Prophets Without Honour

[steepholm]

This is the 110th birthday of Paul Dirac, late quantum physicist of this parish, predictor of antimatter, and all-round high-functioning autistic guy.

I'm delighted that Dirac has (since 2006, 32 years after his death) had a road named after him in his home town, and that I live on it. I'm less delighted that, on the occasions I have to give my address verbally, I am invariably asked to spell his name: most Bristolians have clearly never heard of him. There's an unwritten rule in this city that everything has to be named after one of the triumvirate of Brunel, Cabot and Colston - the last being a slave trader who put his wealth to philanthropic use, thus leaving a somewhat ambiguous legacy. Dirac, despite winning the Nobel prize, is relatively unsung.

There are many anecdotes about Dirac's social awkwardness, but I particularly like this one from Wikipedia: "When he first met the young Richard Feynman at a conference, he said after a long silence, 'I have an equation. Do you have one too?'" It's a Kate Beaton cartoon trouvé.

Happy Birthday, Paul Dirac. And now, that equation again...

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

He should be better known, and recognized for the advancement in quantum physics he made.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, he doesn't seem to be as well known as most of the other giants of that generation: it's odd.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

That quote is actually pretty endearing. I like it.

Perhaps I should keep an equation handy for those awkward moments.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Small talk was not his forte. That gives me a good deal of fellow feeling with him.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I didn't know he was from Bristol! (although in partial defence, I will say that I have only lived here for three years).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's very understandable: there's little in Bristol to let you know about it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It's the same hereabouts- Dickens and Kitchener and even William Adams are constantly mentioned in street names but the mentally ill artistic genius, Richard Dadd, also a local, gets nary a mention.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I didn't know Dadd was from that part of the world. I love his work.

[larryhammer]

Hee -- that's so Dirac.

(And, in fact, Feynman not only eventually had named after him, if not an equation, a mathematical technique as well as a method of conceptual diagramming as important as Dirac's namesake.)

(Moment of mourning for lost neurons: it took me twenty seconds to remember what all the parts of Dirac's spiky beast meant. Of course, I haven't looked at it for twenty years, but still.)

ETA: And, heh, the Wikipedia article on the Dirac equation uses a Feynman diagram to illustrate the equation's implications.

---L.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

the Wikipedia article on the Dirac equation uses a Feynman diagram to illustrate the equation's implications.

See, they had so much to talk about, once Dirac broke the ice!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Good lord -- I always thought he was French!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Understandably! His father was Swiss, but he was born round the corner from here.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And now I can work out that you live about four miles from me, in a broadly southward direction.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Up Almondsbury way, are you? Very nice garden centre! We should meet up some time.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Stoke Gifford (and yes, we should!)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'm travelling at the moment, but I'll pm you when I'm back in Bristol for more than a couple of days.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Good-oh! We'll be away ourselves for part of August and September, but do drop me a message when you are back, and we'll work something out.