Quantum Mechanics, Born Again

In his Letter (Physics Today, April 2001, page 94 ), Carlos D. Galles noted that a photograph caption in my July 2000 Physics Today article on Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein (page 39 ) erroneously credits Heisenberg instead of Max Born with being the first to name the new physics “Quantum Mechanics.” For evidence, he referred to an article in Bartel L. van der Waerden’s Sources of Quantum Mechanics (Dover, New York, 1967).

I thank Galles for his correction. But allow me to add that the photograph and its caption were supplied not by me but by Physics Today staff (a staff that I have always found to be helpful to authors, and that rarely, except perhaps at the last minute of production, would make even a small glitch). I also congratulate Galles for reminding readers of the useful book by van der Waerden. I know it well; as it happens, I placed it as volume 5 in the Dover series, Classics of Science, when I was the series’ editor.