Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality (Paperback)
  • Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality (Paperback)
zoom

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality (Paperback)

(author)
4 Reviews Sign in to write a review
£12.99
Paperback 464 Pages
Published: 02/04/2009
  • In stock

Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days

  • This item has been added to your basket

'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason … Take it nice and easy and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 

For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves.

In this magisterial book, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the divisive debate at its core. Quantum theory looks at the very building blocks of our world, the particles and processes without which it could not exist.

Yet for 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself.

In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.

Quantum theory is weird. In 1905, Albert Einstein suggested that light was a particle, not a wave, defying a century of experiments. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Erwin Schrodinger's famous dead-and-alive cat are similarly strange. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren't shocked by quantum theory, you didn't really understand it.

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. "Quantum" is the essential read for anyone fascinated by this complex and thrilling story and by the band of brilliant men at its heart.

Publisher: Icon Books
ISBN: 9781848310353
Number of pages: 464
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

'A super-collider of a book'. - Independent

'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason… Take it nice and easy and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens' - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

‘…the most important popular science book of the year.’ - Bookseller

‘Kumar is an accomplished writer… In Quantum he tells the story of the conflict between two of the most powerful intellects of their day: the hugely famous Einstein and the less well-known but just as brilliant Dane, Niels Bohr.’ - Financial Times

An exhaustive and brilliant account of decades of emotionally charged discovery and argument, friendship and rivalry spanning two world wars.’ - Steven Poole, Guardian

‘…it does provide a fresh perspective on the debate.’ - Press Association

‘A dramatic, powerful and superbly written history.’ - Publishing News

‘This is not an easy read. There are many concepts that… I could not come to terms with, but this is the biography on an idea and as such read much like a thriller.’ - Ham & High

‘Quantum is a fascinating, powerful and brilliantly written book that shows one of the most important theories of modern science in the making and discusses its implications for our ideas about the fundamental nature of the world and human knowledge, while presenting intimate and insightful portraits of people who made the science. Highly recommended.’ - Bookbag

‘‘Quantum’ is an interesting and informative read.’ - Physics World

‘That science is a many-splendored, sexy thing is the radiating message that comes out of this fabulous book…a pulsating narrative’. - Hindustan Times

‘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’. - Independent

‘One of the best guides yet to the central conundrums of modern physics.’ - John Banville, The Age, Australia

You may also be interested in...

Quantum Physics
Added to basket
The Elegant Universe
Added to basket
£14.99   £12.99
Paperback
Quantum Physics Workbook For Dummies
Added to basket
The Quantum Age
Added to basket
£10.99
Paperback
Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
Added to basket
Molecular Quantum Mechanics
Added to basket
Computing with Quantum Cats
Added to basket
In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat
Added to basket
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog
Added to basket
The Little Book of String Theory
Added to basket
Introducing Quantum Theory
Added to basket
A Briefer History of Time
Added to basket
Higgs
Added to basket
£11.99
Paperback
Quantum
Added to basket
£10.99
Paperback

“A must for budding physicists”

I wish this book had been available when I was studying Physics. It provides a magnificent overview of the birth and development of the quantum age, as well as an insight into the personalities of the key... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 87

“Quantum”

If you view this as a history book rather than a science book then it is very good. It gives a detailed development of early Quantum Mechanics from almost the personal perspective of two main protagonists: Einstein... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 75

“Quantum”

If you view this as a history book rather than a science book then it is very good. It gives a detailed development of early Quantum Mechanics from almost the personal perspective of two main protagonists: Einstein... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 56

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.

env: aptum
branch: