3 ms·

Some great stories about Dirac's "unusual" personality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Personality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Personalit

Some great stories about Dirac's "unusual" personality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Personality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Personality One of my favorite theologians, physicist-turned-Anglican-priest Dr. John Polkinghorne FRS, did his Ph.D in Dirac's group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne

mdp2021 2y ago
A famous great anecdote about Dirac (and Bohr and Rutherford) was in Absolute Zero Gravity: -- Young Dirac arrived at Niels Bohr’s institute with a glowing recommendation from the great experimentalist Ernest Rutherford. A few months later, Bohr remarked to Rutherford that this marvelous Dirac hardly seemed so special: he said nothing and he did nothing. Legend has it that Rutherford replied with the following story: A man went to a pet shop to buy a parrot. There was a gray parrot that knew a few words selling for one hundred dollars. There was a blue parrot that could sing and tell stories for two hundred dollars. There was a beautiful green and purple bird that spoke several ancient languages for five hundred dollars. And there was a nondescript brown bird priced at a thousand dollars. “A thousand dollars!” exclaimed the would-be buyer. “That must be some bird - how many languages does he speak?” “Just English,” admitted the shopkeeper. “His vocabulary is extraordinary, perhaps?” The shopkeeper shrugged. “Not really”. “Does he sing, then?” “No,” said the shopkeeper. “Most days this parrot doesn’t even talk”. “Well, does he do acrobatic tricks or something? What on earth is so valuable about that parrot?” “Sir, this parrot thinks”. Rutherford concluded, “Dirac thinks”.
- barrenko 2y ago
  Beautiful.
barrenko 2y ago
"There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet".
amarcheschi 2y ago
The book "the strangest man" goes in depth about his life and how weird that guy was. No surprise a psychologist suggested me to read it while I talked about the possibility of being autistic. Of course you can't diagnose a dead person, but let's say it wouldn't have been surprising had he discovered to be nd
- mturmon 2y ago
  I happen to be reading the book Neurotribes which is a decent (although sometimes pathologizing) treatment of autism, and it retrospectively diagnoses Dirac as on the spectrum. Silberman, the author, does reference and seems to rely heavily on the biography The Strangest Man.
yubblegum 2y ago
> 'Why do you dance?' Dirac asked [Heisenberg]. 'When there are nice girls, it is a pleasure,' Heisenberg replied. Dirac pondered this notion, then blurted out: 'But, Heisenberg, how do you know beforehand that the girls are nice?'" The difference between a theoretician and a scientist. Heisenberg was clearly the scientist.

mdp2021 2y ago

A famous great anecdote about Dirac (and Bohr and Rutherford) was in Absolute Zero Gravity: -- Young Dirac arrived at Niels Bohr’s institute with a glowing recommendation from the great experimentalist Ernest Rutherford. A few months later, Bohr remarked to Rutherford that this marvelous Dirac hardly seemed so special: he said nothing and he did nothing. Legend has it that Rutherford replied with the following story: A man went to a pet shop to buy a parrot. There was a gray parrot that knew a few words selling for one hundred dollars. There was a blue parrot that could sing and tell stories for two hundred dollars. There was a beautiful green and purple bird that spoke several ancient languages for five hundred dollars. And there was a nondescript brown bird priced at a thousand dollars. “A thousand dollars!” exclaimed the would-be buyer. “That must be some bird - how many languages does he speak?” “Just English,” admitted the shopkeeper. “His vocabulary is extraordinary, perhaps?” The shopkeeper shrugged. “Not really”. “Does he sing, then?” “No,” said the shopkeeper. “Most days this parrot doesn’t even talk”. “Well, does he do acrobatic tricks or something? What on earth is so valuable about that parrot?” “Sir, this parrot thinks”. Rutherford concluded, “Dirac thinks”.

barrenko 2y ago
Beautiful.

barrenko 2y ago

"There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet".

amarcheschi 2y ago

The book "the strangest man" goes in depth about his life and how weird that guy was. No surprise a psychologist suggested me to read it while I talked about the possibility of being autistic. Of course you can't diagnose a dead person, but let's say it wouldn't have been surprising had he discovered to be nd

mturmon 2y ago
I happen to be reading the book Neurotribes which is a decent (although sometimes pathologizing) treatment of autism, and it retrospectively diagnoses Dirac as on the spectrum. Silberman, the author, does reference and seems to rely heavily on the biography The Strangest Man.

yubblegum 2y ago

> 'Why do you dance?' Dirac asked [Heisenberg]. 'When there are nice girls, it is a pleasure,' Heisenberg replied. Dirac pondered this notion, then blurted out: 'But, Heisenberg, how do you know beforehand that the girls are nice?'" The difference between a theoretician and a scientist. Heisenberg was clearly the scientist.