29 Scientists Came Together in the “Most Intelligent Photo” Ever Taken

The Fifth Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics in 1927, Brussels. Image by Benjamin Couprie. From back row to front, looking through remaining to right: Auguste Piccard, Émile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, Édouard Herzen, Théophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, Jules-Émile Verschaffelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Howard Fowler, Léon Brillouin, Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Lawrence Bragg, Hendrik Anthony Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Skłodowska Curie, Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles-Eugène Guye, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Willans Richardson. (Image: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])

How lots of geniuses can one particular place keep? In 1927, 29 of the world’s most good minds collected in Brussels for the Fifth Solvay Meeting. Convened by Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay, the topic of the meeting that 12 months was “Electrons and Photons”—topics of competition in the freshly created theories of quantum mechanics. Amongst the team had been Nobel laureates and professors holding esteemed college chairs, including famous names these kinds of as Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Erwin Schrödinger. Collectively, the attendees gathered for what has been identified as “the most intelligent photo” of all time—a easy snapshot taken at a single of the most fascinating times in scientific history.

Whilst the fifth Solvay Meeting is the most well regarded, this prestigious mental gathering was first held in 1911 with the topic of “Radiation and the Quanta.” A youthful Albert Einstein was in attendance, as was Max Planck, who learned the electricity quanta getting reviewed. Mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré was also present—known as “the previous universalist” for staying a chief across many disciplines prior to educational specialization commenced to make that impossible.

The only girl in attendance in 1911 was Marie Curie, the famous researcher of radioactivity. Curie was now exceptionally attained, getting received her to start with Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with her husband and a colleague) in 1903—the initial time the Prize was awarded to a woman. In 1911—the 12 months of the to start with Solvay Conference—Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time on her individual and in Chemistry. She was the initially human being to acquire the prize twice, and she remains the only individual to at any time obtain a prize in two scientific disciplines.

In spite of Madame Curies’ achievements, ladies have been amazingly scarce in STEM in the early 20th century. As a consequence, even in 1927, Curie was at the time a lot more the only woman at the Fifth Solvay Conference. Einstein and Planck returned. They have been joined by Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Erwin Schrödinger—all of whom were being pioneers of the new quantum mechanics which drew on Planck’s quanta and other discoveries of how the universe functions on an atomic degree.

Of the 29 scientists at the meeting, 17 would get Nobel prizes in their lifetime. Nearly all would hold university chairs training the new theories which were being altering the planet from a person Newton could demonstrate to an fully new realm of energy, wave-particle duality, and uncertainty. Captured on 1 working day in Oct, the Salvoy Convention picture shows 29 of the greatest minds of the 20th century taking a temporary split from the very long course of action of defining the universe.

In 1927, 29 of the most good researchers in the world had been photographed as they gathered to go over emerging theories of quantum mechanics at the Fifth Solvay Meeting in Brussels.

First Solvay Conference in 1911, Brussels. Photo by Benjamin Couprie. Seated (left to ideal): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Henri Poincaré.
Standing (still left to proper): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Denims, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])

At the very first Solvay Convention in 1911, the discovery of quanta (a foundation for the later on quantum theories) have been talked over by the likes of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Henri Poincaré.

Neils Bohr, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his get the job done on atoms and their radiation. He produced the Bohr design to explain electrons, their prices, and how they transfer in between orbits. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])

Marie Curie was the only female to attend either the 1911 and 1927 convention. She was 1 of the most distinguished researchers in attendance with two Noble Prizes. To this day, she is the only person to accomplish this.

Marie Curie, two-time Nobel Laureate in Physics and Chemistry respectively. Curie was the first female professor at the College of Paris. Image by Henri manuel circa 1920. (Image: Wikimedi Commons [Public domain])

h/t: [Open Culture]

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