AtomsNZ Geocoin

This little Atom Geocoin will travel from cache to cache with me recording my travels and adventures as well as meeting new (and not so new) people on the way. 

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist born in 1985 (on the same date as me, almost 100 years earlier )who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete, and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the atomic nucleus, but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another. Although the Bohr model has been supplanted by other models, its underlying principles remain valid. He conceived the principle ofcomplementarity: that items could be separately analysed in terms of contradictory properties, like behaving as a wave or a stream of particles. The notion of complementarity dominated Bohr's thinking in both science and philosophy.

In 1914,Carl Jacobsen, the heir to Carlsberg Breweries, bequeathed his mansion to be used for life by the Dane who had made the most prominent contribution to science, literature or the arts, as an honorary residence.After clinching the Nobel Prize in 1922 for his investigations into an atoms structure and early works on quantum mechanics, Bohr was to receive a gift hamper that many would salivate at the mere mention of. Carlsberg, one of the largest beer brewers in the world, gave him a house next to the brewery.

The house was furnished with many worldly possessions, but this was a different house from any other, the world over. Apparently, Carlsberg set up a beer pipeline from their brewery to Bohr’s house so he could get some free booze whenever he felt like it. One of the reasons for the move by the beer maker was perhaps their interest in things science as part of the company culture. In fact, they had a lab dedicated to better beer brewing.

The subsequent inebriated nights led to even greater discoveries by Bohr. With the help of Carlsberg and the Danish government, Bohr founded the Institute of Theoretical Physics in 1921. For the decade that was to follow, he worked with physics to lay the foundations of quantum mechanics principles.