His reluctance to accept women students stemmed from his constant worry with a Russian student lest her rather exotic hairstyle result in its catching fir on the Bunsen burner.

What men could freely pursue, women had to wait for men to permit them access to.

Science alone cannot solve the mysteries of natures, he asserted, because we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery we are trying to solve. Music and art are, to an extent also attempts to solve, or at least express that mystery.