Involvement in the history of quantum physics and nuclear physics; thoughts on physics institutions in underdeveloped countries. Studies at University of Vienna in the early 1920s; his work at Felix Ehrenhaft's Institute until 1928; subsequent assistantship with Werner Heisenberg at University of Leipzig for four years. Conversations with Heisenberg about electrons in the nucleus; origins of Beck's interest in nuclear physics after hearing Francis W. Aston's paper on mass defect at the 1927 Volta Conference; conferences at University of Copenhagen including 1932, where, before the positron was discovered, everyone was making fun of Paul A. M. Dirac's "holes." Theory of beta decay, inability to continue work on it due to lack of additional data when going to Kansas in 1934 and Odessa in 1935. Leaves Odessa; internment in France during the war; escape to Portugal and arrives in Argentina. Also prominently mentioned are: M. Besso, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Schrd̲inger, Adolf Smekal, Hans Thirring, Joseph J. Thomson, Victor F. Weisskopf, and Hideki Yukawa.