Well most of us (who have intrest in or forced to study physics) have come across terms that are almost philosophical in the way they sound. Relativity, duality of particles, uncertainty principle etc… Most of these fuzzy concepts either led to or helped in building up quantum mechanics. For those not in the know, Quantum mechanics is the new theory that explains very accutately (today) about the workings of the universe at all scales. The problem with classical physics was that at very small scale (atomic particles), it is unable to explain some funny observations but this was compensated by Quantum mechanics. But the problem was that the theory behind Quantum mechanics is not easy to explain as it hides under multiple layers of complicated mathematics and to fully comprehend what is going on, pne has to be a trained mathematician and physicist.

The consequence was that as the theories gained popularity among the scientific cmmunity, the rest of us keep hearing these fuzzy terms and gave these scientific terms mythical status. One of these terms is UNCERTAINTY.

It was based on purely mathematical mumbo-jumbo but so was a lot of other theories until thought experiments and real experiments show the reality of these theories. Anyway, the uncertinty principle (as it is called) was found by Werner heisenberg – a german mathematician – physicist during the 30′s when was an apprentice to Neils Bhor – an eminent dutch physicist – who proposed the theory of the structure of the atom. Anyway, Heisenberg came to Bohr after the 1st World war in 1921 and they became great friends and very close. At some point, Heisenberg decided to be part of the German Physics academy. When the Nazi’s were getting into power, they drove all the Jewish physicists away (majority of Theoritical physicists in germany were jewish) who went off to England and USA. Heisenberg was german and he decided to stay with the academy. Now this made a lot of his colleagues around the world uncomfortable as he is an atomic physicist – a really good one – in the payroll of a maniac. Everyone knew at this time that the atomic energy is a reality and it is just a matter of time before someone makes an “atomic bomb”.

The year was 1941, World War II was in its full swing, America was pushing a lot of resources into atomic research and some of the best minds in business were at Los Alamos – figuring out how to make a bomb. And Heisenberg calls Neils Bohr to meet up. Now, Bohr was half jewish and almost fleeing denmark (He did flee in 1943) and everyone knew that he was abreast of the latest developments in atomic physics in England and America. And the question is why does Heisenberg – the leader of german Atomic research want to meet Neils Bhor – an old and trusted friend (and someone who knows about the allied forces atomic research) in the middle of a war?

What is known is that after the meeting, Bohr was extremely angry and the friendship between the two scientists came to an end. There are numerus speculations on what the conversation between these two guys was. There are some who think Heisenberg came with a proposition that turned Bohr sick while others think Bohr might not have understood what Heisenberg had to say – due to his situation may be.

The movie Copenhagen is an exploration of the relationshops between these scientists and an attempt at decipherig the events of the fateful meeting. The movie is adapted from a play and feels very much like theater – very dramatic in presentation and has only 3 characters in total. Neils Bohr, his wife and Werner Heisenberg. But is very well written and true to the way scientists dissect problems, the plot is disected and even plays in multiple “Drafts” each time, clarifyinf the intentions of each of the characters. We see that each of them acts in the best way possible under the circumstances and everyone has good intention.

But staying in sync with Uncertainty theme, the story never resolves itself. There is a closure if you are looking for one but not an emphatic statement of what exactly happened during the fateful night in 1941. I guess that will always be a mystery.

Great movie if you want to watch one. But beware that if you are unaware of quantum physics, penetrating the dialogues may be a chore.

Copenhagen is a PBS production and there is lot more information on the PBS site.

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