The Sanitorium

For much of the titular fourth story, Erwin Schrödinger stays at a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, where he hopes the “clean air of the mountains” (122) will help to cure his tuberculosis. A doctor named Otto Herwig serves as director of the sanatorium; in turn, his daughter, Miss Herwig, is often one of his patients. Despite the health benefits of the sanatorium, its relative isolation appears to gradually disturb Schrödinger. He leaves in the midst of a winter storm, although he acknowledges that the roads are likely impassable.

Heligoland

In order to escape his severe pollen allergy, Werner Heisenberg decamps to the German island of Heligoland. On the island, he continues to study the behavior of subatomic particles. Labatut describes Heligoland as “so dry and inclement that trees barely rise from the ground and not a single flower blossoms amidst its stones” (94). While walking the...