Niels Bohr Institute

This morning I had a wonderful visit to the Institute, a place I’ve been fascinated by since high school. I received a detailed one-hour tour from Felicity Pors, who couldn’t possibly have been more welcoming.

What I saw was the famous Auditorium A where many of the important discussions of the Institute were held; Bohr’s office (with many of his possessions still in heir original state); an outside view of Heisenberg’s old bedroom; the park behind the Institute where Heisenberg thought up the Uncertainty Principle; the archive.

I was given a number of offprints of Bohr articles and even a free book. Never have I been treated so well at a site of intellectual history.

That said, you need an appointment, probably through someone with connections there (I was advised to do it that way, and did so). You can’t just walk up as a tourist and gain entry, because the facilities are still in use by the University of Copenhagen. (When we walked into Auditorium A, a young woman was actually preparing her M.A. defense for an hour later, and mass tourism would obviously make this sort of thing impossible.)

There aren’t many figures of the last 100 years as inspiring as Bohr. You leave the Institute feeling somehow cleaner, more serious, more energized.