2

  Cole, Sir Henry 1

  Coliseum ice-rink, Bristol 1, 2, 3n48

  Colleraine, Tony 1, 2

  Columbia Radiation Laboratory 1

  Columbia University, New York 1, 2, 3

  Communism 1, 2

  Communist Academy 1

  Communist Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8n17

  complementarity principle 1, 2n30

  Compton, Arthur 1 electromagnetic radiation behaving as discrete particles 1

  PD declines his offer of a post in Chicago 1

  Compton, Karl 1, 2

  Comte, Auguste 1, 2, 3n13

  Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur 1

  Concorde 1

  Congress of Russian Physicists (1928) 1, 2

  conservation of energy, law of 1, 2, 3

  Copenhagen 1 PD in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Coral Gables conferences 1

  Cornwall 1, 2

  correspondence principle 1, 2

  cosmic rays 1, 2 Millikan’s investigations 1, 2, 3

  Blackett’s interest in 1, 2, 3, 4

  Anderson’s use of a cloud chamber 1, 2

  Blackett and Occhialini’s work 1, 2

  Anderson identifies the muon 1

  cosmology 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Coughlin, Joseph (‘Roundy’) 1

  Council on Foreign Relations 1

 

‹ Prev