Lev Goldfarb,
ICPR, Aug. 2004
3
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The wisdom of modern physicists
From: Freeman Dyson, Innovations in
Physics, Scientific American, September 1958:
A few months ago two of the great historical figures of European physics, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang
Pauli, believed that they had made an essential step forward in the direction of a theory of
elementary particles. Pauli happened to be passing through New
York, and was prevailed
upon to give a lecture explaining the new ideas to an audience that included Niels Bohr, who had been
mentor to both . . . in their days of glory thirty years earlier when they made their great
discoveries. Pauli spoke for an hour, and then there was a
general discussion during which he was criticized sharply by the younger generation. Finally, Bohr was called on to make a speech summing up the
argument. “We are all agreed,” he said, “that your theory is
crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being
correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.”