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Erwin Schrödinger is one of the "fathers of quantum mechanics". He also sexually abused children. Trinity College Dublin recently denamed a lecture theatre that had been named after him - but his name is still on an equation that won the Nobel Prize for physics. And a cat.
Writer and historian Subhadra Das recounts how and why you rename a university building, and retired physicist Martin Austwick considers that renaming an eponymous equation or theory might be more difficult than unscrewing a sign from a wall.
This is an instalment in the Telling Other Stories series about renaming.
Content note: this episode contains references to racism and eugenics, and to the sexual abuse of children. There is also a Category B swear.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Want to hear about another Problematic Eponym Person? Listen to the episode about Hans Asperger of Asperger’s Syndrome.
Not all the eponyms are problematic! (Although quite a few of them are…) Listen to the previous eponymisodes.
And hear about Martin’s doctorate in No Title.
This is the Irish Times article that precipated the decision to petition for denaming the Schrödinger lecture theatre. (CW: sexual abuse and grooming of children.)
About Schrödinger’s career in Ireland, and that lecture theatre. (CW: sexual abuse and grooming of children.)
“These facts have been known by biographers of Schrödinger since at least the mid-80s, if not earlier, yet Schrödinger’s legacy has gone, until recently, unchallenged.” (CW: sexual abuse and grooming of children.)
About Arthur Lunn: “Lunn refused to give grades. The president of University of Chicago had approached him near the start of his career to get the grade of a football player raised. He decided to give no more grades.”
“In failing to recognize that science can be political, the scientific community allows the resurrection of dangerous ideas. Acting as if theories — especially those about humans — exist in cultural or political vacuums is a ridiculous fallacy.”
“While I believe in the value of sharing the whole picture of who someone was, rather than valourizing dead scientists as perfect heroes, nothing in Rovelli’s text problematizes Schrödinger’s behaviour. Instead, it is mentioned almost as a curious aside. Schrödinger still gets to be great in the end, with an equation named after him that every university physics student in the world learns.”
“Ostensibly, this is a book that’s supposed to teach the public about quantum mechanics, but I kept going over that one particular part about Schrödinger, and I’m like, “Why did that need to be there?” I don’t want him to hide this truth about Schrödinger, but also I don’t actually think that he gives an honest assessment of the implications of this.”
This article contains a lot of the common arguments for keeping shit people’s names on things. I refute them.
“UCL makes formal public apology for its history and legacy of eugenics.”
“When you think of Albert Einstein, what comes to mind? Is it his theory of special relativity, the one that generated the famous equation E=mc2? Is it his Nobel Prize for his discovery of the photoelectric effect? Who are you kidding — if you're like most of us, the first thing that pops in your head when you think of Albert Einstein is that wacky tongue photo you see everywhere.”
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YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
quadrivium, noun: a medieval university course comprising arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Origin Latin, literally ‘the place where four roads meet’.
CREDITS:
Subhadra Das is a writer and historian. Find out about her and her work at subhadradas.com and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. Preorder her book (Un)Civilised: 10 Lies That Made the West which will be published in June. She has also made three podcast series about eugenics, which are What Does Eugenics Mean To Us?, Living With Eugenics, and Bricks + Mortals, a history of eugenics told through buildings.
Martin Austwick is a retired quantum physicist and current musician and composer (including of the Allusionist music). Find out about him and his work at martinzaltzaustwick.com and follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
