# Paul Dirac - Bristol genius



## big eejit (Feb 3, 2009)

New book on Horfield's answer to Albert Einstein:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencea...eatest-British-minds-of-the-20th-century.html


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## Gerry1time (Feb 3, 2009)

His old house is on Cotham Road isn't it, down towards the Cotham Road South end. There's a plaque on the wall. Hung out in it for a day once, didn't know who he was before that.


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## big eejit (Feb 4, 2009)

I thought he was born in Horfield / Ashley Down, where this new road is, but Wikipedia says Bishopston - but that's probably just Bishopston claiming all the good bits for themselves as usual.







Wikip also says he went to school in Cotham so maybe he moved there to get in the catchment area!


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## JTG (Feb 4, 2009)

There is much confusion as to where the Horfield/Bishopston boundary lies. Obv this is because lots of people who live in Horfield prefer to say Bishopston cos it's posher innit


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## Geri (Feb 4, 2009)

I'd say both Monk Road and Bishop Road are in Bishopston - the border (IMO) is where the Golden Lion is on one side, Nevil Road on the other.


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## strict machine (Feb 4, 2009)

*creator of parallel universes*

The house where he grew up is on Monk road, Bishopston  - there's a plaque there too. He went to Bishop Road primary round the corner and then to the Merchant venturers (later Cotham Grammar School) and was a weird antisocial genius. He was the first person to propose antimatter, which gives us the idea that there may be an opposite version of our universe out there. So he could be said to be one of the fathers of Sci Fi - he was certainly king of the geeks!


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## teuchter (Feb 4, 2009)

I was just reading about this fellow and his bad manners the other day.


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## littlebabyjesus (Feb 4, 2009)

teuchter said:


> I was just reading about this fellow and his bad manners the other day.


Not sure it was bad manners. More a question of a complete incomprehension of social etiquette. I'm sure if he were alive today, he'd be diagnosed autistic. And of course this utter disregard for social niceties helped immensely in allowing him to concentrate on what he considered important. 

We would get rid of such social misfits at our peril. They achieve things we more social beings are unlikely ever to achieve.


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## teuchter (Feb 5, 2009)

littlebabyjesus said:


> Not sure it was bad manners. More a question of a complete incomprehension of social etiquette. I'm sure if he were alive today, he'd be diagnosed autistic.



Yes, this is what the article I was reading was saying too.

The question of social ineptitude allowing great achievements is an interesting one. Sadly I think it's probably mainly limited to academic pursuits. I'm sure that most of us would agree, whatever it is we do, the people who do really well our field are those who are pretty good at the main thing they "do", but really good at the social stuff like making contacts and communicating and selling things to other people. There are always people who are "better" at the core activity but never really see great success. If you know what I mean.


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## JTG (Feb 5, 2009)

Geri said:


> I'd say both Monk Road and Bishop Road are in Bishopston - the border (IMO) is where the Golden Lion is on one side, Nevil Road on the other.



That sounds about right, so the prison marks the start of Horfield 

It's flexible though, the old Horfield police station is more like St Andrews


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## Geri (Feb 5, 2009)

I would say that Sommerville Road is in St Andrews, although it is BS7 rather than BS6.


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## Gerry1time (Feb 5, 2009)

Love the way on the council ward map, the word Horfield on the map is actually outside of Horfield ward - http://www.bristol.gov.uk/WardFinder/pdfs/horfieldmap-high.pdf


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## Meltingpot (Feb 5, 2009)

littlebabyjesus said:


> Not sure it was bad manners. More a question of a complete incomprehension of social etiquette. I'm sure if he were alive today, he'd be diagnosed autistic. And of course this utter disregard for social niceties helped immensely in allowing him to concentrate on what he considered important.
> 
> We would get rid of such social misfits at our peril. They achieve things we more social beings are unlikely ever to achieve.



True, it did. All the same though I think he'd have been diagnosed as a schizoid personality in the days before autism was well known as a diagnosis for adults (it used to be mainly employed for children). It seems there are fashions in psychiatric diagnosis.

I also think Freeman Dyson, who also had a chair at Princeton and came close to a Nobel Prize in physics,  deserves to be ranked as a great 20th century British physics genius;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson


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## butchersapron (Feb 6, 2009)

Don't forget Arthur Eddington who has a plaque in Weston.


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