Page 51 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Chapter 2: Portrait of three founders of the ILL
Curiosity, affection.
Your motto?
He who is active longest lives longest.
Often the replies to this type of questionnaire lack sincerity, but
that is absolutely not the case here. We see here Maier-Leibnitz’s interest for science, and more generally knowledge. He liked to say “knowing is better than not knowing”. This interest was coupled with that he had for human beings. In all recruitments I saw him perform the human qualities counted as much as the scientific expertise. This definitely contributed to the good atmosphere which characterised the institut. This said, it is clear that the strong personality of Maier- Leibnitz impressed many youngsters43, and that some were even a little afraid of him. As is often the case of strong personalities he thought much of those who had the courage to counter him This was the case for Andreas Freund, who admired him, but didn’t think he was always right. Sylvia Brűgelmann witnessed the confidence he had in his colleagues, and he appreciated their questions.
In a book “Flow” (1990) translated into French under the
title “Vivre” in 2004, by the American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi I found a reference to a small action that M.L. had invented to fill empty moments especially when he had to listen to boring lectures. He began by tapping his right thumb, then doing the same with his middle finger, index finger, ring finger and middle finger again and finally the little finger of the right hand. Then he did the same with the left hand. After this he reversed the sequence of the right and left hand. He found sufficient combinations to total 888 movements. This relieved the boredom, but was so automatic that his attention was aroused if something interesting was said. I
43 A young theoretician starting at the ILL admitted voluntarily “Each time I speak with Maier-Leibnitz I have to spend weeks reflecting on what he said to me”.
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