Friday 10 April 2009

A Brief Bio of Niels Bohr By Cameron Webb He was born the son of a University professor, won the Nobel Prize in Physics, worked with Einstein and had a son who would also go on to win the Nobel Prize - his name was Niels Bohr. In 1885, Niels Bohr was born to a professor named Christian Bohr in Copenhagen. It was his father that would go on to nourish his interest in Physics. From an early age, Bohr loved Physics. In 1909, he gained a masters degree in Physics and two years latter he earned his Ph.D. Ten years later, after becoming a professor at the Copenhagen, he was allowed to set up the Institute of Theoretical Physics with the assistance of the Danish Government. It was this and his research in "...the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them," that earned him his Nobel prize in 1922. During his time at the Uni of Copenhagen, he became best friends with Albert Einstein. They both wanted to solve the mystery of the Universe and were constantly giving each other "problems" to solve. These became known as the "Bohr-Einstein Debates." It was these debates that led to Bohr publishing the "Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," that explained things like wave functions (see my article on Parallel Universes.) Even in the Manhattan Project (the project that developed the first atomic bomb) Einstein and Bohr were working together. Einstein had been sent in to exile at the start of Hitler's reign. He then moved to America and told the Americans that Germany were developing an atomic bomb. It was his warning that allowed Winston Churchill to make an informed decision during the operation that prevented the Nazi's from finishing their atomic bomb and that pointed out how essential it was to develop the bomb first. During the project both Einstein and Bohr were directly involved in the production. As well as these incredible contributions, he also was the father of another Nobel Prize winner - Aage Niels Bohr. If this wasn't enough, he spent the final years of his life towards research in molecular biology.