Copenhagen

I recently watched "Copenhagen" at the Station theatre in Urbana. The play is based on a mysterious meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen. The only thing that is for certain is that there was meeting. There is alot of controversy about what was discussed, even while the physicists were living. Both Heisenberg and Bohr have written about their encounter but they somehow do not concur.

The play uses this uncertainty as a metaphor for the Heisenberg's famed Uncertainty principle. It is an entertaining attempt to try to apply this principle (valid only on the quantum level) on human memory and intentions. The play begs the question "Why did Heisenberg come to Copenhagen and what did Bohr reply back?". Then, it provides several scenarios and suggests that any of these can be true, depending on the observer. Just like the electron passing through two slits simultaneously, this production implies that different versions of the meeting can coexist.

For the play to work, the science was kind of dumbed down to be easily understood and appreciated. I found this helpful since I do not recall much from my quantum mechanics class except that you can stay above the curve if you cite the Uncertainty Principle as the reason why the answer cannot be determined for all the questions.

The Copenhagen meeting is a subject of historical interest because Heisenberg was the head of the Nazi efforts to develop weapons from nuclear fission and Bohr later joined the folks at Los Alamos to build the atom bomb. Suprizingly, most of the scientists involved including Einstein were in favour of developing the bomb. It seems like they were so involved in the race for the bomb and their fear that enemy might use it that they were shortsighted. After the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both Einstein and Bohr dedicated their lives to controlling the beast that they had participated in unleashing.

This is just one example of how science and politics don't make for happy bedfellows.