Niels Bohr: biography and contributions of this Danish physicist

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who excelled in the field of Atomic Physics, with the creation of the atomic model of him and in Quantum Physics.

In this way he made further contributions to the silver atomic model first by Ernest Rutherford, adding that the electrons were located, in increasing numbers, in the orbits around of the nucleus.

His studies and work were highly recognized, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics and, later, the Franklin Medal in Physics, among other awards and honors.

In this Niels Bohr biography we will see the most important events in the life of this researcher.

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Short biography of Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on October 7, 1885 in the Danish capital Copenhagen. His parents were Christian Bohr, who was a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen and a follower of Christianity. Lutheran, and Ellen Adler who belonged to a Jewish family of bankers and politicians, with good economic position and linked to banking Danish.

Years of youth and studies

Young Bohr studied Physics at the University of Copenhagen, the city university where his father was a professor and where he obtained the title of doctor in 1911.

In order to further his training and given his growing interest in nuclear physics, he moved to England to join the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and thus expand the studies of him; at this time the laboratory was directed by the famous chemist Joseph John Thomson, who he discovered the electron, a negatively charged subatomic particle, and was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906.

But since J.J. Thomson did not appreciate the work of Bohr, nor did he show great interest in him, Niels he decided to travel to Manchester and continue his studies at the University of this city. On this occasion his teacher and mentor was Ernest Rutherford, physicist also winner of the Nobel Prize (although in this case of Chemistry) and recognized for discoveries such as the structure or atomic model. His new teacher did know how to value his abilities and studies, thus starting a professional and friendly relationship between the two.

On a personal level, the physical he married on August 1, 1912, his fiancee Margrethe Norlund, who was a great collaborator in the studies and research of her husband, performing functions as editor and translator.

The couple had six children, although only four of them would come of age, and both the youngest as the first-born they would die prematurely from illness and from a boat accident, respectively.

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Bohr's atomic model proposal

It was Bohr who, To explain Rutherford's atomic model, he proposed that it used different laws than those of traditional Physics, presenting in 1913 his model of the structure of the atom, called Bohr's atomic model.

In this model, Bohr raises the theory of quantum orbits, which he presents as the main idea that as they increase the number of orbits, that is, as we move away from the nucleus of the atom, the number of electrons in each orbit also increases.

In the same way that by means of his atomic model he tried to explain the stability of the works of the electrons around the nucleus, also pointed out another aspect that Rutherford had not had in bill: he believed that electrons could fall, go from an outer orbit, further from the nucleus, to a closer or internal one. Thus, it would make sense for photons of energy to be emitted when this occurs.

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The foundation of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics

Without breaking his friendship with Rutherford, in 1916 he returned to his hometown to work as a professor at the University of Copenhagen and established himself as a collect the funds necessary to found the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, in which, as the name indicates, focuses on the research of Physics theoretical.

Given his growing popularity and international recognition for his studies, Bohr was able to secure the grants that were necessary to him, occupying the place of director of the Nordic Institute in 1921 until the day of his death.

The Institute of Theoretical Physics created by Bohr was one of the most important of the time in the study of atomic physics, together with those of the Universities of Munich and Göttingen.

One year after occupying the position of director, in 1922, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his studies and research in the field of atomic and radiation physics and in 1926 he would be awarded the Franklin Medal of Physics.

The same year that he won the Nobel Prize, his son Aage Niels Bohr was born, who trained and also excelled in the field of Physics.. He followed in the footsteps of his father with a doctorate in Physics, working as a professor at the University of Copenhagen and replacing his father in the position of director at the Nordic Institute of Physics Theoretical. He also managed to be recognized by being the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975.

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Post-Nobel Prize Research

Niels Bohr's studies continued to focus on atoms and quantum mechanics, raising the principle of correspondence in 1923, adding later, in 1928, the principle of complementarity in order to explain some phenomena of quantum mechanics that at first seemed contradictory.

During the 1930s he repeatedly traveled to the United States to publicize the fission of the nucleus and it was also during this period of time that, alongside physicist John Archibald Wheeler, he claimed, Based on their research, that both plutonium and uranium could be fission.

They were in the same way known the debates he had with the well-known physicist Albert Einstein regarding the laws of Relativity and Quantum Physics. Despite their differences, Einstein claimed that Bohr was one of the greatest scientific researchers at the time.

When he returned from his stay in the United States, he settled in Copenhagen, where he continued with his work of professor and with his research and was appointed president of the Royal Danish Academy of the Science.

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Development of research on atomic physics in the context of war

In 1941 he contacted Werner Heinsenberg, who had been a student of Borh. Heisenberg was interested in researching nuclear technology, although he did not want to use it for military purposes. Werner would end up being the leader of the atomic bomb project in Germany.

Given the increasing restrictions and advancement of the Nazis, and because of Bohr's bond with the Jews (since his mother belonged to a family Jewish), in September 1943 he decided together with his wife and children to flee to Switzerland, traveling the following month to London and finally went to live in the United States. United. It would be in this country where he would collaborate in the manufacture of the first atomic bomb, research that received the name of Project Manhattan.

His life after WWII

After the Second World War, in 1945 Niels Bohr returned to Copenhagen, thus starting a campaign to raise awareness of the correct use of discoveries made in the nuclear field., influenced by what was the atomic bomb. So between 1948 and 1950 he participated in the Gifford conferences, which were related to Natural Theology.

In 1951 he published and was in charge of disseminating a manifesto signed by more than a hundred recognized scientists with the aim of requesting the commitment of the public powers of use atomic energy for peaceful and non-destructive purposes.

Last years of his life

In 1952, he collaborated in the creation in Geneva, Switzerland, of the European Center for Nuclear Research, known by the acronym CERN. Three years later, In 1955 he organized what would be the first Atoms for Peace conference, held in Geneva and thus receiving the Atoms of Peace prize in 1957 by the Ford Foundation for the purpose of progress of humanity that had their research scientific.

Neils Borh died on November 18, 1862 in his hometown, Copenhagen, from heart failure.