09.12.2006 16:55

The Niels Bohr institute is nothing else than the physics institute of the University of Copenhagen which is named after the most famous Danish physicist. It is spread over three different locations:
One of them (where I am sitting) is Blegdamsvej 17-21. The buildings here (at least the three around the little square with the fountain) date back to the old times when Niels Bohr gathered the world's most famous physicists in Copenhagen. The Niels Bohr archive ist still located here and his office kept intact.
There are plans to move active physics research out of this location (It seems to be a perfect time to do it, since one of the buildings officially hosts Nordita which moves to Stockholm in January.) the official goal behind this is to concentrate all physics in one place. Apparently the buildings here are also not very economical to run.
Many people here don't like the idea, it is a historical place after all and it is so only for physics. Last week at lunch time somebody proposed that only the three really original buildings should be kept, and host the high energy theory group and the new Niels Bohr international accademy (nice webpage hm?, I designed it). His argument was that in this way the place could be kept in reduced size as a center for theoretical physics, in the real spirit of Niels Bohr and high energy theory has no contact with experiment anyway, so we could do without our experimental collegues. "Or do you ever talk to them?", he asked. The answer from most of the people present was, "No" or "well we tried but there was no response."
I don't like that proposal at all. How would you react being a down to the earth experimentalist if a theorist came to you and started talking about AdS/CFT, D-branes, 11 dimensions and the like? Wouldn't you answer, "hey, I don't understand, break this down to something which can be measured in principle in our world and I will help you design an experiment that does it." And if he doesn't get a response to this is, can you blame him for not being interested?
It is unfortunately true that huge part of theoretical (high energy, mind you!) physics has become completely decoupled from experiment. And from my point of view it is one of the really worrying things happening in physics. It's a experimental science after all and theories that evade experimental verification cannot claim any right to be physical no matter how "beautiful" they are.
Niels Bohr was a theoretician, but it were experimental he tried to explain, and his conjectures were falsifiable. (First thing, you are told as a student about his model for atoms is: It's wrong, but it was ingenious and lead a great step further. He certainly was closely looking at what experimentalists do and did talk to them.
And finally, with which right does high energy physics claim the inheritance of Niels Bohr rather than other branches, say atomic physics, solid state physics, quantum optics? We try to unravel what holds the universe together, the really fundamental things, but those guys they work on a day to day basis with concepts shaped by Niels Bohr. So why not concentrate them at Blegdamsvej?
I think it is a good thing to stay here, but at the price of being isolated from all other physicists (except HEP-TH) I would definitely vote for moving out with the others. Having other physicists working on other fields around is definitely more better for your work than the fact that many years ago Niels Bohr once walked into your office.