The author of the quantum theory lived long enough to see his discovery affect all branches of science and all human life. Last week Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, 89, one of history's greatest discoverers, died.
Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1858, and grew up in the placid, self-satisfied world of 19th Century physics. He became a professor at the University of Kiel, married the daughter of a Munich banker, played the piano and composed music, lived the good intellectual life of Germany's pre-World War I golden age. Outwardly, he did not...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
