Physics Centennial #2: 1957 OU Lecture by Niels Bohr

This is the 2nd post in a series celebrating the centennial of the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy.

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Jens Rud Nielsen (1894-1979), who joined the OU Physics Department in 1924, was an undergraduate student of Niels Bohr in Denmark. Bohr, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, made two trips to the University of Oklahoma, first in 1937 and again in 1957.

The text of Bohr’s 1957 lecture at the University of OKlahoma was recorded by Physics Professor Chun Lin and then transcribed by Nielsen. Lin’s original reel-to-reel tape is in the OU History of Science Collections.

Robin Noad, Director of the Media Resource Center of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts, recently digitized the original reel-to-reel tape, which enables us to make it available online. Use the following links to download the lecture in the audio format of your choice:

  1. mp3 (compressed file, lowest quality, volume not adjusted; 109 MB).
  2. m4v (high quality, recommended version, optimized for iTunes, volume adjusted; 116 MB).
  3. wav (lossless format, largest file size, volume not adjusted; 238 MB).

In the recording, Bohr begins at 6 min, 45 sec. He is preceded by an introduction delivered by Jens Rud Nielsen.

Note: Bohr’s speaking voice becomes quieter over the course of the lecture. To partially compensate for this, the m4v audio file progressively increases the volume as the talk proceeds, by a difference of up to 5.8 dB toward the end. The other two files convey the talk as recorded, without adjustments.

The Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy has made Nielsen’s transcription available online, prepared by Tom Miller, emeritus professor of Physics at OU.

Bohr’s lecture was published as a booklet (cover shown below) by the Frontiers of Science Foundation of Oklahoma, Inc.. The Foundation has generously granted us permission to distribute a scanned version online (download pdf here, 2.8 MB).

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