Dear Heisenberg,
Thank you for your kind letter. It was a pleasure for me to
attempt to evoke some memories from the old days in my small contribution to
the Festschrift on your 60th birthday. <(1)–(2)> At my age it is only
natural that I dwell more and more on thoughts of the great adventure which we
all experienced, and, as I told you in Brussels, I have in a Rutherford
Lecture, of which I hope soon to be able to send you a reprint, described some
of my memories both of Rutherford himself and of the developments that the
discovery of the atomic nucleus led to.
At the moment I am also occupied by an account requested from many quarters of the role of nuclear physics in the dark times that we all had to live through during the last war, and thereby, as with any other historical investigation, I have felt how difficult it is to form an accurate impression of events in which many have taken part. I hope that we shall <soon> have the opportunity to talk in more detail about such questions, especially in connection with the visit by you and Weizsäcker to Copenhagen in 194<1>, the background and purpose of which I am still being asked about.
Margrethe
joins me in sending the warmest wishes for a happy new year to you and all the
family.
Your
devoted
[HANDWRITTEN PAGE]
(1) Your
remarks comparing the discussions then and such as those we experienced in the
autumn at the Solvay Meeting in Brussels amused me, but I also agree that the
difference is not so great, and we are all profoundly interested to hear about
the confirmation that the most recent experiments have given of your
conclusions as regards the relative parity of the S and L
particles. We look forward to hearing more about your general views when you
come to Copenhagen in the spring. (2)