Kate and I were talking about Garrett Lisi's utopian idea of a time-share netowrk for scientists (about which more later, maybe), and I mentioned the fine tradition of great discoveries being made while on vacation. It occurred to me, though, that there's a secret history story begging to be written about one of these.
Erwin Schrödinger famously discovered the equation that bears his name while on a skiing holiday in 1925. He was accompanied on this vacation by one of his many girlfriends, but which of them went on the fateful trip has been lost to history-- Schrödinger kept exceedingly detailed diaries, but the volume covering the relevant period has been lost.
This just cries out for a Tim Powers sort of treatment, in which he turns out to have been accompanied by someone really interesting, who provided the inspiration for his great discoveries. This could be some famous real woman who might plausibly have been in Austria around Christmas 1925, or it could be a fictional character-- Diziet Sma, or some such. In the right hands, this could be a great deal of fun.
I'm not aware of anything along these lines actually existing, but pointers to such a story would be welcome. Suggestions of famous people who might've gone with him are also welcome in the comments...
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Wasn't it Catherine Cornelius?
Sma!?!
The Tim Powers book that comes closest to this is Three Days to Never which does have Einstein. I sorta think that Powers is best when he does not use real people.
Eugene Mirabelli's "The Woman in Schrödinger's Wave Equations" is a fun read thinking about that.
Yep, Newton was quite productive while on "vacation" from The Plague. And wasn't Heisenberg off on some island while working on his matrix quantum mechanics?
On the other hand, Ludwig Boltzmann committed suicide while on a beach vacation with his family, so maybe this vacation idea needs to examined more carefully.
Not quite a vacation story, and certainly not a ground-breaking discovery, but...
In grad school, I was on the verge of quitting. During a 2 hour drive to another city with my wife to see a theater performance, I worked out some equations in my head. Those equations turned into a nice little project that got me my Ph.D.
Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" books have that sort of "secret history" aspect to them, but about Newton and his contemporaries instead of Schrödinger.
The three books were a very interesting read, but not as fast-paced and fun as Powers at his best.
The booklet you are looking for is Geo. Alec Effinger's Schrödinger's Kitten (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Press, 1992).
If you remember 'Insignificance', Einstein was accompanied by Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and McCarthy {spits}.
In that style, 'Potential' would feature Schrodinger, Diziet Sma, Franz Klammer and Adolf Hitler.
Also 'Uncertainty' would have Heisenberg, Angelina Jolie, Eddy Merck and Saddam Hussein.
I've no idea why that final set came to mind.
PS - Re #3 - It's Schrodinger we're talking about so 'Women' rather than 'Woman' would be closer to the mark.