A Quantum of Insults

Nobel laureate physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a penchant for hurling evil zingers at other scientists

Wolfgang Pauli with Paul Ehrenfest (CERN)

By the age of 20, Viennese physicist Wolfgang Pauli had acquired the reputation of being a wunderkind, a child genius. His PhD supervisor Arnold Sommerfeld had recruited him to write an article about Einsteinian relativity for a scientific encyclopedia. The opportunity gave Pauli the chance to shine. Fellow physicists applauded…