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Nobel Prize Winner Got Free House and Free (as In Beer) Beer
slashchuck writes "Niels Bohr is one of the greatest scientists who ever lived and a favorite of his fellow Danes when he lived in Copenhagen. Apparently, after he won the Nobel Prize in 1922, the Carlsberg brewery gave him a gift – a house located next to the brewery. And the best perk of the house? It had a direct pipeline to the brewery so that Bohr had free beer on tap whenever he wanted."
See how Denmark did this, world? Neils Bohr assembled a scientific network centered in Copenhagen that vastly increased the speed and dissemination of discoveries. Quantum mechanics and nuclear physics were all born in his backyard. Scientists came from all around the world to debate with him. Why? Because he had free beer.
If you want flying cars and starships, perhaps we need to buy Stephen Hawkings a brewery. Scientists are still human, dammit!
The headlines have never really been very good. Just be glad when they have any relation to the story whatsoever.
So the blog cites as a source, another blog. If you look in the comments for that blog, the author says you should google it, and links to a reddit page. That, in turn, links to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okJnQIjELY4#t=2m55s
It's a nice story, but I'd like to actually hear it from someone who can actually supply details. Bohr's got a lot of cool stuff - like how his lab was used to hide smuggled Nobel medals from the Nazis (by dissolving them: http://www.archive.org/stream/adventuresinradi01heve#page/27/mode/1up ).
I'm sure there's more to the story than just 'he had free beer on tap'.
To be honest I thought the headline was funny =/
This was actually the very first story ever posted on Slashdot, back in 1922. It seems that the story tape has looped on itself- someone tell Timothy he needs to change to the next tape before he posts another re-run.
"Niels Bohr is one of the greatest scientists who ever lived"
Indeed, and at almost seven feet of his stature, you would be ill-advised to argue with this great Dane. *ducks*
Ezekiel 23:20
Although they probably should have mentioned that Bohr was a great Dane.
So they took one of the greatest minds in a generation, and attempted to kill it with large amounts of alcohol. What were they worried about?
Given the fact that this is Denmark we're talking about, you're making the rather large and stupid assumption that large amounts of beer did not directly contribute to creating one of the greatest minds in a generation.
Some countries are proud of their beer and heritage, and respect it so, as do their drinkers.
Others invent NASCAR in an attempt to make a heritage to pin to their shitty beer, and instead master the art of the DUI and hangover.
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There you go. Hope that helped.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Uh, Denmark, dude. Let's not set up the fight between the Dutch and the Danes like what happened in Springfield (Little Orphan Millie).
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
No, he got a 2nd Nobel in Belchology
And the third and final time that particular prize was awarded was when a young Albert Einstein, using just a chisel and hammer in his little shed, managed to split the Tasmanian beer atom and actually put bubbles in beer.
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The Soviet scientist community offered him a home near Russian research facilities too. Bohr was the kind of guy that would walk up to the white house, knock on the door and ask to come in to talk to president about sharing atomic bomb information with the Soviets. Also, he would visit New Mexico and do the same to convince Oppenheimer the sharing of scientific advances in nuclear fission with the Soviets. Bohr was one of the only forward-thinking scientists at that time on the ramifications of developing the bomb and felt that by sharing the information there would be less suspicions by Soviet scientists thus quashing an arms race. He probably lit a fire under Oppenheimer to begin thinking seriously about ways to prevent Nuclear annihilation and proliferation. If anyone's interested more in this stuff I recommend reading American Prometheus which is an Oppenheimer BIO.
Namaste
Why do you preface that with "to be honest"? Are you trying to imply that the rest of the time you're lying?
That is an outstanding question, one of the best I read on Slashdot. Let me get back to you, I should give you a response back in like 10 minutes.