Wolfgang Pauli Dies: Quantum Pioneer Who Demanded Rigor
Wolfgang Pauli died in December 1958 in Zurich, fifty-eight years old. His exclusion principle, proposed in 1925, explained why electrons couldn't occupy the same quantum state — the reason atoms are stable, the reason matter doesn't collapse. He also predicted the existence of the neutrino in 1930, a particle so elusive he publicly apologized for inventing something that could never be detected. It was detected in 1956. He also had a documented tendency to cause equipment to malfunction near him; other physicists called it the Pauli Effect. He was admitted to room 137 of a Zurich hospital — the fine structure constant is approximately 1/137 — and commented on it before he died.
December 15, 1958
68 years ago
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