Niels Bohr

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Niels Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who helped develop the theory of quantum mechanics. Early in his career he performed work on the structure of atoms for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922.

Bohr embraced the revolutionary insights of quantum mechanics and resisted attempts by critics of quantum mechanics to deny its basic characteristics. Bohr argued that insights of quantum mechanics should change fundamental features of the scientific view, and even extend beyond science to all of human knowledge.

Specifically, in 1927 Bohr formulated the "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum mechanics in collaboration with Werner Heisenberg. Though opposed by many physicists at the time, this is now the most widely followed explanation for puzzling aspects of quantum mechanics. Bohr also helped clarify confusing issues encountered in quantum physics by developing the concept of complementarity.

Bohr was an agnostic. In addition, Bohr, alongside other members of the Manhattan Project such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi, also provided secrets of the atomic bomb to the USSR, and to Beria more specifically, via Soviet physicist Yakov Terletsky.

See also

• Manhattan Project
• Albert Einstein
• J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Edward Teller
• Enrico Fermi
• Richard Feynman
• Leo Szilard

References

• Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, Foreword by Robert Conquest, Little, Brown and Company, London 1994, pgs. 172, 195-196, 206-207, 211.