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| Niels Bohr (1885-1962) |
Niels Bohr completely transformed our view of the atom and of the world. Realizing that classical physics fails catastrophically when things are atom-sized or smaller, he remodeled the atom so electrons occupied ‘allowed’ orbits around the nucleus while all other orbits were forbidden. In doing so he founded quantum mechanics.
Later, as a leading architect of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, he helped to completely reshape our understanding of how nature operates at the atomic-scale.
Beginnings
Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on October 7, 1885 in Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen. He was the second of three children in a prosperous, upper-class family.
His father was Christian Bohr, a brilliant physiology professor who would later be nominated twice for a Nobel Prize. His mother was Ellen Adler, daughter of a wealthy Danish politician.
His father had been raised in a Lutheran family and his mother in a Jewish family. Niels was baptized as a Lutheran at the age of six to please one of his grandmothers. Neither his father nor his mother practiced their religions.
Niels’ parents were deeply passionate about their children’s education. Niels was taught at home until he started formal schooling aged 7 at the Gammelholm Grammar School. The school was both an elementary and high school. It had strict discipline and expected its students to work hard.
His father would bring home a variety of his fellow professors from the University of Copenhagen and the Bohr children were allowed to listen to the conversations, which were wide-ranging, discussing science, philosophy and the arts.
Physics especially interested Niels and by the time he was a teenager he was correcting the mistakes in his schools’ textbooks. In addition to his intellectual vigor, he was also unusually strong physically. He didn’t just correct textbooks; he would also ‘correct’ other students, getting into fights at school, which he usually won.
Although he would eventually become one of the world’s greatest theoretical physicists, he was talented in a practical way with his hands. He and his younger brother would spend hours making things in their father’s workshop.
His father saw that Niels had the potential to become an outstanding scientist. However, neither he nor his mother wished Niels to grow up with narrow interests. They ensured he was well-educated culturally and in sports.
His father was particularly enthusiastic about the works of the German author Goethe and would regularly recite large tracts of Faust to his children. His father was also loved soccer and encouraged his sons to play at school and university. Niels became a goalkeeper, while his younger brother Harald went on to play for Denmark on the international stage, winning an Olympic silver medal.
Niels Bohr’s Contributions to Science
- A New Way of Thinking about Atoms
- Bohr Sheds New Light on an old Problem
- The Founding of Quantum Chemistry
- Bohr Pushes our Understanding of the Atom Forward by a Quantum Leap
Nobel Prize
Bohr was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work he did in 1913.
Some Personal Details and the End
In 1912, Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in Copenhagen. They had six sons, one of whom, Aage Bohr would emulate his father by winning a Nobel Prize in Physics.
Niels Bohr died aged 77 of sudden heart failure in his home in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962. His ashes were buried in Copenhagen’s Assistens Cemetery near the graves of his parents and his brother Harald. Margrethe’s ashes were also buried there when she died.
