Einstein took great offense to the public treatment of Skłodowska-Curie, writing to her: "If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don't read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom it has been fabricated." [15/19]

9.XII On this day in 1911 Henri Poincaré wrote the editor of a mathematical journal to ask if, contrary to custom, an unfinished piece of work could be published. He explained that at his age he might not be able to finish it, but that his work might provide ideas for another.

Not quantum -- but admiring this commitment to mathematical collaboration by Henri Poincaré. He truly was the "last universalist" of mathematics. Our next thread will cover the mathematics behind early quantum theory, culminating in Poincaré's 1912 paper (and his final work).

One of my scientific heroes is Paul Ehrenfest. Unlike his contemporaries like Einstein or Bohr, or younger physicists like Heisenberg or Dirac, Ehrenfest did not make anny breakthrough contributions that changed physics. His great contribution was in the consolidation and