Einstein Wrote Back. John W. Moffat

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СКАЧАТЬ see the manuscript on unified field theory.”

      I opened my envelope, took out the manuscript and leaned across the desk to hand it to him. I had managed to make copies of the two papers on my parents’ old Royal typewriter with faded carbon paper, and had written in the equations with a pen. Bohr put the pipe down on what looked to me like an antique Royal Danish porcelain dish, and spent several minutes quietly reading my paper. He then said, “Hmm!” and looked up and smiled at me.

      While he had been reading, his pipe had gone out. He took another one from the stand and followed the same routine again: filling the pipe, tamping down the tobacco, lighting it and sucking it into life. Then he leaned back in his chair staring at the ceiling while the blue smoke rose up from his pipe and filled the room with its strong, sweet aroma. Thus we sat for at least five minutes waiting, while Bohr thought about what he had read. Rosenkrantz sat quietly with his fountain pen poised over his notebook.

      Finally, Bohr levelled his gaze at me and ruminated, “So, you’ve been working on Albert’s unified field theory.”

      “Yes,” I said.

      Bohr took the pipe out of his mouth, as apparently it had gone out again. It joined the first pipe on the porcelain dish. I wondered if he was going to light another pipe before we proceeded with the business at hand. And indeed he did. He removed a third pipe from the stand and performed the same ritual yet again, while I counted up the pipes still in the stand. I thought that if we were going to go through those remaining ten pipes, I would be in Professor Bohr’s office for the rest of the day.

      After he succeeded in lighting the third pipe, he asked me in a mumbling voice, “What is your opinion about Einstein’s efforts to unify electromagnetism and gravity?”

      Now Dr. Rosenkrantz’s pen began scratching rapidly in the notebook. I sensed that something serious was finally about to happen in my meeting with Niels Bohr.

      “I think it’s a logical extension of his gravity theory,” I replied.

      Bohr smiled, removed the pipe from his mouth and said, “Are you aware of the fact that Albert has become an alchemist?”

      I was taken aback by this obvious slight of one of the great physicists of the twentieth century. I said, “You mean someone who tries to turn base metals into gold?”

      Bohr smiled again, and mumbled, “Yes, something like that.” Bohr’s derogatory comment indicated that he felt strongly that Einstein was wrong in denying the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. Einstein did not believe that quantum mechanics formed a complete description of reality, whereas Bohr did. Instead of Einstein working to develop quantum mechanics further, he had been focusing on extending his theory of gravity to include the electromagnetic forces, but without including the nuclear forces, which in the opinions of contemporary physicists, played a more significant role than gravity in the subatomic realm. I had to concentrate on catching his words because Bohr mumbled even more disturbingly than most Danes do when they speak, whether in Danish or English. Evidently Dr. Rosenkrantz, who was also Danish, was used to Bohr’s inaudible mumbling and was able to follow his conversation more easily than I.

      I sat for a few moments, wondering how to respond to this rebuke of Einstein. “I understand, Professor Bohr, that you do not believe that Einstein is following a satisfactory path in his physics.” Miraculously, my initial nervousness had disappeared, and I was now entirely focused on the conversation and on figuring out Bohr’s attitude towards Einstein.

      Bohr put down the pipe, which had now gone out, took another one from the rack and began the ritual. I now understood why he had such a large box of matches. When he had finished lighting the pipe, he said, with the pipe stem still in his mouth, “I feel that Albert has been wasting his time. You cannot ignore quantum mechanics and hope to achieve any success by unifying the classical gravitational and electromagnetic fields, in the way he attempts to do this.”

      I said, “Well, Professor Schrödinger has also been attempting to unify gravity and electromagnetism, using the same formalism as Einstein, the nonsymmetric theory.”

      Bohr removed the pipe from his mouth, looked at me sternly and said, “Well, Erwin is also an alchemist these days. He is pursuing this foolish denial of the successful development of quantum mechanics, and has also gone down this blind alley of trying to unify the classical gravitational and electromagnetic fields.”

      Then I asked, “So, Professor Bohr, you believe they should be following a quantum mechanical interpretation of these fields?”

      He then mumbled, “We already have a quantum mechanical interpretation of electromagnetic fields, which has been quite successful. As for gravity, I do not see that a classical unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism can ever solve the problems of atomic physics.”

      “I understand,” I said, “that Professor Einstein does not agree with your interpretation of quantum mechanics. In fact, he seems to be opposed to quantizing the gravitational field.”

      “Well,” Bohr said, “it saddens me to see that Albert has taken the wrong path in recent years. We have disagreed about this issue for years, and he refuses to accept the success of the quantum theory. He insists on being pigheaded about this.”

      We sat in silence for a while again, and I waited for Bohr to put down his pipe and start over again with another. And indeed he did. I wondered if he went through this ritual every time he granted an interview. When he succeeded in lighting the fifth pipe, he leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “Anyway,” he said, “how did you come to write this manuscript? I understand from Mr. Page at the British consulate that you’ve been studying mathematics and physics by yourself.”

      I nodded, and shifted in my seat. Now that the conversation had turned from physics to me, I began feeling nervous again.

      “When did you leave school?”

      “I finished high school in Kaptain Johnson’s school in Copenhagen when I was sixteen and then pursued an art career in Paris.”

      “So you didn’t go to a gymnasium?” Bohr asked.

      “No,” I said.

      “And you haven’t attended the university in any way?”

      “No,” I said again.

      “So where did you get the books to learn mathematics and physics?”

      “At the university library. The science textbook and periodicals section of the university library is open to the public.”

      I saw Bohr and Rosenkrantz exchange glances.

      “How long did it take you to learn mathematics and physics, such that you could write this manuscript?”

      “About a year,” I answered.

      “By yourself?” he asked incredulously.

      “Yes.”

      “So what do you plan to do now?”

      “I’d hoped that I could pursue an academic career and study physics, possibly in England. I am a British citizen.”

      “Well,” said Bohr, removing his pipe from his mouth, “you couldn’t pursue an academic career in Denmark without going through the usual channels. That is, you have to take your student exam СКАЧАТЬ