Innovation in Physics (with Note Added Forty Years Later)
Big discoveries in physics, even when they appear to come suddenly, always require many years of preparation beforehand and many years of assimilation afterwards. (Summary revised by the author of the article.).
One of the most entertaining scientific autobiographies is a book called From Immigrant to Inventor, by Michael Pupin. The name Pupin may be seen over the door of the physics laboratory of Columbia University; for the younger physicists of today the name belongs to the building, and the man is forgotten. This is a pity for he was a colorful as well as a great man. He arrived in America from the backwoods of Hungary at the age of 16, and after various adventures became a Columbia professor when he was 34. He was born with a restless curiosity and a fixed determination to master the science of his time…
