Werner Heisenberg :: essays research papers

Werner Heisenberg     One cannot fully appreciate the work of Werner Heisenberg unless oneexamines his contributions in the context of the cadence in which he lived. WernerKarl Heisenberg was born in Wuerzburg, Germany, on December 5, 1901, and grew upin academic surroundings, in a household devoted to the humanities. His fatherwas a professor at the University of Munich and undoubtedly greatly influencedyoung Werner, who was a student at the exclusiveimilian Gymnasium.      Heisenberg had the opportunity to work with many of the top physicistsin the world including Niels Bohr and Max Born. Like many of the top physicistsof the time Heisenberg received his doctorate at an early while. In Heisenbergscase he received it at the young age of twenty three. Heisenberg was not just aresearcher. He was in addition a professor and author. During his career he taught atmany prestigious universities, including the Universities of Leipzig, Goettingen, and Berlin. He also wrote many important books including, Physical Principlesof the Quantum Theory, Cosmic Radiation, natural philosophy and Philosophy, andIntroduction to the Unified Theory of Elementary Particles. In 1932 he won theNobel Prize in Physics for his work in Quantum Mechanics.     With the Nazis in power, and World War two on the horizon it wasinevitable that his German heritage would play a crucial use of goods and services in his career.Before Germanys blitzkrieg on Poland Heisenberg decided to make one final visitof his friends in the West. Many tried to convince him to stay and have aprofessorship at Columbia, but Heisenberg declined. He felt that it was hisduty to preserve the foundation of science in Germany during the war. He alsobelieved that by staying in Germany during the war, he could help individualGerman scientists. In fact, he did offer jobs to Jewish scientists when theywere fired from their posts at other universities. As time pa ssed, Heisenbergfound that he was powerless to protect his friends. Heisenberg himself waspersonally attacked, and his appointment at the University of Munich was blocked.For over a year Heisenberg was attacked in the SS newspaper, which referred tohim as a "white Jew." The attack became so heavy that Heisenbergs mother,who had a slight connection to Himmlers family, wrote to Himmlers motherasking Himmler to intercede. Himmler personally cleared Heisenberg of thecharges leveled against him a year later, but he was told to study science andavoid discussing scientists. The sample of the investigation surely affectedHeisenbergs creativity.     During the war Heisenberg worked on the German A-bomb project along witha number of other German scientists.