Finn Aaserud

General Preface: To the New Edition

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces the book, “Neils Bohr Collected Works.” Niels Bohr was the leader of the quantum revolution, in more than one sense of the word. As a physicist, he proposed his atomic model in 1913, subsequently perfecting it and showing its immense predictive power. In physics, he made crucial contributions not least to nuclear physics and the theory of collisions. From 1933 to 1940, he made his institute into a temporary haven for young physicists no longer welcome in Germany for reasons of race or politics. After his escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark in October 1943, he contributed to the development of the atomic bomb in America. At that same time, he pursued his own mission to convince the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt that they should inform the Soviet Union of the atomic bomb project in order to avoid a nuclear arms race after the war. After the war, Bohr continued his efforts for what he called an “Open World,” as evidenced, for example, in his Open Letter to the United Nations from 1950. While Bohrs orientation was genuinely international, he felt great obligations to Denmark, the land that he loved and never considered leaving in spite of many tempting offers from abroad, and in which, especially in the postwar years, he came to hold iconic status. All of these aspects of Niels Bohrs varied life and work are documented in the book.