Maurice Goldhaber

“Do you remember {{w|Antaeus}}, from {{w|Greek mythology}}? ... Antaeus was the strongest person alive, invincible as long as he was in contact with {{w|Gaia|his mother, the earth}}. Once he lost contact with the earth, he grew weak and was vanquished. Theories in physics are like that. They have to touch ground for their strength.”

“Then I went to the Cavendish and there I took Rutherford’s course in nuclear physics. He was a very dramatic lecturer and full of anecdotes. He made it come alive. So this was very impressive--also very phenomenological, everything he did; very simple derivations. I think that’s very important for the first learning and this is perhaps something students now miss. They get the theory of nuclear physics thrown at them; sometimes before they ever know there is a phenomenon they have the complete theory of it. The phenomena are not sufficiently emphasized, I think, in teaching today.”