Abstract
The various intellectual concerns of early twentieth-century quantum physicists were connected to one another in part through their broad-ranging interests, including literature. In 1932 a group wrote and performed “The Blegdamsvej Faust,” a parody of Goethe’s Faust that debates the existence of the neutrino while producing comedy, chaos, and fraught interpersonal connections. Operating as a roast of the senior members of the community, “The Blegdamsvej Faust” represents the dangers inherent in the conflicts not only between the new physics and the old but also between the physicists racing to demonstrate new discoveries, claim valuable positions, and promote their nations.
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Halpin, J.G. (2020). New Physics, New Faust: Faustian Bargains in Physics Before the Atomic Bomb. In: Ahuja, N., et al. The Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science. Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48244-2_20
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