3 Quotes & Sayings By Hans Bethe

Hans A. Bethe was born in Strasbourg, France, on October 30, 1906. A superb student in high school, he received a Physics Degree from the University of Strasbourg in 1926 and a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1930 Read more

In 1935, while a visiting associate professor at Columbia University, he developed a model of the energy production of stars based on stellar theory and on experimental data from the Zeeman effect on atomic absorption lines in hydrogen and helium. In 1939, after returning to Germany as a professor at the University of Hamburg, he wrote an important textbook on Astrophysics which was translated into English by the U.S. Navy in 1943 and became a standard reference work for American students of Astrophysics.

In 1945, Bethe accepted a full professorship at Cornell University where he spent his academic career until his retirement in 1983. He received many honors for his work including the Max Planck Medal in 1961 and the Enrico Fermi Award in 1967. He died in Berlin, Germany on February 20, 2005.

1
We need science education to produce scientists, but we need it equally to create literacy in the public. Man has a fundamental urge to comprehend the world about him, and science gives today the only world picture which we can consider as valid. It gives an understanding of the inside of the atom and of the whole universe, or the peculiar properties of the chemical substances and of the manner in which genes duplicate in biology. An educated layman can, of course, not contribute to science, but can enjoy and participate in many scientific discoveries which as constantly made. Such participation was quite common in the 19th century, but has unhappily declined. Literacy in science will enrich a person's life. Hans Bethe
2
I am an atheist. Hans Bethe