Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Hey there, and welcome back to Histories, the podcast where we dive into the strangest, most mysterious, and sometimes downright spooky moments from the past that, you guessed, it actually happened. I'm Angelo, your trusty storyteller, and today we're going to be exploring a tale that's got more science, superstition, and shattered glass than a haunted physics laboratory. This is the story of one of the 20th century's most brilliant minds and the trail of chaos that he always seemed to have left in his wake. So settle in, because things are going to get a little weird. Okay, quick question. How superstitious would you say you are? Like, would you throw salt over your shoulder if it spilled, Maybe, Knock on wood. Or would you ban one of the world's most respected scientists from stepping foot in your lab just because you're worried he'd, I don't know, blow up your equipment? Because that's exactly what experimental physicists started doing whenever Wolfgang Paulie came around. I don't know if you've heard of him, but he's the physicist so brilliant that he predicted the existence of neutrinos. He's the same guy who won the Nobel Prize in 1945 for the exclusion principle in quantum mechanics. And apparently he's also the same guy who just by standing next to a piece of equipment, could make it malfunction, catch fire, or just disintegrate entirely. They call it the Pauli Effect. And once you hear about it, you might understand why scientists actually started to believe that this curse was real.
[00:01:29] So who was this man, and what exactly did he break? Well, let's rewind a bit. Born In Austria in 1900, Wolfgang Pauli had the idea that he was practically made for theoretical physics. By his 20s, he'd already established himself as a prodigy, having published major work on quantum theory. But here's the thing. Pauli wasn't an experimentalist. He was purely a theorist. Meaning that while he was great with the ideas and math, hands on work, eh, wasn't exactly his strong suit. In fact, it became a running joke among his peers that if Pauli so much as glanced at a piece of machinery, it would start acting up. And for some reason, it actually seemed to be true. Fast forward to the University of Gottingham sometime in the 1920s. Now, Paulie wasn't even in the building when this incident happened. He was just passing through town on a train. Suddenly, inside of one of the university labs, an expensive piece of measuring equipment, short circuits, completely blows up the scientists inside, dumbfounded. But word gets around that Paulie happened to be nearby. And naturally, someone jokes it must be the poly effect. Now that might seem silly at first, but these incidents kept happening. Then the joke stopped being quite so funny as time passed. Such as when Otto Stern, an experimental physicist and fellow Nobel laureate, heard Polly was in town. He actually banned him from entering his lab. Even Paulie himself started to believe that he somehow was behind these mysterious mishaps. And I mean, why not? Here's a guy who steps into a brand new lab and suddenly beakers crack, oscilloscopes stop working, and the whole machines catch fire. During one famous incident at Princeton University, Polly was just visiting the campus, and guess what? A massive cyclotron, a particle accelerator, mind you, burst into flames and burned for six hours.
[00:03:14] Six hours. Scientists started whispering that the Pauli effect could even work through walls and over distances. Pauli became the theoretical physicist who was theoretically banned from every lab in town. But Pauli wasn't just some cosmic klutz. He was a highly respected physicist with a deeply introspective side. In fact, he had a close friendship with Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst. They talked for hours about the connections between physics and psychology, about dreams, and about what Jung called synchronicity. Events which are meaningfully related but lack a direct cause. Paulie even brought up the Paulie effect in their discussions, theorizing that his own energy might be causing these strange happenings. Maybe his inner tension, as he called it, was influencing the world around him. The effect was so notorious that in 1948, Paulie attended the grand opening of C.G. young's Institute at Zurich. As he walked in, a beautiful Chinese vase crashed to the floor, smashing into pieces. Paulie just shook his head, reportedly saying, the Paulie effect once again.
[00:04:16] So was Paulie just cursed? Did he have some strange psychic energy? Or was he really just unlucky guy around sensitive lab equipment? Well, before we go full X files here, let's dive into some theories that historians and scientists have since proposed about this. The first and probably most scientific explanation is coincidence. Yes, we humans love to find patterns, even where they don't even exist. Maybe Paulie was just present during a few unlucky incidents and legend grew from there. But then again, when everything around you keeps breaking, coincidence starts to feel a little far fetched. The second theory ties back to psychology, particularly Jung's idea of synchronicity. According to this, Pauli's belief that his own curse might have been a real psychological impact on those around him. They expected things to go wrong. When he was around and self fulfilling prophecy, they started to notice every small malfunction and mishap, even if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And then there's Pauli's own theory, psychokinesis, or the idea that his mental energy could actually influence the physical world. He mused that maybe, just maybe, the intensity of his thoughts or his psychic tension was wreaking havoc on delicate machinery. Now I won't be the first to admit it sounds out there, but remember, this is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. And he genuinely believed there was something to this idea. Over the years, the Pauli effect inspired artists, photographers and even sci fi writers. In the early 2000 and tens, photographer David Fathey created a photo series imagining the world where Paulie's ghost haunts. Cern, a massive particle the Massive Particle Physics Lab.
[00:05:47] His eerie images, blended with a twisted, broken machinery, are like a tribute to the myth of Paulie's chaotic presence. A blend of science and superstition. So where does this leave us? Was Wolfgang Paulie truly a cursed man who could just disrupt the physical world by being nearby? Or was he just a victim of his own reputation, A legend that grew until even he believed it? I mean, we'll never know for sure, but what's clear is that even amongst the most logical, rational minds in science, there's always room for a little mystery and superstition. So next time you're around sensitive equipment, maybe just give a quick nod to Polly, just in case. Anyway, that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed diving into one of the strangest and maybe funniest superstitions in science history. I'm Angelo, this is Histories, and until next time, stay curious and maybe a little cautious. See you.
