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CORVALLIS - Finn Aaserud, the director of the Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen, Denmark, will give a Horning lecture at Oregon State University that looks at the relationship between two of the 20th century's greatest physicists.

His lecture, "Bohr, Heisenberg and 'Copenhagen': Drama Meets History of Science," begins at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 14, in Weniger Hall Room 153. It is free and open to the public.

Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg are considered two of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of our time. British playwright Michael Frayn wrote an acclaimed drama called "Copenhagen" about their 1941 meeting in Nazi-occupied Denmark that came at a time when scientists were trying to develop an atomic bomb. Just why Heisenberg traveled to meet his one-time mentor is uncertain. New details of that meeting recently came to light when the Niels Bohr Archive released previously unknown drafts and notes written by Bohr that describe the encounter.

In his OSU lecture, Aaserud will discuss the basis and validity of "Copenhagen," and provide more details about the relationship between Bohr and Heisenberg. Aaserud has organized an international symposium on Bohr and Heisenberg, and is the editor of a volume that documents Bohr's political interests and activities. He also is the author of "Redirecting Science: Niels Bohr, Philanthropy and the Rise of Nuclear Physics."

The OSU lecture is sponsored by the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities. The 2002-03 Horning Lecture Series focuses on "Writing About Science and Scientists: Genres of Fact and Fiction."

OSU's history and physics departments are co-sponsoring the Aaserud lecture.

A staged reading of Frayn's "Copenhagen" will be presented on Saturday, April 12, at the Withycombe Hall Lab Theater by OSU's University Theatre. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.