The famous atomic structure model of Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr 127th birthday marked an important day in the world of science as the Danish physicist is credited with the discovery of the atomic model. Google paid tributes to Niels Bohr by imprinting its home page with a doodle commemorating the physicist’s discovery. Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize in the year 1922 for his work while he was at Manchester University.

Bohr’s model was the first to indicate that the atomic structure was similar to the solar system, with electrons spinning around a central nucleus like planets around a sun, but with the electromagnetic force holding them together rather than gravity. Bohr also created a model of the atomic structure that stands proof to the greatness of the man to this day. Bohr, also established one of the founding principles of quantum mechanics with his idea that electrons could move to lower orbits around the nucleus in incremental steps while emitting a photon.

Niels Bohr was famous for the Copenhagen interpretation, Complementarity, Bohr model, Sommerfeld–Bohr theory, BKS theory, Bohr-Einstein debates and Bohr magneton. The Danish physicist had his own struggles as he was living in Nazi occupied territory. The Danish resistance was successful in smuggling him out of Denmark into England, where he joined the Victoria University under the apprenticeship of Ernest Rutherford, a pioneer in chemistry and nuclear physics.

Niels Bohr possessed an inquisitive mind as he said, “Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.” The scientist’s legacy was carried on by his son, Aage Bohr as he received the Nobel Prize in 1975 for the ‘discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection.’

The life of Niels Bohr can be reflected by an Einstein quote which says, “Not often in life has a human being caused me such joy by his mere presence as you did.”

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