I've seen similar stories take place when I was in grad school.
In one instance, a professor wanted to fail a student (in his qualifying exam) b/c he didn't seem to take one of his courses seriously (and showed limited knowledge of this subject area).
The prof was willing to let the student re-take the qualifying exam, but he wanted to prevent what he perceived as a student "skating through" the program.
I think that's what happened to Heisenberg here. The only reason it's remotely interesting is b/c Heisenberg is a legend and so we all feel like he deserved to be forgiven for his distaste for experimental work.
I've seen similar stories take place when I was in grad school.
In one instance, a professor wanted to fail a student (in his qualifying exam) b/c he didn't seem to take one of his courses seriously (and showed limited knowledge of this subject area).
The prof was willing to let the student re-take the qualifying exam, but he wanted to prevent what he perceived as a student "skating through" the program.
I think that's what happened to Heisenberg here. The only reason it's remotely interesting is b/c Heisenberg is a legend and so we all feel like he deserved to be forgiven for his distaste for experimental work.