Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality - Softcover

Kumar, Manjit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393339882 ISBN 13: 9780393339888

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Synopsis

Quantum theory is weird. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren't shocked by quantum theory, you didn't really understand it. For most people, quantum theory is synonymous with mysterious, impenetrable science. And in fact for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution, focusing on the central conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. This revelatory book takes a close look at the golden age of physics, the brilliant young minds at its core--and how an idea ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.

About this title

Review:

Lively....Chock-full of colorful characters.--Graham Farmelo

A necessary, mesmerizing and meticulous volume.--Sam Coale

[Kumar] leavens the mind-bending with sketches of the remarkable human beings involved in this godlike enterprise.--Sara Lippincott

One of the best guides yet to the central conundrums of modern physics.--John Banville, author of The Sea

Kumar is an accomplished writer who knows how to separate the excitement of the chase from the sometimes impenetrable mathematics.

A super-collider of a book, shaking together an exotic cocktail of free-thinking physicists, tracing their chaotic interactions and seeing what God-particles and black holes fly up out of the maelstrom... Provides probably the most lucid and detailed intellectual history ever written of a body of theory that makes other scientific revolutions look limp-wristed by comparison.

Kumar brings lucidity and a sense of drama to what is usually considered by lay readers as an esoteric, bubble-chambered subject. He does this without sacrificing the 'science of it' at the altar of readability. The triumphs and the tribulations, the politics and the physics, the humanity and the genius of the protagonists all collide to produce the sort of energy that we usually expect in a Le Carre thriller.

Book Description:

'If you need an improving book for the autumn, with which to impress your friends and family, look no further. Manjit Kumar, who is trained as both a philosopher and a physicist, is eminently qualified to bring off this ambitious attempt to bring the story of the discovery of quantum physics to life for the layperson. He mixes up biography, narrative history and lucid explanation of the science involved to create a highly readable account of one of the most important but impenetrable topics of twentieth century thinking.' 26.org.uk

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0393339882
• ISBN 13: 9780393339888
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448