Hugh Everett, the originator of the multiple worlds interpretation of quantum physics, was a strange fellow. He left physics when Neils (sic) Bohr refused to take his ideas seriously and went into defense work where he made millions. His son Mark Everett is lead singer for the Eels. A BBC documentary, Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives looks at father and son:
“They lived in the same house for nearly 20 years and barely spoke. The first time Mark touched his father was when he found his stiffening corpse, still in bed and still in the suit he always wore. Mark himself, unusually for a rock star, wears a suit on stage. A devout atheist, Hugh told his wife to throw his ashes out with the trash, which, after keeping them for a bit in a filing cabinet, she duly did.”
So reports Marginal Revolution.
(Thanks to investigator Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)
UPDATE: The “(sic)” above was added thanks to the suggestion in this note:
I know you didn’t write it, but it still irks me to see “Neils Bohr” in the blog post about the Everetts. Maybe a “(sic)” is in order?
Elvi Dalgaard
whose grandfather, incidentally, was taught by Bohr, so, you know, I kind of owe him.