Was this brilliant physicist genuinely unpleasant or just misunderstood? Judge for yourself from these anecdotes.
Read our review of the new biography of Paul Dirac
Attending a meeting in a castle, a fellow guest warned Dirac that a certain room was haunted by a ghost that always appeared at midnight. 鈥淚s that midnight Greenwich time, or daylight-saving time?鈥� Dirac asked.
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Classicist John Crook tried making small talk with Dirac in the Hall of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Crook said, 鈥淐old, isn鈥檛 it?鈥� After long thought, Dirac replied, 鈥淗ow cold?鈥�
Dirac was often invited to summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace, but found them a chore. When a colleague was invited he asked Dirac how to make the most of the event. 鈥淕et a large piece of cake and sit by the lake鈥� was the reply.
Dirac often dozed during other people鈥檚 lectures, occasionally waking to make a sharp remark. An unfortunate speaker once paused in confusion: 鈥淗ere is a minus where there should be a plus. I seem to have made an error of sign.鈥� Dirac opened one eye and said: 鈥淥r an odd number of errors.鈥�
When Dirac first visited Niels Bohr鈥檚 institute in Copenhagen, his utterances consisted almost entirely of three phrases: 鈥淵es鈥�, 鈥淣o鈥� and 鈥淚 don鈥檛 mind鈥�. Later, he became more flexible. When astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar expounded his views, Dirac repeatedly interjected with 鈥淵es鈥�, but explained later, 鈥淲hen I say Yes, it does not mean that I agree; it means only that you should go on.鈥�
In 1929, Dirac sailed from America to Japan with Werner Heisenberg. During the trip, Heisenberg spent the evenings dancing while Dirac looked on, puzzled. Eventually Dirac asked his friend why he danced. Heisenberg replied, 鈥淲ell, when there are nice girls it is a pleasure to dance.鈥� After thinking for 5 minutes, Dirac said: 鈥淏ut how do you know beforehand that the girls are nice?鈥�