Word: heisenberg
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...mysteries of quantum physics are rarely understood, much less contemplated, by nonscientists. But uncovering the exact nature of a 1941 meeting between physicists NIELS BOHR, top, and WERNER HEISENBERG is a challenge that has enthralled many theatergoers, thanks to the Tony Award-winning play Copenhagen. Michael Frayn's drama imagines what might have happened at the meeting in occupied Denmark between Heisenberg, chief of Hitler's atom-bomb program, and Bohr, his Jewish mentor. Did Heisenberg, postulator of the uncertainty principle, attempt to extract information from Bohr? Or did he use the meeting to confess his anguish over helping Hitler...
...Heisenberg's principle works overtime here: if you show up at a casting call with your camera crew, doesn't that skew the audition? Our actor of the moment spills his/her guts to you...and in the corner of the frame you spot, for a split second, someone who radiates glamour, beauty, that ineluctable It. Then she's gone, back into anonymity. That's part of show biz too: not just the ones who are trying to make it but also the thousands who got away...
...Bush team has shown the world what efficiency and effectiveness really mean. The world was especially taken aback by this since it has been sitting around for a couple months waiting for Clinton, who is running late as usual. As President, Clinton was an excellent example of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The more you knew about where he was going, the less you knew about where he actually was—and vice versa. Bush has shown that it is still possible to be both President and present at the same time...
...rules that the quiz-show scandals produced were meant to restore a compact of trust between the public and broadcasters. But that leaky raft sailed long ago. In fact, polls show that most viewers already assumed that "Survivor" was fixed. Viewers today are better aware of the Heisenberg effect than your average sociology professor a generation ago; not only do they believe that the shows are set up and edited for dramatic TV - viewing between the lines is part of the sport of watching. Rules are rules, of course, but if Survivorgate ends up disillusioning any of the masses...
...action on stage. Within this frame of reference, Michael Frayn's Copenhagen is quite a bore. It has a remarkable capacity to keep the audience in its place. Dealing with issues of physical and historical certainty through a meeting between the physicists Neils Bohr (Phillip Bosco) and Werner Heisenberg (Michael Cumpsty), the show is performed on a bare set designed to resemble a Bohr model of an atom. It would be a real shame, though, to write off this show. In fact, if given the attention it deserves, the play proves as thought-provoking and as captivating...