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The Sad Story of Heisenberg's Doctoral Oral Exam (1998)

262 点作者 bladecatcher将近 9 年前

16 条评论

erikpukinskis将近 9 年前
This highlights what was a huge misconception for me about a PhD. I thought a PhD was about making an original contribution to my field. I thought Academia was a place where you took risks in pursuit of knowledge, and a PhD was your first real go at it.<p>In retrospect (I&#x27;m a PhD dropout) the PhD is really more about training in the fundamentals of scholarship. It&#x27;s about building up background knowledge, and learning the mechanics of research and publishing.<p>The actual scholarly contribution matters <i>almost not at all</i>. This is why faculty will pressure you to pick a conservative project... the results are besides the point. The point is demonstrating that you can do all the steps. Because lots of great people can only do half the steps. A PhD means you can do all.<p>Once you have your PhD, then its your career on the line and you can do whatever you want. Before that point, you&#x27;re really working on borrowed (from your advisor) time, and as much as it might seem like you are supposed to blaze a path, they really just want you to show that you can walk in a straight line.
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gumby将近 9 年前
A reassuring story for those of us who feel we are strong in many areas but fear we have deep, dangerous holes in certain fundamentals.<p>This vignette explains part of something I hadn&#x27;t understood about the emergence of Heisenberg&#x27;s work (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Werner_Heisenberg#Matrix_mechanics_and_the_Nobel_Prize" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Werner_Heisenberg#Matrix_mecha...</a> ): he seemed to work out the core theory of QM without really developing a sensible, general approach. Compare this to Newton, who did develop calculus to explain mechanics (even if we these days use Leibniz&#x27;s contemporaneous work). In Heisenberg&#x27;s case, Born was the one who realized that we should use matrices.<p>It&#x27;s still weird that Born didn&#x27;t get the nobel for this work and had to wait 20 more years to get one.
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archgoon将近 9 年前
&quot;But that fall Heisenberg&#x27;s worried father wrote to the famed Gottingen experimentalist James Franck, asking Franck to teach his boy some experimental physics. Franck did his best, but could not overcome Heisenberg&#x27;s complete lack of interest and gave up the effort. If Heisenberg was going to survive at all in physics it would be purely as a theorist.&quot;<p>I had not heard this part; and might shed some additional light onto why the German atomic project was significantly behind. When the lead of your project is a famous physicist, but who isn&#x27;t strongly grounded in experiment, but who nevertheless feels like he can&#x27;t simply be a manager and must have input, you&#x27;re likely going to have problems.<p>Maybe not though; be an interesting line of investigation though. Anyone know if this was a documented issue? I know that Heisenburg had seriously overestimated the amount of necessary fissile material needed for a bomb.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.nuclearsecrecy.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;09&#x2F;13&#x2F;what-did-the-nazis-know-about-the-manhattan-project&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.nuclearsecrecy.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;09&#x2F;13&#x2F;what-did-the-nazis...</a>
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ScottBurson将近 9 年前
Jerry Lettvin used to tell a story, to support his contention that students were no longer being taught how to <i>think</i>. He said there was a grad student at whose orals Jerry was one of the professors. Before the student arrived, Jerry noticed a beverage bottle sitting in a window, with the sun shining on it. He went to the window and rotated the bottle 180°, and sat down. The student came in, and Jerry asked him to examine the bottle. &quot;Which side is warmer?&quot; Jerry asked. The student replied that the side facing away from the window was warmer. Jerry said, &quot;Explain this.&quot;<p>To my recollection, Jerry didn&#x27;t relate the student&#x27;s response, but from the way he told the story I gather it was unsatisfactory.
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logicallee将近 9 年前
I love this story! This isn&#x27;t a quip: read the article, then finish reading my comment.<p>&quot;Was Heisenberg a good physicist&quot; - well, he was and he wasn&#x27;t.
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davesque将近 9 年前
It&#x27;s always encouraging to be reminded of how the giants in the history of science were also just people.
nmc将近 9 年前
<i>&quot;Accustomed to being always at the top of his class, Heisenberg found it hard to accept the lowest of three passing grades for his doctorate.&quot;</i><p>The only sad thing I can see is that, according to the story, receiving such a low grade at his final oral exam in experimental physics undermined his confidence in his own skills in experimental physics.<p>I would hate to sound blunt, but receiving a low grade for being unable to answer basic questions should not be a surprise to such a theoretical genius. He got his doctorate anyway.
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lb1lf将近 9 年前
It is somehow reassuring that even a mind as brilliant as Heisenberg&#x27;s had its limits.<p>Mandatory lame joke - &quot;I love driving my Heisenbergmobile, but every time I look at the speedometer I get lost.&quot;
m_mueller将近 9 年前
I don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s supposed to be sad about this story. It&#x27;s interesting, reassuring even about the high level of scrutiny physicists are in if geniuses like Heisenberg even have such troubles. But sad?
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kleiba将近 9 年前
It shouldn&#x27;t be surprising for anyone who takes an exam unprepared that you may walk out with only an average grade. I mean, it&#x27;s not like he didn&#x27;t know he was going to get questions on experimental physics, nor the impact they would have on the final grade...
peter303将近 9 年前
I was lucky to hear Heisenberg speak at MIT shortly before his passing. But I forgot what he talked about, something historical I recall. His son was a MIT professor. Dirac gave a talk that year too. But it was his silly numerology topic on large numbers.
peter303将近 9 年前
Some important scientists are smart about everything- polymaths- and other smart only in their field of interest. Dyson and schrodinger were more polymaths, while Heisenberg and Einstein more specialisrs.
waldrews将近 9 年前
Well, if he did more interest&#x2F;better skills in practical experimental&#x2F;engineering type applications, that might have had some, well, unfortunate political consequences later on in life...
oldbuzzard将近 9 年前
Sort of a more high stakes version of the Grothendieck &quot;prime&quot;... makes you wonder how many more folks haven&#x27;t made it through the gauntlet.
readams将近 9 年前
Luckily now we have this useful FAQ on dealing with doctoral exams:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mcsweeneys.net&#x2F;articles&#x2F;faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mcsweeneys.net&#x2F;articles&#x2F;faq-the-snake-fight-porti...</a>
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sarath749将近 9 年前
Today i learnt haha