Subject: who solved all of chemistry?

From: [email-masked] (Jack Crump, Chemistry, Albion College)
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 15:30:19 -0500

I have a dim recollection of one of the founders of quantum theory claiming
that they had solved all of chemistry and half of physics.  My recollection
was that it came from Schrodinger but a colleague suggested it was Dirac.
Can anyone enlighten me as to who said it and where the quote can be found?
Many thanks --
Jack

John W. (Jack) Crump                    e-mail:  [email-masked]
Department of Chemistry                 phone:  517-629-0253
Albion College
Albion, MI  49224

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From: Ho-Leung Ng <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 16:29:26 -0800 (PST)

The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a 
large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely 
known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these 
laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble.

- Dirac, Proc. Roy. Soc (London) 123:714 (1929)

Ho Leung Ng
University of California, Los Angeles
Molecular Biology Institute and School of Medicine
[email-masked]