The Net Advance of Physics:

Resources for Frayn's Copenhagen: Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr seems to be the known in Michael Frayn's play. Although Heisenberg in the play says that Bohr is both the Holy Office and the Inquisition in one person, Bohr has not the mystery or the fascination Heisenberg has. He is the half-Jewish father (Pope) of the spiritual seekers who hope to find Truth in understanding the atoms that constitute the universe. He escaped from Nazi-occupied Denmark and so holds the moral high ground, in spite of his never confirming an active role in the execution of the Allies' atomic bomb project.

Biographical sketches:
(arranged from most detailed to least detailed)

• Niels Hendrik David Bohr by J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robinson [St. Andrews University]
• Biography [Nobel Prize]
• Niels Bohr [Wikipedia]
• Niels Bohr A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries [PBS]
• Bohr [Centre for Chemistry Studies, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK]
• Niels Bohr [Atomic Archive]
• Niels Bohr [Lucid Cafe] (Related Websites link has good resources)
• Niels Bohr [Daily Celebrations]

Other Resources

• Bohr's letters about his meeting with Heisenberg [Niels Bohr Institute]
• Heisenberg visit to Copenhagen and the Bohr letters by Klaus Gottstein about the letters which the Bohr Institute released in 2002. [The Science and Environmental Policy Project]
• Niels Bohr Archive [Niels Bohr Institute]
• Papers [Niels Bohr Institute]
• Oral History Transcript: Dr. Aage Bohr, Margrethe Bohr, and Dr. Leon Rosenfeld, 1963/1/23 [AIP]
• Niels Bohr Photo collection at the American Institute of Physics
• Quotes from Bohr [AIP]
• Science Jokes featuring Bohr [Joachim Verhagen]
• Niels Bohr Library Resources for the study of the history of science [AIP]

• Bohr, Niels. Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. New York: Wiley, 1958.
• Bohr, Niels. Collected Works. L. Rosenberg, ed. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 1972-.
• Bohr, Niels. Essays, 1958-1962 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. New York: Interscience, 1963.
• Bohr, Niels. Niels Bohr: a Centenary Volume. A. P. French and P. J. Kennedy, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

• Aaserud, Finn. Redirecting Physics: Niels Bohr, Philanthropy, and the Rise of Nuclear Physics. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
• Bolles, Edward Blair. Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2004.
• Gamow, George. Thirty Years that Shook Physics: the Story of Quantum Theory. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966.
• Moore, Ruth E. Niels Bohr: the Man, his Science, and the World They Changed. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966.
• Pais, Abraham. Niels Bohr's Times: in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Petrow, Richard. The Bitter Years: the Invasion and Occupation of Denmark and Norway, April, 1940-May, 1945. New York: Morrow, 1974.
• Petruciolli, Sandro. Atoms, Metaphors, and Paradoxes: Niels Bohr and the Construction of a New Physics. Ian McGilvray, trans. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Plotnitsky, Arkady. Complementarity: Anti-epistemology after Bohr and Derrida. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994.
• Polkinghorne, J. C. Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Rozental, S, ed. Niels Bohr: his Life and Work as Seen by his Friends and Colleagues. New York: Interscience, 1967.
• Sachs, Mendel. Einstein versus Bohr: the Continuing Controversies in Physics. LaSalle, IL: Open Court Press, 1988.
• Whitaker, Andrew. Einstein, Bohr, and the Quantum Dilemma. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

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