Visiting the great sage of Copenhagen was intellectually and emotionally overwhelming, especially for young scientists. “Bohr had invited a number of us out to Carlsberg where, sipping our coffee after dinner, we sat close to him—some literally at his feet, on the floor—so as not to miss a word,” wrote Otto Frisch, another of Bohr’s students. “Here, I felt, was Socrates come to life again, tossing us challenges in his gentle way, lifting each argument onto a higher plane, drawing wisdom out of us which we didn’t know was in us (and which, of course, wasn’t). Our conversations ranged from
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