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From Maggie Cobbett, Ripon, North Yorkshire, UK

Your special issue on quantum theory took me back to 1974, when I had the honour of shaking Werner Heisenberg’s hand. He was guest of honour at the new Heisenberg Gymnasium in Dortmund, Germany, where I was teaching English(19 April, p 29).

As I joined the line of staff to be presented to him, I was hoping for a few words to treasure. After all, he was the first – and, so far, only – Nobel prizewinner I have met. Introduced to the great man by the headmaster as “our English colleague”, I was full of anticipation, only to hear him say: “Oh, so you teach English, do you?” Then he moved on. Such is life!