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My Great-Grandfather Was the Architect of Quantum Mechanics, but You Probably Don’t Know His Name
The reasons may have been political…
My great-grandfather Max Born is not quite a household name. Anyone who has studied physics at university level will, of course, be familiar with his contribution, especially his eponymous Rule, which is a keystone of quantum mechanics. Yet outside of the rarefied sphere of those who have studied tertiary level physics, few know who he was. If I ever bring him up my relation to him in conversation, mentioning his importance in physics, people’s eyes light up briefly at the mention of his name before fading again with the realisation that, no, actually they were thinking of Niels Bohr…
I imagine his bones doing a three-sixty spin in their grave whenever this happens. For all that he cut a humble figure in the big-ego world of physics pioneers, and rarely expressed his disappointment publicly, Born felt a deep sense of aggrievement that he did not receive the recognition which it is now widely recognised that he deserved.
This is what happened.
In 1925, Born was Professor of Physics at The University of Göttingen in Germany. During the early part of the twentieth century, it was a tradition in Germany that the most promising students would serve a…
