The 1927 Solvay Conference

Click on the photo to enlarge. I have no idea where I first saw this.

The Solvay Conference in 1927 was the fifth in a series that continues to this day, meeting every three years on a specific topic. Seventeen of the 1927 attendees won Nobel prizes before or after the conference -- Marie Skłodowska-Curie, of course, won twice. This was the conference where the Bohr-Einstein debates began.

Today, October 7, 2012, is, fittingly enough, Niels Bohr's 127 birthday. This month is also the 85th anniversary of the 1927 Solvay Conference. From the pictures it looks ages ago; it wasn't.

The first Solvay conference was held in 1911 in Belgium on invitation from Ernest Solvay, who founded the conference. It's subject was "The theory of radiation and the quanta," a subject that I think it's fair to say remained unsolved. Below the break a photo.

Seated (L-R): W. Nernst, M. Brillouin, E. Solvay,H. Lorentz, E. Warburg, J. Perrin, W. Wien, M. Skłodowska-Curie, and H. Poincaré. Standing (L-R): R. Goldschmidt, M. Planck, H. Rubens, A. Sommerfeld, F. Lindemann, M. de Broglie, M. Knudsen, F. Hasenöhrl, G. Hostelet, E. Herzen,J.H. Jeans, E. Rutherford, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, A. Einsteinand P. Langevin.

Why, yes, all the men but British physicist J.H. Jeans have facial hair. Einstein was 32 and still three years away from first publishing on general relativity. Sixteen years later, by the 1927 conference, his hair had turned quite gray.