RIP Heinz Wolff

[F]

Here you go:

Not the source I found earlier, but the same image.

[Bob Eager]

It's OK, I found it!

[Steve Walker]

There was a great interview on the radio some years ago, where Heinz Wolff talked about hos arrival in England, his years here, etc.

I remember him saying that he was due to start at university, but at the end of the war, new entrants were asked to defer entry, so that returning forces personnel could take up places that they'd missed out on. He talked about doing research at a hospital in the meantime and having it published, so that when he did attend university, in one of his final exams, he was able to answer a question and not only was he easily able to do so, but he was able to add the rider "as proved by Wolff!"

He also talked about a politician visiting the hospital. He was apparently known for having no sense of humour and never smiling, so HW made it his mission to make him smile. He apparently succeeded when the politician followed a sign at the end of the corridor reading "Bear Left" only to find a mascot there - a stuffed, upright, fully grown bear.

SteveW

[ARW]

these?

[Jethro_uk]

But science isn't "finished", and every so often the "acceptable errors" in observation can't be ignored and lead to a new understanding.

Scientists - especially prominent ones - are sometimes a better example when they get things wrong and can subsequently explain their mistakes.

I suspect the current controversy over the "Em" drive might bear fruit.

[Robin]

What Laithwaite demonstrated was counter-intuitive but explicable by classical mechanics and capable of calculation. IIRC some of his peers tried to explain this to him following his first account of the phenomena. (He aired his ideas at a RI event before the Christmas lectures in 1974.) Despite that he insisted on telling children that they were seeing things that weren't. If he had listened he could have used the same demonstrations to show children something really important: that science can explain things which are totally counter-intuitive without resort to "magic" (new forces peculiar to circular motion).

To be powered by cold fusion?

[Jethro_uk]

No quackery involved.

One suggestion I have seen is that - since Einstein says so - because energy and mass have a relationship in spacetime, the energy being put into the drive system is causing a very slight distortion in spacetime which means the drive systems centre of mass is every so slightly moved in spacetime, equating to "thrust".

That said, it may be such a slight effect (limited by the power you can pack into microwaves) that is can't be harnessed practically.

If Trumps Moon/Mars plans are serious, I'd hope research into non- chemical thrust is ramped up.

[newshound]

• another one.

I was keen on Laithwaite until then, this was possibly the first time in my life that I recognised that, however good someone's academic credentials might appear to be, they were perfectly capable of talking bollocks. Even about stuff which they ought to understand.

Probably the point at which I realised the importance of Nullius In Verba, even if I was never likely to make it to the Royal Society.

[newshound]

Lovely guy, just the same in the flesh as on TV. Met him when I was on the first series (competing against Harwell: their very complicated egg mobile was much better than ours, but we thrashed them on the catapult).

[newshound]

I must look for the link

[John Rumm]

The Egg race archive still seems to be there:

Looks like they have a couple of episodes from the first series, but not sure if yours is there?