Community Chat

[Oznell]

I love that this famous picture of the 5th Solvay Conference, in 1927 has been jauntily dubbed "the most intelligent photo of all time".

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?209817-A-photo-from-1927-5th-Solvay-Conference

I didn't know the Solvay Conference was the brainchild of a Belgian industrialist to bring all these mega-brains together to solve problems in physics and chemistry..... and they did, quite spectacularly.

It's almost spooky to see all these intellectual luminaries together, massed against a beautiful old building, under a leafy sky in Brussels.  Click on the yellow enlarging bar, and it gets even more stunning.

If you're as fascinated by this photo as I, you can go to the twitter account of Marina Amaral.  She's a digital colorist (and normally I can't stand colorized photos or movies) of great talent, evidently.  If you scroll down her twitter feed a way, you'll find the black and white version, then keep scrolling and you'll see the one she colored.  The faces and personalities leave dusty history behind, and leap into high relief!

[cherry]

We certainly owe Europe a debt of gratitude, for  giving us these brilliant minds

[giraffe77]

Sadly, I cannot celebrate the first two ...we could have "survived" without atomic energy ... can you imagine having no worries against nuclear weapons.  Einstein once lamented that he felt responsible....E=MC2.   Curie was instrumental in discovering radioactive isotopes.... I live near Three Mile Island and will never forget that day.  Scientific breakthroughs are not always best for mankind.

[golding76]

Such an elite assembly of brilliance!

Thank you, Oznell, because I'd never heard about this conference before.

[Oznell]

Nor had I, @golding76.  It was so interesting to read that they actually solved knotty problems and broke new ground via these annual groupings.  They said that the first conference, and then the fifth, this one picturered in 1927, were the most significant in terms of breakthroughs...

The "synergy" that is set up when great minds commingle!

[just bee]

@Oznell

Werner Heisenberg is there, too.

I'm certain.

[Oznell]

I'm terribly ignorant about this, @just bee.  Who was he?

[golding76]

just bee,

I checked the captions provided with the photo, and Helsenberg was present (back row, third from right).

Back to front, left to right:

Back: Auguste Piccard, Émile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, Édouard Herzen, Théophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, JE Verschaffelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Fowler, Léon Brillouin.

Middle: Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Lawrence Bragg, Hendrik Anthony Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr.

Front: Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Curie, Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles-Eugène Guye, CTR Wilson, Owen Richardson.

[Oznell]

Oh, I just had to look it up-  turns out he was a huge deal in the area of quantum mechanics, Nobel prize winner, etc.  Of course you would know that, dear learned @just bee!

Thanks @golding76, for the rundown.  Wow, Max Born was there too-- even I have heard of him....

[golding76]

My goodness!  I just read that Max Born's elder daughter, Irene, was the mother of Olivia Newton-John.

How weird and wonderful the world is.  Music and mathematics can bring us together.