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He studied with the distinguished German theoretical physicist Max Born in Gottingen and took his degree there in 1927 at the age of twenty-three. Born's recollections of Oppenheimer, which were published posthumously in 1975, were not sympathetic. Oppenheimer, he wrote, "was a man of great talent and I was conscious of his superiority in a way which was embarrassing and led to trouble. In my ordinary seminar on quantum mechanics, he used to interrupt the speaker, whoever it was, not excluding myself, and to step to the blackboard, taking the chalk and declaring: 'this can be done much better in the following manner.'" In fact, it got so bad that Oppenheimer's fellow students in the seminar petitioned Born to put a stop to it.
在哥廷根，他跟隨著名的德國(guó)理論物理學(xué)家馬克思·伯恩一同搞研究，并于1927年他23歲時(shí)在那里獲得了博士學(xué)位。1975年伯恩去世后出版的對(duì)奧本海默的回憶錄中對(duì)其毫無贊同之詞。“奧本海默，”他寫道，“是偉大的天才，我在一種令人尷尬并頻惹麻煩的方式上意識(shí)到他多么優(yōu)秀。在上我的量子力學(xué)的常規(guī)研討課時(shí)，他經(jīng)常打斷發(fā)言者，不管他是誰，也包括我在內(nèi)，然后跨上講臺(tái)，拿起粉筆，宣稱：‘用下面的方式可以把這做得更好。’”實(shí)際上，這樣做很糟糕，以至于他的同學(xué)懇求伯恩制止這樣事情的再度發(fā)生。
Quantum mechanics had been invented the year before by Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg and Paul A. M. Dirac. The next year, Dirac came as a visitor to Gottingen and, as it happened, roomed in the large house of a physician named Cario where Oppenheimer also had a room. Dirac was twenty-five. The two young men became friends—insofar as one could have a friendship with Dirac. As young as he was, Dirac was already a great physicist, and I am sure he knew it. He probably just took it for granted. However, he was, and remained, an enigma. He rarely spoke, but when he did, it was always with extraordinary precision and often with devastating effect. This must have had a profound effect on Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer was interrupting Born's seminars, announcing that he could do calculations better in the quantum theory, Dirac, only two years older, had invented the subject.
量子力學(xué)在此前一年由埃爾溫·薛定諤、沃納·海森堡和保羅·A.M·狄拉克創(chuàng)造。第二年，狄拉克到哥廷根做客，碰巧的是他下榻在一位名叫加里奧的物理學(xué)家的大房子里，奧本海默正好也住在那里。狄拉克當(dāng)時(shí)25歲。兩個(gè)年輕人成了朋友——迄今為止他是唯一能和狄拉克建立友誼的人。狄拉克如此年輕，可已經(jīng)是個(gè)偉大的物理學(xué)家了，我確信他知道這一點(diǎn)。也許他覺得無所謂。然而，他從前，直至現(xiàn)在仍然是個(gè)謎。他很少說話，但一旦開口，他的話往往極為精確，而且常常具有壓倒一切的威力。這一定對(duì)奧本海默產(chǎn)生了深遠(yuǎn)的影響。當(dāng)奧本海默還在打斷伯恩的講座，聲稱他可以運(yùn)用量子理論把計(jì)箅做得更好的時(shí)候，只比他年長(zhǎng)兩歲的狄拉克已經(jīng)設(shè)置了這個(gè)課題。
