When J. Robert Oppenheimer was studying at Göttingen, he immersed himself not only in theoretical physics but also in poetry and philosophy. His deep love for literature sometimes puzzled his colleagues—including the brilliant but famously concise Paul Dirac.
One day, Dirac reportedly told him:
“Oppenheimer, they tell me you are writing poetry. I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition. In science, you want to say something that nobody knew before, in words which everyone can understand. In poetry, you are bound to say something that everybody knows already in words that nobody can understand.”
Though Dirac saw science and poetry as opposites, Oppenheimer believed otherwise. Throughout his life, he quoted Shakespeare, John Donne, and the Bhagavad Gita—even famously referencing the latter upon witnessing the first atomic bomb test: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Perhaps physics and poetry aren’t so different after all—both seek to reveal hidden truths about the universe, just in different languages. ✨