Werner Heisenberg, born in the dawn of the twentieth century became one of its greatest physicists; he is also among its most controversial. While still in his early twenties, he was among the handful of bright, young men who created quantum mechanics, the basic physics of the atom, and he became a leader of nuclear physics and elementary particle research. He is best known for his uncertainty principle, a component of the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of the meaning, and uses of quantum mechanics.

Through his successful life, he lived through two lost World Wars, Soviet Revolution, military occupation, two republics, political unrest, and Hitler's Third Reich. He was not a Nazi, and like most scientists of his day he tried not to become involved in politics. He played a prominent role in German nuclear testing during the World War II era. At age twenty-five he received a full professorship and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 at the age of thirty-two. He climbed quickly to the top of his field beginning at the University of Munich when his interest in theoretical physics was sparked Heisenberg was born the son of August Heisenberg in Wurzburg, Germany on Dece

After the publication of his paper, Heisenberg realized that it contained some errors. Born advised Heisenberg to write a post-script describing these errors; Heisenberg did write "Essential points that I had overlooked" to describe his error. In this post-script it mentioned, "uncertainty in the observation - arises not exclusively from discontinuous particles or continuous waves but also from the attempt to encompass simultaneously the phenomenon that arises from both wave and corpuscular origins." This error was noticed when experimental data was not congruent with his original writing and other physicists began to realize this.

On June 23, 1942, Heisenberg's laboratory in Leipzig underwent a slight catastrophe. Near six o' clock, Heisenberg's assistant interrupted his weekly seminar to tell him that he should come to see his laboratory. Once they arrived, Heisenberg noticed that bubbles were emerging from the pile called L-IV. All had gone as expected for the twenty days that the sphere had already been emerged. They tested the gas that was leaking, and discovered that it was hydrogen. Both men concluded that the seal in the sphere containing the uranium oxide had been broken. The lab mechanic helped lift the sphere out of the moderator. He then unscrewed the metal cover to remove the uranium oxide and there was a hissing sound like air rushing into a vacuum. For a couple seconds nothing happened, then flames and gas bust out around the cover, spewing burning particles of uranium around the laboratory. They dowsed the flames, and they slowly subsided. Then the lab assistant, Robert Dopel, tried to salvage the precious heavy water from inside the sphere. Heisenberg concluded that oxygen must have seeped into the sphere, so not knowing what else to do Heisenberg had his assistant lower the sphere back into the tank to keep it away from oxygen and to keep it cool. Later when observing the sphere, Heisenberg and Dopel noticed the steam threateningly rise from the water in the tank. Next they saw the pile within shudder, then swell. Without having to say anything, both men leapt for the door in one motion. Seconds later, the sound of an explosion rushed from the laboratory. Burning uranium flew around the laboratory and set the whole building on fire. The force of the explosion split the sphere apart which severed a hundred bolts. The fire within the sphere continued for two days until it finally died away. With extensive damage done to his laboratory, many of his experiments in effect were delayed. Despite all of his hard work for the development of nuclear weapons, he was not able to produce a successful model by the end of World War II. After the war, Heisenberg was interned in Britain with other leading German scientists. In 1946, he returned to Germany where he was appointed director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics at Gottingen. In 1958, the institute moved to Munich and Heisenberg continued to be its director.

In response to the new advances in quantum mechanics, Einstein wrote, " Above all .... The reader should be convinced that I fully recognize the very important progress that the statistical quantum theory has brought to theoretical physics .... This theory and the (testable) relations, which are contained in it, are within the natural limits of the indeterminacy relation, complete .... What does not satisfy me in that theory, from the standpoint of principle, is its attitude towards that which appears to me to be the programmatic aim of all physics: the complete description of any (individual) real situation (as it supposedly exists irrespective of any act of observation or substantiation)." It was Einstein's opinion that the quantum theory was heading in the right direction, but they were not quite there yet. Physicists could not yet explain or fully prove the inner workings of an atom.

mber 5, 1901. August Heisenberg was a professor of Greek at the University of Munich. His grandfath

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