I feel bad. For a long time, I've been using Niels Bohr as the go-to name when I want a punchline for a joke. It's just one of those names that has comic potential. Certain words are funny, as many comics have pointed out (banana, shrubbery, moose, tuba). Nobel prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr is like that.
But imagine my surprise when I looked him up on wikipedia and found that he was:
A) kind of cute
B) a passionate soccer player
C) half-Jewish and nearly arrested by the Nazis
D) quotable, e.g.
"A triviality is a statement whose opposite is false. However, a great truth is a statement whose opposite may well be another great truth."
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."
"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true."
The Spiral Staircase salutes you, Niels Bohr, and is kind of sorry for making fun of you all those years. But it doesn't seem to be hurting your scientific reputation, since you're pictured on the 500 kroner note and have a university and a chemical element named after you.
You go, Bohr!
