Heisenberg and Bohr's 1941 Copenhagen Meeting: What Happened?
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- čas přidán 11. 07. 2024
- I use letters, secret recordings and diaries to try to solve the mystery of why Heisenberg went to Nazi occupied Denmark and told Bohr that he was working on the military aspects of fission. The answer I came to is depressing about Heisenberg but surprisingly clear. See if you agree with me!
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Some Links:
The clip where Heisenberg is writing Bohr is from a very pro-Heisenberg biography where Heisenberg has a British accent and it is all blamed on Bohr's wife! The link can be found here:
• Niels Bohr & Werner He...
The interview of the son of the Rabbi who saved Danish Jews is from a fascinating documentary from the BBC that can be found here:
• 1943 - The Fame of Den...
The interview of Edward Teller is from here (and it is interesting to listen to what he thought happened in Copenhagen which was very pro-Heisenberg)
• Edward Teller - Heisen...
The clip where Weizsacker is talking about 1941 is from a fantastic biography that you can find here:
• Video
The song "Electricity, Electricity" is a version of the song originally written by the folks at Schoolhouse Rock by my fabulous friend Kim Nalley. Check her out at kimnalley.com
My father was a Pharmacology student in Copenhagen when the Germans invaded. Bohr was one of his lecturers. He was at the university when Bohr escaped to Sweden. Many amazing things went on under the noses of the Germans.
Niels Bohr - a great scientist and a great man who stopped his science work to help his fellow people.
Nelis Bohor he was a transformation scientist chemist .
"The 2 greatest physicists I know - Niels Bohr and Marie Curie" - Albert Einstein
You are right!
I used to work for a fellow named John Marshall III. Both of his parents were physicists on Fermi's team at the U. of Chicago, and at Los Alamos, and are in that picture shown at 19:10 in this video. His mother is easy to spot since she is the only woman in the photo.John Marshall III was born and raised at Los Alamos, and the stories he would tell me about it. Wow! His father developed the process to create the highly purified graphite bricks for the atomic pile, and personally built the atomic pile at Stag Field. His mother was the nuclear chemist who oversaw the Hanford operation to purify uranium. I'd listen to his stories for hours after work. The Manhattan Project was utterly fascinating. It was the largest group of the finest physicists ever assembled to work together on a project.
Somewhere in my sorted past I had read a book about all of this. The Columbia River, in Hanford, was subjected to the heat of 4 or 5 locomotives to test the effect on the river and to gain data. Fort Knox was to loan the project all its silver, (who knew they had silver) for the wires in Oak Ridge, Tennessee end of things. It was completely insane and it was all run by Leslie Groves.
I can't balance my checkbook. This guy ran the project. Wild and crazy times.
"...the Hanford operation to purify uranium"?
My understanding is that fissile uranium was purified in Tennessee by diffusion and centrifuges. Only the Hiroshima Bomb used uranium. The Hanford pile was used to produce fissile plutonium, and was more successful: The Alamogordo test device, the Nagasaki Bomb, and a whole string of intended subsequent Bombs (7 more by October 1st, iirc) used plutonium. But I confess that I haven't checked my memory of this.
I wouldn't ve proud of my parents helping to construct such destructive artifact.
@@fundoorccococha1158 Good thing then that your parents weren't as smart as his.
@@fundoorccococha1158 *You Sir, are obviously not an American. I am at a loss for words adequate to express my revulsion and contempt.*
I have read that Speer picked up on Heisenberg's distinct lack of enthusiasm about the bomb, always emphasizing the difficulties. I suspect Heisenberg was fearful of pushing for the commitment of the enormous resources required and then failing, being suspected of sabotage and possibly being shot. A low-level "research" programme with no prospect of a significant outcome was much the safer option and also kept him safely away from the Eastern front.
At the eve of the Trinity experiment, General Leslie Groves - the director of the Manhattan Project - told the leading scientists something like: "if this thing fizzes you are looking forward to a life of congressional hearings". Consequences should have been considerably worse in Germany considering also the Reich lack of resources and the advancing Russians.
@@FranFerioli but there was no belief that this „Jewish“ E=mc2 would work. If you predicted failure, you don’t pressure success.
@@FranFerioli The Manhattan Project had a good amount of fissile material (Uranium-235 and Plutonium) available. This allowed a large number of experiments (one of them, fatal) that showed with a high degree of certainty that the bomb was going to work. The importance of empiric research in nuclear physics was well undestood, so much that great effort was conducted by the allies to destroy the heavy water plants in Norway. Heavy water would allow the germans to produce Plutonium from unenriched uranium in a reactor. Without such resources, it would be impossible to even estimate the critical mass. Heisenberg notoriously estimated on pure theoretical grounds the critical mass of Uranium-235 or Plutonium as several tons instead of the actual value of around 10 kilograms.
@@jlmassir The history is that Heisenberg thought critical mass for plutonium would be 10 to 100 kg. That was why his primary effort from 1942 onward was a reactor since he needed that first to experiment with plutonium. He never spent much time on critical mass for U235 because he thought isotope separation essentially impossible. He did have an idea for a reactor bomb that would not require U235. Heisenberg clearly thought a bomb possible, but that the effort would be slow, expensive and uncertain such that a crash war program was unlikely to yield meaningful results useful to the war effort. The Nazis and Heisenberg never had the hair on fire feeling that the effort was essential despite the uncertainty because the Allies might get there first. Also, the British effort in 1941 resulting in the MAUD Report was just much better science, and jump started the US Manhattan Project that rapidly eclipsed the British effort by the end of 1942. The German scientific effort was decidedly inferior.
@@dmbeaster Very informative, thank you. My knowledge that Heisenberg estimated the critical mass o both U239 an Plutonium would be in the order of tons came from the Farm Hall bugs (covert listening) in "Operation Epsilon". Heisenberg and other german scientists were captured near the end of the war and placed in a house full of covert microphones in England to register all their conversations. I recognize that informations obtained by these means may be imprecise, so there may exist other more reliable information on how well Heisenberg could estimate the Plutonium critical mass.
I am an educator (Computer Science) and have only a recreational level of mastery of such topics. So I will defer to physicists and historians to comment on all this content (that seems fascinating and mind blowing to me). Instead I will focus on the way you do it. The concept network of knowledge that must be in your brain is breathtaking. The way you weave a story through this network is genius. And the enthusiasm of your delivery is an educator's dream. How I wish I had taken a class with you. And as I read the comments, I can't help but notice that they are refined and informative as well. The learning and discussion environment you have created around your channel is a gem. I cannot stop watching your videos, thank you very much.
Thank you so much Ali. I agree that (most) of my viewers are amazing, including you. ❤️
This series has been the best history and story telling I've ever seen. Amazing talent, I could'nt stop meanwhile. And the moral behind, is a very relevant contribution for the times we're living.
Right
So true! This week Pew Research reported that 54% of respondents want the government to combat misinformation…
(In a related story, The Fabulous Mr. Fox has been appointed the National Czar for Henhouse Security.)🤨
Especially now as we speak the threat of using tactical nuclear weapons has become more real than it ever was.
I feel more uncomfortable now than during the days of the cold war.
Give humanity a new weapon and sooner or later it will be used.
That's what history taught me.
Kathy, keep on doing what you're doing because it's clearer, contains more information, and is more entertaining than most history videos I have seen on any historical topic.
I can't imagine how much time you have to put into researching these videos. They're definitely among the hidden gems of YT.
I've seen the play "Copenhagen" many years ago and got very impressed and puzzled by the possible interpretations of the Bohr-Heisenberg meeting, so much that I spent a good deal of research on the subject, but got no near to what you accomplished in this video. I must confess that I always had a sympathetic view on Heisenberg and was wiling to accept a benevolent view on him because his work on quantum mechanics was so brilliant, a true stroke of genius. I think you solved the mystery for good and revealed Heisenberg's political and ethical smallness. The fact that he despised slavs and considered germans superior to all other europeans, while at the same time considering that Hitler was a fool and would fall before causing much damage shows how right-wingers are themselves fools when the believe they can use fascists to defeat leftists. When fascists come to power, they want to stay in power and they have no scruples about destroying a whole country or killing millions for that. Thank you so much!
Well said.
Excellent and seminal.
no such thing as smallx or etc, bigx s inferiox bloat, doesnt matter
What yousay here about right-wingers using facists to defeat leftists,makes me realise that Boris Johnson, whether left or right, is an extremist of the worst kind and as dictators do, has surrounded himself with like minded buffoons who don't pose any credible threat of replacement to him, ensuring that he will continue to remain in power until he can easily dissolve parliament as per Hitler.I don't think i'll live to see that because I am old.
@@rogerjenkinson7979 I live in Brazil and you may have heard about Bolsonaro. Believe me, he is 10 times worse than Boris Johnson. What you said about him applies perfectly to Bolsonaro. He admits no one but sycophants around him and has an internet gang to spread lies about anyone who poses any political threat. This is a common trace among fascists and cult leaders. I hope we can get rid of them soon, don't lose hope, my friend!
I just discovered your Channel. Your storytelling and your passion for history contagious. Thank you
Godly and weirdo people in science, no more religion! Science only!
It seems that Heisenberg was a lot less uncertain than we’ve been led to believe 😀
Wah, wah, wahhhhh...
Gives new meaning to the character of the same name from the TV show _Breaking Bad._
Well, yes and no....
weird times, religion in science!
follow the messiah?
@@lucasrem1870 there’s always non scientific thinking around the scientific table. They’re people not computers.
It's so easy to lose track of time listening to your historical tales. Great job!
I'm enjoying learning this history and appreciate your delivery. Thank you
I have heard tons of information about the Manhattan Project, but finally did you explain me the German side as well. Thanks alot!
My pleasure!
This is a brilliantly told history, dealing with a lot of actors. One sidelight I was surprised not to see mentioned was Moe Berg’s trip to Switzerland in 1943, with a mission by the OSS to interview Heisenberg, find out how far he and the Germans had gotten with a bomb, and, if there was significant progress, assassinate him. Berg satisfied himself that Heisenberg was on a totally wrong track. Berg, for those few culturally challenged folk who may not know, had been a major league catcher for ten years; a teammate, when told Berg spoke seven languages, said, “Yeah, and he can’t hit in any of them.”
I’d like the Bohr-Einstein story too. Thank you for this, and the electricity series.
That story was very interesting and I was tempted to include it but this video was already so long that I didn’t think it was needed.
@@Kathy_Loves_Physics Maybe a short companion video is in the works... :)
@@Kathy_Loves_Physics Is this the story that he was only working on thermal piles, "on a totally wrong track?"
wow- what a great volume of research that went into this. amazing.
the editing and writing- blown away- will watch Ninotchka!
You won’t be disappointed.
@@Kathy_Loves_Physics great picture. Thank you for the referral.
Bohr was not only a great scientist but also a great soul. I did not know that. Thanks for this beautiful history.
Nicely said. Watch my video on Bohr model if you want to know a bit more about him, his science and his soul.
All nice and fine about Bohr, when he met Churchill, but he, like Heisemberg elsewhere, was not aware he was talking to an imperialist pig?
Thank you! I have been learning soo much during quarantine. Your knowledge transfer is very much appreciated :)
Happy to help!
This is my new favorite channel. Thanks for all your work Kathy!
Thank you Kevin
Wow, Miss Kathy, you are out of this world! I have such a difficult time following any and every thing you talk about when it comes to physics. Now you add all this history! I gotta go take a nap to rest what little brain I have left. I just turned 71 (Jan 11)! I flunked out of Pre-Calculus Mathematics some 50 yrs ago. But with your channel, I'm gonna catch up!!!! ......I doubt it. Thanks again for a wonderful presentation and an overwhelming history lesson.
Just wow! What an incredibly thorough approach to history! I love how packed the video is with information. I enjoyed every minute of it, and ended up rewinding it a dozen times just to let the information really sink in. Thank you!! Just a small note: I used to see John Archibald Wheeler come into his Princeton physics department office once in a while at the time when I was a graduate student there. I knew him, of course, as the Wheeler of the Misner-Thorne-Wheeler. I never introduced myself to the man, mostly out of being certain that there's very little of what I could say that would be of any interest to him. Your story just made me regret that even more now. To my shame, to this day I had no idea of the existence of the Bohr-Wheeler paper. Moreover, I had no idea that Bohr taught at Princeton at this crucial moment. So I am left with mixed feelings now: those of utter frustration at the missed chance to talk to someone who was part of the world-making in the very deep sense of the word, together with a feeling elation: this video of yours imparts hope in the world in these tumultuous times. And it does so by way of sharing your fundamentally humanistic personal attitude to science and the responsibilities that come with it.
Not only did Niels Bohr spend time at Princeton, but of the two offices available, one was given to Einstein and the other to Bohr, so their Bohr-Einstein debate continued out of much public sight. What I would have given to have been a fly on the wall. Sparks would fly between good friends. To Einstein, Bohr had a unique mind. In a letter that was recovered many years latter, Einstein wrote about Bohr, _"it is most remarkable, that any such mind should exist at all."_ Imagine Einstein saying that about anybody.
What an amazing research you did for this video, you are so nice to put all the dots in the right places. You deserve a great appreciation for the passion you put into these extraordinary gems of knowledge you share with us. Thanks
Just excellent,the truth will out! I vote for the Bohr,Einstein physics debates as your next project but no matter what you decide,I will look forward to your videos.Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much James, I do hope that the truth will out as our desire for scientists to be heroes often overshadows the truth.
Very detailed historical analysis. Good job. You have helped to lift some of the Hizenburg uncertainty of a different type.
This video is very interesting and I am happy to say that it was researched a lot more thoroughly than I was expecting. It gives clarity about how some amazing minds' beliefs evolved during that turmultuous period (putting it very very mildly).
I think there has been a fundamental misunderstanding of the Manhattan Project .The main problem of building an atom bomb was and remains getting enough fissile material . The Manhattan project was not just Los Alamos , it was a national complex of laboratories and imdustrial plant consuming nearly 20% of the USA's electricity.and employing many tens of thousands.This was way beyond Germany's economic resources.Had the German's had 60 kg of enriched Uranium. they would have built a firing mechanism with ease. Hans Bethe and Philip Morrisom have both gone on the record that it was not a great challenge from the point of physics ,it was a big engineerimg project .The chemists, physical chemists . engineers ,metallurgists and experimental physicists role in developing the gas diffusion method of isotope separation (amongst others) have been much underestimated by historians.We were lucky that nuclear reactors hadn't been developed earlier in the 30's - that would have led quickly to the plutonium bomb
Right before the use of the bomb, the Gov't prepared a report for the media and politicians. Since the physics had mostly been published, and the chemical engineering classified, it was physics heavy creating a distorted view. The report was republished and released to the general public, but with some changes. For example, the reference to something interfering with reactions (Xenon), was deleted, convincing the Soviets that ths should be kept secret. Hence the operators of the Chernobyl nuclear powerplant had no knowledge of this potential problem.
FYI -- the B29 program cost 50% more than the entire Manhattan Project which cost $2 Billion. Reliable contract managers (like my dad) saved $15 Billion -- according to George C. Marshall.
Exactly. It was not the quantum physics, as it was the logistics and practical issues - which required vast amount of resources. Neither England nor Germany had the resources to do this.
@@todortodorov940 As the English realised early on. They shipped all their Tube Alloys (a mini-Manhattan Project) guys over to Los Alamos as soon as the US entered the war.
@@kenlieberman4215 Actually you too have been kept in the dark. Boron is a very strong neutron absorber. Traces of it can make reactions impossible. Removing boron from the carbon made CP-1 possible. This story is rarely told. Any qualified Naval Nuke would understand this. So it is no longer hidden knowledge. It is now hidden history.
BTW I'm a qualified ('66 - A1W) Naval Nuke.
Kathy this is such an intriguing video! Thanks, i love it. Plays like a drama.
I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley when Heisenberg came to speak on campus, around 1970 as I remember it (it might have been a few years later). There were massive anti-Heisenberg demonstrations on that occasion, in light of his cooperation with Hitler. But I have not so far been able to find any contemporaneous documentation about that visit by Heisenberg.
Very interesting, thank you. On the other hand, Wernher von Braun was very popular among the general public. I'm curious as how was he viewed in more critic environments like universities.
@@jlmassir One of Tom Lehrer's songs (I think on "That Was The Year That Was") is about Wernher von Braun. One of the memorable lines is '"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down / That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.' czcams.com/video/QEJ9HrZq7Ro/video.html
Which suggests that his reputation was not high in at least some parts of Harvard.
@@peterfreiling6963 I am not certain about the exact year, but definitely in the early 1970s. Heisenberg spoke at the ASUC student union building, just at the edge of campus, adjacent to Bancroft and Telegraph. In my recollection, the demonstrators were not very numerous and did not interfere with entry to the building. I was taking first- or second-year undergraduate physics at the time. Incidentally I was not aware that physics was taught at UCSF. I thought that campus was just for medicine.
I've only recently discovered this superb channel. This is the third video of Kathy Loves Physics & History I've watched in a row. Several questions have been answered. I'm compelled to watch more but now but, if I don't watch some daft cats videos (but not even 'cats that look like Hitler' though) or equivalent, my head's going to explode. ... Or sleep will evade me again. So many more questions. There seems to be no correlation between genius ability & morality. Kathy gets my vote.
Definitely watch some cat videos. I’ll wait for you. 😉
It is borderline amazing how a leader with a cult of personality can warp the perceptions of even the most intelligent.
It could never happen again. Cough...
I don't think a stupid like Hitler can warp Heisenberg's perceptions
People who have lived under totalitarian fascism, communism or Islamism know the terror, fear, and very few people have courage to speak freely. Heisemberg was one of the "majority" with FEAR. That's all !!!!
@@migueloroz5547 Why the hell not? A stupid like Trump is doing a pretty good job right now. People don't fear him -- they love him.
@@machintelligence I don't think Trump is a stupid.
He is the only guy that in less than a year as a "politic" is elected as president of the most important country of the world. Think about it. Nobody did it before.
@@migueloroz5547 OK Not stupid, just ignorant and proud of it.
I just found this channel and this is pure gold
Great work Kathy! I have been watching your videos for last few days. Keep up the good work.
Kathy, my vote would be how Bohr changed all of physics in 1913.
I find it very interesting to know how these famous physicists were influenced by the politics of the day and other events in their lives. They are, after all, real people living in a messy world. Usually, we just learn about their discoveries. Knowing what drives the person is just as fascinating.
Obviously, the context of science and scientists is pretty interesting to me.
This has been the video I've been waiting for. Racist attitudes were more mainstream then, and it doesn't surprise me that Heisenberg had these attitudes. I think what is confusing about Heisenberg is that he didn't like Hitler. But that says nothing about his other attitudes. I can see where Hitler or the nazis might be viewed as buffoons, even as he might sympathize the the ideas underlying them.
It is interesting about how badly he managed the project during the war, and the recordings after the war while all the scientists were held in the British farmhouse (generously loaded with microphones). I can believe that he was incompetent and full of ego.
Interestingly , the two biographies I read tended to gloss over Heisenberg's racist views and some of his comments at the farmhouse.
Your interpretation of the Copenhagen conversation makes the most sense of any I have heard.
And I think a lot of Germans who were on the fence suddenly decided they had to make sure they landed on the side of the winners of the war, even though they would have landed on the other side had the nazi side won.
Thank you for going through all of this!
I'd vote for option 3 to finish this series off!
I am so glad you liked it and agreed with my conclusion, glad I finally finished it.
This is a remarkable video. Kathy, I can't thank you enough.
Beautiful delivery Kathy, l love the casualness and the opinion. thanks C x
You have helped me recall a book I read years ago about Lise Meitner and the collaboration she had with Otto Hahn. This books main thesis was that Meitner was the originator of many of the discoveries attributed to Otto Hahn. It's been too long ago for me to recall the specifics, but I was certainly dismayed by the apparent falseifaction of Meitner's work. Your video also reminded me of the various snipits of information I've read over the years, it's clear that many, many former Nazis tryed to cover up their former actions.
A bit like how Rosalind Franklin was written out of the DNA story
@@mrsrjlupin3650You're absolutely right. But I liked the Crick brothers cause they threw stones at some bullies hassling my dad at school.
I always heard about Lisa Meitner, not the chook. Regards
@@alexandros8361 ah cool! Well done the Crick brothers, always good to hear little stories like that, the humanity behind the scientists. Lise Meitner WAS the originator, Hahn was a chemist, she was a physicist, they got on well by all accounts, but he was orthodox IE fitted in with the establishment (of 1930s Germany) and Meitner had to make a run for the Dutch border. So of course Hahn could take the credit
@@mrsrjlupin3650 Have just been reading all about Lise Meitner. She was lucky to get out of Germany. And clearly she was the exceptional brain behind the liquid drop theory and the comprehension of Uranium fission. The only thing that slightly distressed me was the origin of the atomic bomb. I went to Japan last year, snowboarding with my sons. Then went to Hiroshima, and after seeing all the pictures, found myself unexpectedly in tears. The picture of the people melting was quite a shock. But I note Lisa Meitner said at the time that "she would have nothing to do with a bomb".
In terms of the Nobel Prize Committee, I found it interesting that the Committee didn't award the Nobel Prize to Einstein over his Theories of Relativity. Because they couldn't understand it, and were afraid of it being a hoax or somewhat. I think that says it all, about them. They made me radioactive last week, but I didn't turn into The Incredible Hulk nor nuffing. That was disappointing! Thanks for such a considerate reply. Best Wishes, Alexander.
@@alexandros8361 She was dubbed, "The Mother of the Atomic Bomb" and hated that moniker. She is as much of a physics hero as Curie, to me, Curie's fame grew as she courted America in the 1920s as they had awarded her some radium to continue with her research and went on a press tour. Meitner never did that, and shunned the press. She was the aunt of Otto Frisch, who with Rudolf Peierls, both exiles at Birmingham University, came up with a viable chain reaction from uranium and the quantities needed to do it (Heisenberg proved his own calculations faulty when he was imprisoned at Farm Hall after the war, incidentally with Otto Hahn, and other "uranium scientists" and the news report of the atom bomb dropping was played to them to monitor their reactions).
Japan has shown the Oppenheimer film today, I think it's timely with what's going on in the world right now, but also that people forget that the Japanese were prepared to stop at nothing to obey their orders and expand their empire into the Pacific, including kamikaze, the mass starvation of its prisoners, invasion as far west as Singapore, and attacking Australia
Thank you for this brilliant lecture!!! You elaborated this very well. I have seen the play Copenhagen but this was a better explanation to dissect the meeting. Thank you so much. This was a brilliant informative lecture 🎉
Thanks
This might be your best video yet. Well done
This is seriously amazing research, well reasoned, and engaging to boot!
I just found your channel and have been binge listening to you since. Subscribe after one day which I normally don’t do for a new to me channel. Love your storytelling ability & learn a lot.
Thanks for all you do making your videos and look forward to seeing your next video!
I am deeeply depressed and sad after listening to your story about Heisenberg since he is one of my heroes. Btw, your story telling is simply another level. you are more convincing than any top-notch lawyers.
"Never meet your heroes", they say.
Don’t feel too bad, Israel is now doing to Palestinians what the nazi did to the Jews.
@@linkin543210 The Palestinian population under Israeli occupation has increased significantly .
Heisenberg is a hero for sure, a hero in physics of his time. But heroes with a human face are humans and they are bound to have other features besides the heroic: certainly less flattering features and maybe dark ones too. To have heroes is still ok as they inspire and encourage and drag out the best of which we are capable. But heroes are not gods, they are human for better or worse.
Newton was a jerk and of course a genius even when compared to Heisenberg but did nothing this ghastly. I saw Heisenberg in Chicago but no one pushed the Nazi relationship.
Wow! a very informative and dramatic presentation! I have known parts of the broad outline for a long time, but have been ignorant of a lot of the detail. Thank you for the opportunity to learn more.
I'm so pleased Kathy has taken the time and trouble to make this highly elucidating piece of video.
I just watched "Oppenheimer" last Friday, first day out. I love this stuff, have no idea why this one's a year old and I hadn't seen it. Kathy, you're the greatest, keep 'em coming! :)
Hi Kathy
I'm 81 and was born just weeks before the outbreak of WW II. I'm interested in the development of the Bomb and the people associated with it. Lise Meitner is the Mother of the Bomb as it was her insight that showed what would happen in splitting the uranium atom. I've enjoyed so much your videos and will be looking forward to seeing and hearing more. Thanks for your scholarship on these most interesting topics.
There are a lot of people who contributed to the development of the bomb. It’s unfair to single out just one (Meitner).
The formula to calculate how much energy would be created is Einstein’s.
No, you weren't - the war had been raging for two years before you were born.
Remarkable work, your channel was just suggested to me by the algorithm and I watched this and it’s predecessor video in full. Very well told and engrossing, I’m now subscribed!
Outstanding! Wow!
Just outstanding research and presentation!
Thank You for making and sharing this. I am really looking forward to sharing your channel with my mother, who is also passionate about history and science. She will love your work as much as I do.
Thank you so much (and hi mom)
Great and highly informed and informative video! Just one small detail: the picture at 18:22 shows Bohr in a 1951 meeting with then King Gustaf VI Adolf. But when they met during the war, Gustaf Adolf was still Crown Prince (the King, Gustaf V, died in 1950). It could be added that the Crown Prince's sympathies were reportedly much more on the Allied (UK/US) side, whereas those of the aging King laid closer to Germany. But neither had any significant formal power by then.
Thank you. I was about to comment in that picture too but you expressed this better than I would have.
Thanks for doing this video. I was happy to hear about Lise Meitner and her good morals. She is buried in my local Churchyard here in Hampshire UK. I have tried to find out the her connection to the village but all I’ve managed to discovery is that her brother lived here. I try to visit the grave once a year.
It is literally the only connection. Her grave is easy to find, but I imagine so few people either a. know, or b. realise her scientific contribution, she hated that the science she did contributed to the Manhattan Project. Another grave easy to find is James Clerk Maxwell
We went to visit last week - someone had left some Lego tulips. Apparently tulips were her favourite flower. My son wanted to wait until it was dark to see if there was a glow
Thankyou for a well researched and presented video especially the inconsistencies.
Your videos are great and your way of presenting them is brilliant.
I just saw this video. Coincidentally, I just finished Power's book, "Heisenberg's War." I find your conclusions about Heisenberg to be much more believable. Thanks for an excellent video!
The Bohr-Einstein debates please. By the way, your physics videos are among the very best!! Really great stuff!! Informative, inspiring and a very valuable resource for any thinking physicist.
so happy to find you. I'll be seeing more of your videos. Fascinating
Hey Kathy, you are "A Fount of Knowledge" that I feel privileged to have encountered. Thank you!
I think you were correct in your assessment of this whole situation. I applaud your research.
Thanks so much, Kathy. I confess you have turned my views of Heisenberg inside out, and with such excellent information, I am convinced you are correct.
That was an amazing video Kathy! Outstanding presentation and research!
I saw this play on Broadway several years back. Looking forward to this story SO MUCH!
It would be nice to see the Bohr Einstein debates first. Thank you for keeping it up, it's great to see your expositions on the history of physics and physicists!
Glad you liked it.
Your wonderful and knowledgeable storytelling makes me believe maybe there’s still hope for the internet.
This was all news to me, but fascinating news. Kathy, you are a delight! You make everything interesting, with your enthusiastic delivery of your fact-filled presentations. I've watched about a half-dozen of your videos so far, and I'm anxious to watch many more. At the conclusion of this one, I just smiled with delight because your enthusiasm is infectious. It was the most fun I've had all day, by a large margin. By the way, Ninotchka is one of my favorite movies. You should also see "It Happened One Night". You'll like it too.
Oh, I loved it happened one night it deserved to win those five Academy Awards.
found you by accident . now I'm binge watching your videos. Truly thank you
Incredible ! Your passion and your ability to pull us in is incredible. Thank you. I’m a new sub and here to stay !
Your students are fortunate to have you 😀
Wonderful video. You are a superb storyteller, and this was an amazing and important story. So glad I found your channel. I feel I learned a lot about why Heisenberg didn’t build the atomic bomb, but I would love more details on it.
Amazing video Kathy. Thank you very much :)
By far one on the best historical discussions i have ever heard. I have been doing history of any type since looking at my first schools history which a converted SA barracks in Stuttgart Germany in the mid to late 50s. You arevan awesome historian. Bravissimo!!
As always, a very good and dynamic video.
For a next video topic, I’d say #2: Bohr / Einstein conversation.
These were hard times for scientists and for artists. I wonder if there was some cross-connections between those two groups too?
There must be, but I don't know much about art or art history so I am afraid I am not the lady to make a video on the cross-connections between artists and scientists at the time. I am still wondering how Bohr met a movie star though.
Kathy : I especially enjoyed this presentation.
Much has been written about the complex man Heisenberg was. I'm wondering if it was some kind of "Stockholm Syndrome" after being constantly watched by Weizsacker.
I asked my friend Hans Reiche for his memoirs of Nazi Germany, whose father was Fritz Reiche, friend of Einstein.
I have never ever published my letters. You never think of your own mail as being historical.
Fritz, upon exiting Germany arrived at Ellis Island, New York, with a top secret message for Einstein, whom he met in New York.
Heisenberg tries to develop the bomb as" slowly as possible", emphasizing the difficulty.
Weizsacker was watching him. He knew the room was bugged. He just wanted to go fishing in Switzerland...Nazi's were getting impatient with him.
After the meeting Bohr dissolved his own 1914 Nobel prize in a bottle of Nitric Acid so the prize would be in his laboratory and the Germans were hungry for Jewish gold. He knew he'd be arrested. Even when he flew to Great Britain, he was smuggled in a plane wheel well on a plane that on purpose flew at low altitude.
Later of course he went to America.
Fritz Reiche left Germany on the train with blackened windows to Lisbon, Portugal... the last train out for Jewish people and got out because of arraingements by Einstein.
The son Hans wasn't there because he was in an Allied POW camp in Canada since 1940, after escaping to the UK in July 1939 but Churchill decided to "collar the lot" re: German refugees once war broke out in Sept 1939.
My letters to a prisoner of war are fascinating, and also because I have an actual copy of a copy of an Albert Einstein letter, releasing my own friend as a prisoner -of- war, reclassified as a refugee.
The reason the world doesn't know about this is because he became so highly classified in Canada, I was writing to a classified address! Many letters came my way with NEVER a return address on the envelope. He was Chief Defense Weapons Systems Advisor for NATO tactical warfare. Hence my reluctance to publish.
Not sure what to make of Heisenberg's behaviour but after the meeting with Bohr he clearly wanted to communicate something to the Allies (behind the back of Weizsacker).
In Bohr's lab, which was bugged, he put on quite a show, in front of Weizsacker at least.
Certainly, he was partly Nazized, but by 1942, actions different than words at least regarding bomb development.
I have no reason to disregard the Weapons Director of NATO.
Excellent data submitted. The mistery is not solved yet.
I’m watching your videos in no particular order. Thoroughly enjoying them all, but this one is special.
Thank you. This video meant a lot to me.
@@Kathy_Loves_Physics I know. That’s what makes it special. But I love your usual exuberant videos too.
Thay was a wild ride! I love every video you've ever made. Kudos :)
Superb presentation, with a well-crafted analysis and credible solution. Should be watched after the equally brilliant 'Why Heisenberg Worked for Hitler." Thank you.
My take on this is that Heisenberg was relying on his own critical mass calculation which was way too high meaning that it would be impossibly expensive and time consuming to produce the material and the bomb would be too big and heavy to be delivered by air. Bohr relied on Meitner and Frisch's calculation which if anything was too low, implying that a bomb would be easier to make than it actually turned out. With this background, and the need to be oblique, it is easy to imagine that Heisenberg was talking about nuclear reactors for power generation while Bohr was talking about bombs and each thought the other was on the same page.
I have read too that Heisenberg made a critical miscalculation early on, that was way off, and made the manufacture of a bomb seem much more impractical. Also, I remember reading about his chagrin when he learned of the American bomb, recorded in the conversations with those with whom he was interned in England. He was actually disappointed and ashamed that he/they had lacked the moral courage to go to Hitler and insist that such a weapon could be made, although it would, they thought, have required considerable resources.
@@tonygumbrell22 Yea, there is a chilling alternate timeline in which Hitler's goons take just a few weeks longer to catch up with Lise Meitner and she is still part of Hahn's team when they discover fission. It is then likely that the correct critical mass calculation would have been in the original paper, the German technical system would have realized the significance and embargoed the paper. Hitler could have postponed starting WW2 for a few years and gone into it the sole possessor of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles!
On this scenario, the intentions and loyalties of the scientists would not necessarily have mattered much - by the time they understood the potential it would have been too late. It all hinged on exact timing of the fate of one woman!
Copenhagen makes perfect sense if we postulate that Heisenberg thinks Bohr is overreacting to the long term possibility of a fix for Germany's chronic energy problem while Bohr thinks Heisenberg is showing an irresponsible lack of concern about the implications of giving a madman weapons of mass destruction! It would not have occurred to either Bohr or Heisenberg that the latter simply had the math wrong, but what we now know seems to make that the most likely explanation.
@@john_hind Hitler's miscalculation was that with all the resources of western continental Europe under his control, and especially given the racial inferiority of the Russians (just as Heisenberg also thought), Russia would be a pushover. He didn't look ahead to a super bomb, guided missiles, or jet planes, not until it was too late. And, of course, theoretical physics was 'Jewish Wissenshaft'.
@@john_hind Lise Meitner calculated the energy release of fission, but it was Leo Szilard who realized that a chain reaction was possible and would create a bomb. He patented the idea in England although of course it was kept as a state secret at the time.
Thank you so much, Kathy.......this was lovely.
Must watch videos, outstanding.
Those three videos that you suggested seem to be in the right order.
There is a great deal of uncertainty in Heisenberg's conversation with Bohr.
Very nice work. I'm a fan of Niels Bohr so I look forward to what you have to say about him.
The more I study Bohr, the more I like him. The Danes have every right to be proud of their native son.
Just finding your videos. Fantastic!! Keep up the good work.
Kathy I just started watching. I enjoy your clear talks on physics and history.
I think a video about Bohr and how i changed physics would be the video to do before the debates between him and Einstein. To set up the setting and background to their differing views on quantum mechanics. Great work with the videos, very interesting hearing about these great scientist's of the 1900's.
That is sort of the way I was leaning.
The first name of Aage ( or Åge! ) Bohr is pronounced [ oagh-e ] ( as in "oak" & the "-gh" in "sigh" ) 😉
Thank you very much for an amazing and deeply fascinating video and for your kind words about Denmark -
greetings from Copenhagen 😊
Yes. Quite some names were butchered. Åge, Leipzig, etc.
I saw the play many moons ago and was spellbound by the central questions. Thank you for producing this video, it confirms my suspicions sadly.
insightful commentary with great delivery...thankyou.
What wonders await....
Kathy, the details of the calculation of the critical mass and the mistake that he made are quite interesting. Basically he said if you take a neutron in the center of the critical mass and it moves outwards, what size radius does it need to ensure a fission, without leaving the mass. That radius determines the amount of material needed, and he way overestimated.This is quite an easy calculation, esp. for these genius’s. But I’m told this is the wrong way to think about it, though it seems painfully logical. I would really love to see a video describing the flaw in his logic as presented at the farmhouse, and the correct way to think about it, but I can’t find it anywhere, anymore.
I think you might do well to find, download, and read LA-1, The Los Alamos Primer.
Heisenberg remains a great physicist though. Thank you for shedding a light on his other face. Nobody's perfect.
The world doesn’t need him. There are many more brilliant physicists who actually have morality and ethics
Great video. Fascinating and much more complicated than I thought. I don't know if you're conclusions are right or not (I haven't even researched the question), but you make a good case.
Great work! I was not too long and not boring for even one second.
There is a small aside, which most foreigners may not know: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker spent kind of his childhood in Denmark. He was one of the kids, who would be looking out the window, when the king rode by. Now imagine for youself how most Danes will react to people, who have grown up in Copenhagen, and now return ....supporting the occupation!
We need to protect the people, again, too many refugees, followers of some weird messiah again!
Science is the only thing that bounds us, Gods are evil!
Still not learned this lesson! UN, and all corrupted parties!
What a revealing story for us all. It must not go unnoticed that even the brightest among us can also be the dumbest. Although a person may be bright in one area does not necessarily suppose it crosses over to another domain.
I really hate "intros" of most videos. I usually just jump 2 minutes into the video and I don't miss anything important.
But Kathy's intro is so informative, so compelling, so subtle that you MUST start from time 0:00, or you're REALLY going to miss out!
Thank you for such eloquent presentation ! 2 cheers from Canada !
Great video, very interesting!
Thank you!
Dear Kathy, I can feel your pain digging up the truth about Heisenberg to find a brilliant mind should not be confused with a beautiful mind. In Heisenberg's case is an aggravating fact to be that smart while being such a monstrous character!
Nicely put.
It is a sad truth that there are many brilliant people who are not also good and kind people, just as it is also true that there are many good and kind people who are not particularly brilliant.
you found what I was trying to articulate. well put.
Just discovered your Channel. This content is just great and very interesting. You (and a few others) make CZcams worth the time.
Absolutely fascinating! Now I will have to watch all of your videos. 🤗
I'd be interested in seeing your perspective on the Bohr-Einstein debates.
Sounds like there is a lot of interest in the Bohr-Einstein debates. Will try to get to them soon.
Minor pronounciation-note: In Danish, Norwegian, Aa at the start of a name is treated as Å (both in pronounciation and sorting). Å is pronounced a bit like "eugh" or the O in "hold", and the G in Åge/Aage is hard, pronounced as two syllables (Å-ge), rising on the Å and descending on the -ge.
Almost commented this myself. I think "g" would be pronounced more like english "w" in this position in danish. Thereby there would not be two syllables like in Norwegian, but only one. The danish pronounciation would be spelled "Åwe" in norwegian.
Everyone should talk American.
Then we will have world peace.
Thank you for such a clear and thorough treatment of this enduring mystery. I think you have provided a definitive answer. Bohr of course soon after went to Sweden and flew on a 'special' flight to UK on his way to Los Alamos.
Just discovered your channel, amazing story told with heartfelt passion.