Quantum

For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the ferocious, divisive debate at its heart. For 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself. Yet Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century. While "Quantum" sets the science in the context of the great upheavals of the modern age, Kumar's centrepiece is the conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science.'Bohr brainwashed a whole generation of physicists into believing that the problem had been solved', lamented the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. But in "Quantum", Kumar brings Einstein back to the centre of the quantum debate. It is an essential read for anyone fascinated by this complex and thrilling story and by the band of young men at its heart.

ISBN 1848310358   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781848310353 (What's this?)   Pages 464 Publisher Icon Books Ltd   Published in Duxford Imprint Icon Books Ltd   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 02 Apr 2009   Academic level General DEWEY 530.12

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2008

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