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Another Physicist born into the Bohr family
Niels was born the second son of Christian Bohr, Professor of Physiology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Niels' father was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize for his work in describing how CO2 and pH affect the oxygen affinity of hemoglobin. His mother, Ellen, being of Jewish descent would play a factor in future events. Niels had an older sister, Jenny, and a younger brother, Harald, who through their entire lives remained close and found success in their chosen fields of study. -
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Niels Bohr
PHIL202 -
Explain how things really work, of course!
A young Niels began his formal education at the Gammelholm Latin School. Even though Physics was one of Niels's favorite subjects, it was considered a lesser course in the higher levels and often outdated and incorrect in the class materials. Niels would make notes correcting the information in his book. When a concerned classmate asked what he would do on an exam that might present this sort of information; "Explain how things really work, of course!" was his reply -
University Life and Master Thesis
Bohr enrolls as an undergraduate at the University of Copenhagen. Home of previous recipients of the Nobel Prize and future recipients including Bohr's son, Aage Bohr. -
A Puzzle Solved - The Structure of Atoms
Bohr worked with the scientific studies of his predecessors and mentors, J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford, to arrive at a possible solution for the physical properties of the electron within an atom. (https://video-alexanderstreet-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/watch/learn-about-niels-bohr-s-refinement-of-the-rutherford-model-of-the-atom?context=channel:science) -
Nobel Prize
Bohr, following in the footsteps of the fellow physicists, Thomson and Rutledge, is awarded a Nobel Prize "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them." - (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1922/bohr/facts/) -
The Tao or Tau of Physics and Quantum Mechanics?
"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real." A quote by Bohr may be the best summation for the field of quantum mechanics. On the other side of this, his good friend Einstein believed nature was ordered and predictable.
Bohr-Einstien -
Escaping the Nazi Regime
Prior to his discovery that he and his brother Harald, were to be arrested because of their mother's Jewish heritage, Bohr had worked with the Dutch resistance to help previous colleagues and friends in the scientific community escape Germany by giving them refuge at the Copenhagen Institute. Once Hitler invaded Denmark, Bohr made a dramatic escape over the sea and air arriving in the United States. Bohr continued to negotiate with countries like Sweden to ensure asylum for others. -
Pursuit of knowledge till the end
Shortly after Bohr's death in November of 1962, the beloved institute to which he returned after WWII and spent his final years honored him by renaming the University of Copenhagen's Institute for Theoretical Physics to The Niels Bohr Institute.