Kirjahaku

'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.

Entertaining and accessible, this book narrates the conflict between two of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. After Max Planck discovered that electromagnetic radiation and the energy of light are transmitted in small packets called quanta in 1900, Bohr applied the idea to electrons, leading to the development of quantum mechanics and to the explanation of previously unexplainable experimental results. Einstein rejected Bohr's theory, and their conflict culminated at the 1927 Solway conference. This comprehensive study of years of discovery and debate is emotionally charged, exploring friendships and rivalries that survived two world wars. Ameno y asequible, este libro relata el conflicto entre dos de los grandes intelectuales del siglo XX, Albert Einstein y Niels Bohr. Despu s del descubrimiento de Max Planck en 1900 que la radiaci n electromagn tica y la energ a de luz se transmiten en peque os paquetes llamados cuantos, Bohr aplic la idea a los electrones, lo cual llev al desarrollo de la mec nica cu ntica y a la explicaci n de resultados experimentales previamente inexplicables. Einstein rechaz la teor a de Bohr y el conflicto entre los dos culmin en la conferencia de Solway en 1927. Este estudio exhaustivo sobre a os de descubrimiento y debate est emocionalmente cargado, explorando amistades y rivalidades que sobrevivieron dos guerras mundiales.

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.