Manjit Kumar - the Quantum blog

A Dutch review

2011-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

A review published earlier this year in Delachendetheoloog:

'Mijn opa las geen romans. In zijn tijd waren boeken en tijdschriften onbetaalbaar. Omdat de mensen bovendien hard moesten werken was er weinig tijd om te lezen. Hij koos zijn lectuur daarom zorgvuldig uit. Zijn voorkeur ging uit naar ‘serieuze’ boeken. Romans gingen nergens over en waren het geld en de aandacht niet waard.

Tegenwoordig is de keus tussen ‘serieuze’ boeken en ‘belletrie’ niet zo wezenlijk meer. Het aanbod van populair-wetenschappelijke boeken is inmiddels zo groot en de boeken zijn zo goed geschreven en gecomponeerd, dat je ‘gewone’ romans met een gerust hart links kunt laten liggen. Het spreekt voor zich dat het genre van het populair-wetenschappelijke boek het goed doet: wij hebben goede leraren nodig om de wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen te kunnen volgen.

Het boek Quantum van Manjit Kumar is het zoveelste bewijs van de uitstekende kwaliteit van het populair-wetenschappelijke boek. Het boek bevat alles wat een lezer zich kan wensen. Fundamentele inzichten over de inrichting van de werkelijkheid, dramatische ontwikkelingen tussen de grootste geleerden van de vorige eeuw en wijsgerige bespiegelingen over de betekenis van de beschreven gebeurtenissen.

Het boek doet het ontstaan van de kwantummechanica uit de doeken. De geschiedenis van de kwantummechanica wordt vermengd met karaktertekeningen van de belangrijkste geleerden die hebben bijgedragen aan de ontwikkeling van deze theorie en, vooral, over de scheuring die deze theorie veroorzaakt heeft tussen deze geleerden. Het hoogtepunt van dit boek is een beschrijving (alsof je er zelf bij bent) van de Solvay conferentie van 1927, wanneer Bohr en Einstein met elkaar twisten over de vraag of de kwantummechanica compleet is. Kumar bestrijdt het beeld van Einstein als een koppige, oude dwaas die meende dat de kwantummechanica onwaar was. Einstein heeft het formalisme van Heisenberg vrijwel onmiddellijk aanvaard en de experimenten hadden hem er van overtuigd dat de theorie goed was. De theorie geeft de juiste uitkomsten, maar: de theorie geeft ons niet het juiste inzicht in de werkelijkheid! En daarover ging het belangrijke debat tussen Einstein en Bohr. De vraag die de twee verdeelde was of de theorie volledig is en ons alles over de werkelijkheid zelf zegt.

Het debat tussen Einstein en Bohr was feitelijk geen strikt debat over fysische vraagstukken, maar een wijsgerig dispuut over de vraag hoe onze werkelijkheid is ingericht en over de vraag hoe diep de fysicus kan doordringen tot deze werkelijkheid. De auteur van dit boek is overigens uitstekend op de hoogte van dit deelgebied. Hij is fysicus en filosoof. Persoonlijk blijf ik het opvallend vinden dat uit zijn boek blijkt dat alle fysici in de 19eeuw en aan het begin van de 20ste eeuw een levendige belangstelling hebben voor de wijsbegeerte. Planck, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Bohr en alle anderen hebben zich, volgens Kumar, tijdens hun opleiding verdiept in het werk van filosofen. De zakelijke en anti-wijsgerige houding van Weinberg, Feynman en Hawking tref je bij Einstein en Bohr niet aan.

Volgens Niels Bohr moet een natuurkundige zich niet afvragen hoe de werkelijkheid ‘onder de oppervlakte' is. Het heeft alleen maar zin om over de wereld van het kleinste te spreken in termen van meetresultaten. Als de fysicus de beslissing neemt om bepaalde aspecten van de subatomaire werkelijkheid te meten, bemoeit hij zich actief met de natuur: de onderzoeker is niet langer een neutrale waarnemer, maar hij (bedoeld wordt: zijn meetapparatuur) maakt onderdeel uit van deze natuur. Einstein kon niet leven met deze uitleg. Hij meende dat de werkelijkheid op subatomair zich niet anders gedraagt dan de dagelijkse of ‘klassieke’ werkelijkheid. Je moet in staat zijn om de werkelijkheid zelf te bestuderen. De kleinste deeltjes hebben alle eigenschappen die ‘gewone’ tennisballen ook hebben. Het probleem was dat de kwantummechanica, ondanks dat het formalisme juist is, ons geen volledig beeld gaf van de werkelijkheid.

De Salvoy conferentie van 1927 was geheel gewijd aan de ‘nieuwe’ kwantummechanica. Alle geleerden keken naar Bohr, de koning van de kwantummechanica, en Einstein, die beschouwd werd als de paus van de fysica. Op de conferentie zelf zei Einstein weinig. Maar Bohr en Einstein logeerden in hetzelfde hotel. En in de avonden en de ochtenden waren ze niet in staat om elkaar met rust te laten. Einstein bedacht ingenieuze argumenten waaruit moest blijken dat de nieuwe fysica onvolledig is: het was een goede rekenmethode, maar beslist geen theorie die ons interessante fysische inzichten gaf in wat zich afspeelt op subatomair niveau.

De tegenvoorbeelden van Einstein hielden Bohr uit de slaap. Gedurende de nacht was hij bezig om een deugdelijk weerwoord te bedenken. Een enkele keer vond hij het antwoord pas in de ochtend. Maar uiteindelijk droogde de stroom bedenkingen van Einstein op. Hij weigerde echter om zijn standpunt te veranderen. De nieuwe theorie was in zijn ogen nu eenmaal onvolledig.
Kumar beschrijft hoe het meningsverschil tussen Einstein en Bohr zich voortsleept door de jaren heen. Waar mogelijk zochten de twee geleerden elkaar op. Maar uiteindelijk lukte het Einstein niet om formeel aan te tonen dat de theorie onvolledig is. Hij weigerde echter om zijn zienswijze te veranderen. Dit leverde hem bij de jongere generatie fysici de naam op een halsstarrige en ouderwetse man te zijn- dit strenge oordeel komt begrijpelijkerwijs voort uit teleurstelling over het feit dat de beroemdste fysicus het belang van hun werk niet wil erkennen.

Bohr en Einstein bleven vrienden van elkaar en ze respecteerden elkaar zeer. Maar de relatie bekoelde wel door het aanhoudende onderlinge meningsverschil. Einstein weigerde op het laatst zelfs om nog uitgebreid te twisten over de kwantummechanica. De laatste maal ontmoetten Bohr en Einstein elkaar bij toeval. Bohr was op bezoek bij een collega van hen die, evenals Einstein, werkzaam was op het Princeton instituut. Opeens sloop Einstein de kamer van de collega binnen om stiekum wat tabak te nemen uit de tabakspot die op tafel stond. Enige tijd later werd Einstein ziek. Hij weigerde zich te laten behandelen. Nauwelijks een jaar later stierf ook Bohr. Hoe belangrijk het oordeel van Einstein voor Bohr altijd geweest is bleek volgens Kumar uit de tekening die op het bord in zijn werkkamer stond: een van Einsteins ingenieuze tegenvoorbeelden.

Pas na de dood van Bohr en Einstein werd het geschil met fysische middelen beslecht. De jonge fysicus Bell, door Kumar op sympathieke wijze beschreven, ontdekte hoe men met een experiment zou kunnen vaststellen of non-localiteit –er lijkt op subatomair niveau geen ‘afstand’ te bestaan- een 'echte' eigenschap is van de kwanta. Uit de experimenten van Aspect blijkt vervolgens dat de klassieke visie van Einstein niet te verdedigen is.

Drama en natuurkunde zijn in dit boek zo ideaal met elkaar verweven dat je zowel de mensen die een hoofdrol hebben gespeeld goed leert kennen als de ontwikkeling van de fysica leert begrijpen en de daarmee gepaard gaande filosofische en fysische problemen. Kumar is in staat om de fysica op een zakelijke manier uit te leggen, zodat je voldoende op de hoogte bent van de problemen waar Einstein en Bohr zich het hoofd over breken. Hij bedient zich van een droge, zakelijke stijl. Zijn verteltrant is echter in het geheel niet sober. Het boek is meeslepend, wordt hier en daar zelfs ‘dramatisch’ zonder sentimenteel te worden. Zo spannend kan wetenschap dus zijn!'

If anyone out there reads Dutch, do let me know what it really says! I have a vague idea via Google translate.

Another review of Le grand roman de la physique quantique

2011-10-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

A blog review by ErMa:

'L'histoire du making of de l'équation célébrissime, ces quelques signes abstrus ayant hanté les nuits de bon nombre de taupins et qui figurent désormais au patrimoine de l'humanité :

Disons-le tout de go, ce bouquin est passionnant, car il réunit trois ingrédients essentiels :

1) Un sujet (scientifique) d'intérêt et d'envergure : l'histoire d'une révolution conceptuelle majeure dans l'histoire de l'humanité, initiée en Allemagne au début du XXe siècle. Un changement de paradigme, illustré par l'émergence à marche forcée, au fil d'expériences de pensée d'une subtilité diabolique et de confirmations expérimentales d'une précision époustouflante, d'un cadre conceptuel contraire à nos intuitions, dans lequel le déterminisme (si rassurant) n'a plus sa place. Une démarche que certains, notamment le plus illustre d'entre eux (Einstein) réfuteront avec obstination jusqu'à leur mort : "Dieu ne joue pas aux dés".

Pourtant, malgré tout, la théorie aura déjoué toutes les tentatives de remise en question et gouverne actuellement et de façon silencieuse nombre d'applications de notre vie de tous les jours, notamment tout ce qui a trait à l'électronique.

2) L'Histoire, avec un grand H. Celle encore récente (moins de cent ans). Une époque où la science européenne rayonnait sur le monde et où son épicentre se situait en Allemagne, plus précisément du côté de Göttingen et Berlin. On sait ce qu'il advint par la suite. La montée de l'hitlérisme, l'exil des savants, le désastre de la deuxième guerre mondiale, la résurgence de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique du coté de Princeton. Oui, ce bouquin a également le petit parfum amer du paradis perdu...

3) Et puis enfin, l'histoire avec un petit h. Le destin individuel d'êtres de chair et de sang qui émergent derrière les figures tutélaires désormais inscrites dans nos encyclopédies : Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac, Pauli, avec, en contrepoint de leurs fulgurances, leurs faiblesses, leurs entêtements, leurs emportements, leurs erreurs.

Au delà de la vulgarisation d'un concept - pourtant a priori pas facile à comprendre - et réussie avec virtuosité, le succès de l'entreprise tient au talent déployé par Manjit Kumar pour faire de cette matière brute un véritable roman axé sur la psychologie de personnages hors du commun rendus à leur condition d'hommes comme vous et moi, en prise directe avec le grand souffle de l'histoire.

Un bel exemple de pédagogie à méditer. A une époque où il est de bon ton de s'auto-proclamer "nul en maths", rêvons qu'il puisse s'agir d'une leçon pour les pédagogistes de tous poils, apprentis sorciers participant au suicide actuel de l'éducation nationale, soixante ans seulement après la mort d'Einstein.'

L' Express review of the French Edition of Quantum

2011-10-08T16:58:00.001-07:00

A review of the French edition of Quantum, or Le grand roman de la physique quantique as it's called in France, published in June but just forwarded to me by a friend:

'Bruxelles, octobre 1927. L'élite des physiciens de la planète est réunie au parc Léopold pour le congrès le plus important et le plus dramatique de la physique moderne. Dix-sept des vingt- neuf personnalités sont des Prix Nobel ou de futurs Nobel, dont Marie Curie, seule femme de cet aréopage d'hommes. Thème officiel : électrons et photons. En réalité, ces savants doivent accepter ou rejeter les premiers éléments de la physique quantique. Et remiser au placard les théories de la relativité qui ont valu à Einstein son prix Nobel en 1921. C'est un choc de titans, chacun affûtant ses armes pour ou contre le "quantum" pour lequel Max Planck a reçu le Nobel en 1919. La plupart de ces hommes se connaissent, ont même travaillé ensemble. Pourtant, la lutte sera sans merci. Acculé par ses pairs, Einstein se bat comme un lion.

Le talent de Manjit Kumar, physicien et philosophe, est de nous faire vivre cette bataille en direct, comme les étapes qui l'ont précédée et les années de conflit qui ont suivi. Il nous fait entrer dans l'intimité de ces génies, leurs origines, leurs engagements, leur passion pour cette science qui est en train de vivre sa plus grande révolution. On les suit depuis l'enfance jusqu'à la recherche de l'université européenne ou américaine qui veut bien les accueillir pour des travaux rarement pris au sérieux. Alors qu'ils ont donné naissance à tout ce qui fonde la modernité, depuis l'atome jusqu'à l'ordinateur. L'arrivée de Hitler au pouvoir en Allemagne force les savants juifs à s'exiler. Dans les années 1950, la commission McCarthy chasse d'Amérique les chercheurs de gauche.
L'auteur analyse avec brio les différentes thèses, expose les méthodes. Il sait aussi remettre dans son contexte l'apostrophe célèbre d'Einstein - "Dieu ne joue pas aux dés" - et l'invention par Erwin Schrödinger de ce chat mythique, vivant ici tandis qu'il est mort là-bas. Surtout, il nous fait suivre les péripéties du combat, partisans de Planck et de Bohr contre admirateurs d'Einstein. L'affrontement est si violent qu'on attend avidement chaque nouvel épisode, comme s'il s'agissait d'un film policier qui serait intitulé "le grand thriller du quantique". Aujourd'hui, alors que la théorie qui réconcilierait la relativité et la physique quantique apparaît encore comme un Graal inatteignable, il est bon de méditer sur cette épopée.'

A Review of the Spanish edition of Quantum

2011-07-27T04:55:00.001-07:00

A review of the Spanish language edition of Quantum published today by Noticias de la Ciencia y la Techologia:

'Aunque la ciencia sigue avanzando de forma imparable, hubo una época en la que la física hizo un enorme e inesperado salto adelante. Esta era brillante se cerró durante el Quinto Congreso Solvay, en octubre de 1927, donde se reunieron 29 físicos, 17 de los cuales eran o acabarían siendo premios Nobel. Basta con observar la fotografía conmemorativa de la reunión para certificar su importancia: Schrödinger, Pauli, Heisenberg, Dirac, de Broglie, Bohr, Planck, Einstein, Curie, Lorentz... Suficiente materia gris como para cambiar el mundo.

El más famoso episodio de este congreso fue sin duda el debate entre Einstein y Bohr, dos de los mayores investigadores y teóricos de la historia, y dos científicos que ofrecían visiones no coincidentes de la realidad. Hubo otros congresos Solvay, y otros encuentros entre ambos físicos, pero ninguno como el de 1927. Sus teorías rivales fueron un estímulo brutal para ellos y para sus seguidores, que así hicieron avanzar la física de forma decisiva.

En “Quántum”, Manjit Kumar nos ofrece una amplia perspectiva histórica sobre la ciencia cuántica, y nos cuenta lo que ocurrió en Solvay y entre las personalidades que allí concurrieron. Es una historia de ciencia, pero también filosófica, de rivalidades, de personas.

El libro es una obra de divulgación científica tanto como un texto de historia y una biografía. Es así como consigue atrapar al lector, quien en sus páginas aprenderá sobre física cuántica y más aún sobre los individuos que desarrollaron la teoría, en un entorno de trabajo de principios del siglo pasado.

Por esta vía, Kumar, que es también físico, ha dado a luz un libro que se ha convertido en un auténtico éxito en Gran Bretaña y otros países. Y no es extraño, pues el producto es el fascinante relato de un debate entre dos genios, y al mismo tiempo, una obra que trata de contarnos dos visiones distintas de la naturaleza de la realidad.

Sin duda, estamos ante un libro para disfrutar desde múltiples puntos de vista. El interesado por la historia de la ciencia, el amante de la física, el lector de la filosofía moderna, el estudiante, todos encontrarán algo provocador y atractivo en él. No deben perdérselo.'

You can read an extract in Spanish here.
Translation to follow once I can convince a Spanish speaker to translate...

James Hannam reviews Quantum

2011-07-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

James Hannam, author of God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science reviewed Quantum on his blog - Quodlibeta. I've taken the liberty of reproducing it below:

'Manjit Kumar’s book Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality is a difficult project triumphantly accomplished. In popular history of science, the aim is to mould the history and the science together without compromising too much on either. When the science in question is quantum mechanics, an author already has his work cut out trying to explain it to the general reader. Another challenge is that the history of the quantum is about a clash of personalities and philosophical viewpoints. Turning that into a readable story is no mean feat. But Kumar has succeeded on both fronts.

The debate at the heart of Quantum is how to interpret the strange physics of the sub-atomic world. On one side was Albert Einstein. Despite the difficulty many of us have with relativity, it is actually a well-behaved physical theory that does not require us to compromise on the basic concepts of objective reality or cause and effect. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, disposes of such foundations: it is a subjective realm where the observer appears to affect the result of experiments and where randomness is indelibly built in. Einstein could never accept this. He thought there were “hidden variables” behind quantum mechanics that would transmute it into a deterministic theory. “God does not play dice”, he said many times.

The other side of the argument was led by Niels Bohr, the greatest Dane since Tycho Brahe. Bohr developed the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum which embraced its strangest aspects. Bohr accepted that the motion of sub-atomic particles can only be predicted as probabilities and that the experimenter is part of the same system as the thing being observed. Einstein set Bohr a number of fiendish puzzles to show that quantum mechanics was inconsistent and so incomplete. But every time, Bohr solved the problem. Eventually, after Einstein’s death, the Irish physicist John Stewart Bell developed a way to experimentally test one of the quantum paradoxes called non-locality. But, to date, the theory appears to pass even this trial.

All this has left science with a massive hangover. It is not as widely appreciated as it should be that the two crowning achievements of modern physics, relativity and quantum mechanics, are completely incompatible. It is not just that they give different results. They inhabit different metaphysical universes. Scientists have tended to assume that quantum mechanics is the more fundamental theory and string theory is an attempt, unsuccessful so far, to combine it with relativity.

I have a suspicion that current crisis in physics is a function of abandoning the metaphysical framework of a deterministic and objective universe. String theory has returned to the failed ancient Greek model of pure rationalism where clever ideas can never be tested. In the meantime, anyone who wants to understand the background to the The Trouble with Physics chronicled by Lee Smolin can do no better than to read Manjit Kumar’s Quantum.

If you haven't read James's book, check it out. It was shortlisted in 2010 for the Royal Society Science Book Prize.

'a brilliant history of quantum theory'

2011-07-20T13:26:00.001-07:00

A review of Quantum by Paul Thomas on the Freedom in a Puritan Age website:

'Quantum mechanics is both one of the most important scientific theories of the twentieth century and one of the least understood, admittedly even by physicists themselves. Quantum theory challenges both the laws of ‘classical physics’ and throws up philosophical questions about our ability to truly understand, not just the microphysical world of the atom, but the everyday, macrophysical world which we inhabit.

In telling the story of quantum theory, Kumar has written a fascinating narrative history that interweaves scientific theory and individual biography against the background of broader historical events.

Kumar introduces us to not just the main adversaries around whom the debate over quantum theory revolves — Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr — but a supplementary cast of some of the greatest scientific minds of the twentieth-century: the conservative patriarch of modern science, Max Plank; charismatic New Zealander, Ernest Rutherford; dogmatic quantum theorists Werner Karl Heisenberg and Max Born; the ‘shy’ Paul Dirac; Wolfgang Pauli, known as “The Wrath of God” for his critical mind; the ‘scandalous’ (and sometime alley of Einstein) Erwin Schrodinger; and post-WWII Irish scientist John Bell, who came up with a famous theorem to test Einstein and Bohr’s positions. At the heart of the book though is Einstein, the most famous scientist in history, the man whose name has become a synonym for ‘genius’, and whose continued questioning of a theory he had helped initiate saw him become an increasingly isolated and discredited figure.

Quantum theory begins in 1900 with Max Planck’s discovery that the energy of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation could only be emitted or absorbed by matter in ‘bits’, bundled up in various sizes; ‘quantum’ being the name he gave these individual packets of energy. As Kumar says, this was a radical break from the long held belief that energy was emitted and absorbed continuously. For Planck, the quantising of energy was a pragmatic solution to another problem that he thought he would get rid of in time.

Einstein saw the revolutionary and ‘heretical’ potential of Planck’s temporary expedient. In 1905, Einstein published four papers that would eventually launch him to international stardom, including his special theory of relativity. But it was the first of these papers, in which he put forward the theory that light was made up of particle-like quanta or photons (as they were later called), that Einstein considered the most important.

In 1913, the young Bohr applied Einstein’s light-quanta theory to the electrons within an atom and their ability to emit or absorb energy; but in doing so, he violated certain tenets of accepted physics, leaving what happens within the atom completely to chance. For Einstein, it was as if one were to let go of an apple, but instead of it falling to the ground it was suspended for some unspecified length of time, before shooting off in some undetermined direction.

Nevertheless, as with Planck and his original ‘bundles’ of energy, Einstein was prepared to abandon the ‘causality’ of classical physics and tolerate random ‘probability’ for the time being, in the hope it would be removed with further scientific developments.

By the mid-1920s, however, Einstein had grown uneasy with the very probability he had introduced into the atom. It was in writing to Max Born about his theory in 1926 that Einstein expressed his growing disquiet about quantum mechanics, and in which he first uttered his famous remark that ‘God is not playing dice’. Nevertheless, he had been the unwitting inspiration for one of the greatest developments in the understanding of the quantum: Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

Heisenberg had discovered that quantum mechanics forbids the precise determination of both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given moment. The more accurately the one is measured, the less accurately the other can be known or predicted, as any attempt to measure an electron automatically interferes with its trajectory. As such, for the likes of Bohr, Heisenberg, and what became known as the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics, there can be no such thing as a quantum reality free from observation. An electron simply does not exist at any place until a measurement is performed to locate it. It is the act of observation that makes ‘real’.

For Einstein, and a few like Schrodinger, there must be an objective reality free from observation and accessible to human reason. This isn’t just a scientific question, but a philosophical one. The belief that there is no such thing as an observer-free objective reality in the atomic realm affects what we can say about nature in general and, for Einstein, risks reducing science to ‘uninspired empiricism’. However, although this is ‘the great debate about the nature of reality’ to which Kumar refers, this is an argument that is never fully had-out between the main protagonists; as Bohr, unlike Einstein, is clearly not keen to step outside the uncertainty of the subatomic realm and into a real-world philosophical debate.

Amongst the strengths of Kumar’s account is placing these debates within their historical context. The uncertainty at the heart of quantum physics reflected the uncertainty of the inter-war years, which eventually saw Einstein emigrate to the United States, and brought an end to the international conferences at which these debates took place. But Kumar’s real achievement is to rehabilitate the reputation of the later-Einstein, on whose side you have no doubt Kumar is.

From the beginning Einstein argued that quantum theory was incomplete; yet as its application became increasingly successful, he became marginalised and an almost lone voice against the increasing orthodoxy of the Copenhagen Interpretation. Today, however, many physicists would agree with Einstein that quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory. As Kumar says, although Einstein never managed to deliver a decisive blow in his encounters with Bohr, his challenge was sustained and thought provoking:

“Einstein never put forward an interpretation of his own, because he was not trying to shape his philosophy to fit a physical theory. Instead he used his belief in an observer-independent reality to assess quantum mechanics and found the theory wanting.”

Kumar has written a brilliant history of quantum theory from its origins to the present; capturing, in particular, the excitement of the interwar years as the greatest scientific minds of the twentieth-century criss-crossed Europe, between conferences and university departments, meeting in train stations to snatch every opportunity to discuss the latest theories. Quantum evokes that world and takes you into those complex debates, without distracting from a fascinating story.'

Quantum - Spanish Edition

2011-06-29T18:38:00.001-07:00

The Spanish edition of Quantum is now available online here and in bookshops throughout Spain thanks to Peter Tallack and Louisa Pritchard. Many thanks to my translator David González Raga, María Alasia and everyone else involved in its production at Kairos.

Quantum - Italian Paperback Edition

2011-06-12T14:42:00.001-07:00

The Italian paperback of Quantum was published at the end of May and is available online here at Italian Amazon and in bookshops throughout Italy. My thanks to all those involved in its production at Mondadori by especially to my Italian translator Tullio Cannillo.

Quantum paperback published in USA and Canada

2011-05-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today Quantum is published in paperback in the USA and Canada. Thanks to everyone at Norton. Love the new cover. You can buy it online here.

Quantum in paperback in French and German

2011-04-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Quantum is now available in French and German paperback editions and on sale, as they say, in all good bookshops in France and Germany.

You can buy the French here and the German here

Solvay 1927 - A film clip

2011-04-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

If you want to see some extremely rare footage of some of the participants leaving the Solvay conference in October 1927. Shot by the American Irving Langmuir, its just under 3 minutes long and shows Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, Born, de Broglie, Dirac and others after a day discussing quantum mechanics. The commentary is provided by Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, the author of an excellent biography of Max Born called The End of the Certain World.

'An Enlightening Book on Einstein and the Quantum Theory Debate'

2011-04-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

Jay Lehr, science director of the Heartland Institute reviews Quantum:

'While I was a student at Princeton University in the early 1950s I had a literally nodding acquaintance with Albert Einstein. During my freshman year he walked past my dormitory every day on his way to the Institute for Advanced Study. I often found myself on the sidewalk as he passed by, and we nodded to each other. I have read many an interesting biography of his life since, but none more interesting than Quantum, by Manjit Kumar.

Quantum is a biography not just of Albert Einstein’s life but also his thought processes. It also provides insight into the dozens of famous theoretical physicists who influenced and aided him in his work.

Complex Science Explained
Quantum theory, which attempts to describe the atomic and subatomic worlds, is for most people a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. For many years it was equally baffling for the world’s most brilliant physicists. Here the author gives us a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution and the divisive debate at its core.

Simply reading Quantum may not make one an immediate expert on quantum theory, but the chronology of every great contribution to the physics of quantum theory—beginning in 1858 and continuing to the present—will be worth the price of the book.

The most complex and difficult-to-understand intricacies of quantum theory in no way reduced the joy I felt in reading this book and following the journey of so many great scientists as they researched and published their discoveries. Interestingly, these discoveries were not often verified in a laboratory, but they were agreed upon because they accorded with physical observations and allowed for reasonable mathematical solutions.

Interesting Narratives, Theories
In one of the most compelling discussions in the book, Kumar describes a conference held in Belgium in 1927. Of the 29 people invited to the conference, 17 went on to receive the Nobel Prize. At times Kumar made me feel like I was in the room. Heisenberg, Planck, Born, and Schrödinger came alive for me as I read these passages.

In an enlightening scientific discourse, Kumar explains the concept of entanglement, a quantum phenomenon in which two or more particles remain inexorably linked no matter how far apart they are. He also explains the intriguing quantum theory in which Dr. Schrodinger’s cat can be simultaneously dead and alive.

Quantum is not a book for everyone. But if you have a great deal of scientific curiosity and enjoy reading about some of the greatest scientific minds in history, you will certainly enjoy this book.'

Original review can be read here.

Edinburgh International Science Festival

2011-04-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

A review of my talk at the Edinburgh International Science Festival by Keir Liddle of The 21st Floor:

'In front of a packed auditorium Manjit Kumar takes to the stage. Behind him is displayed an image of the “first team” of physics: Einstein, Bohr, Dirac, Planck, Curie, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and the other luminaries that attended the famous Solvay conference in 1927. Arguably the greatest minds working in the field gathered together in one place. Einstein alone being the most famous and well known physicist since Newton for his theory of relativity.

This conference was a pivotal point in quantum physics and one at which quantum theories two prize-fighters, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, did battle with various thought experiments to test Bohrs Copenhagen interpretation. According to this interpretation of quantum physics you can only say a particle exists when you try to measure and observe it. Einstein took exception to this as he believed that the universe did not simply go away when you did not observe it.

“I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.”

Manjit weaved together the intriguing tale of the people who were behind the biggest discoveries in the physics of the incredibly small with an affable style and a genuine affection for the subject. Too often science and scientists can appear cold, distant and removed from human endeavour and it is valuable and important that Manjit reminded us that scientists are driven by human motivations, ambitions and that there is a very human joy in exploring and understanding the fundamental principles of the universe.'

The Meeting of Minds

2011-03-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

I first saw the photograph of those gathered at the fifth Solvay conference, which was held in Brussels from 24 to 29 October 1927, in a biography of Albert Einstein. This was in 1979, when I was just 16. I wondered what brought these people together, and soon learned that the picture included most of the key players involved in the discovery of the quantum, and the subsequent development of quantum physics. With 17 of the 29 invited eventually earning a Nobel Prize, the conference was one of the most spectacular meetings of minds ever held.

When I was 18, I was given a print of the above photograph as a present. Many years later I began to think about it as a possible starting point for a book about the quantum. In the photograph there are nine seated in the front row. Eight men, and one woman; six have Nobel Prizes in either physics or chemistry. The woman has two, one for physics, awarded in 1903, and another for chemistry, awarded in 1911. It could only be Marie Curie. In the centre, the place of honour, sits Albert Einstein. Looking straight ahead, gripping the chair with his right hand, he seems ill at ease. Is it the winged collar and tie that are causing him discomfort, or is it what he has heard during the preceding week? At the end of the second row, on the right, is Niels Bohr, looking relaxed with a half-whimsical smile. It had been a good conference for him. Nevertheless, Bohr would be returning to Denmark disappointed that he had failed to convince Einstein to adopt his Copenhagen interpretation of what quantum mechanics revealed about the nature of reality.

Instead of yielding, Einstein had spent the week attempting to show that quantum mechanics was inconsistent, that Bohr's 'Copenhagen interpretation' was flawed. Einstein said years later that:

This theory reminds me a little of the system of delusions of an exceedingly intelligent paranoic, concocted of incoherent elements of thoughts.

It was Max Planck, sitting on Marie Curie's right, holding his hat and cigar, who discovered the quantum. In 1900 he was forced to accept that the energy of light, and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation, could only be emitted or absorbed by matter in bits, bundled up in various sizes. 'Quantum' was the name Planck gave to an individual packet of energy, with 'quanta' being the plural. The quantum of energy was a radical break with the long-established idea that energy was emitted or absorbed continuously, like water flowing from a tap. In the everyday world of the macroscopic, where the physics of Newton ruled supreme, water could drip from a tap, but energy was not exchanged in droplets of varying size. However, the atomic and subatomic level of reality was the domain of the quantum.

Bohr discovered that the energy of an electron inside an atom was 'quantised'; it could possess only certain amounts of energy and not others. The same was true of other physical properties, as the microscopic realm was found to be lumpy and discontinuous. Not some shrunken version of the large-scale world that we humans inhabit, where physical properties vary smoothly and continuously, where going from A to C means passing through B. Quantum physics, however, revealed that an electron in an atom can be in one place, and then, as if by magic, reappear in another without ever being anywhere in between, by emitting or absorbing a quantum of energy.

By the early 1920s, it had long been apparent that the advance of quantum physics on an ad hoc, piecemeal basis, had left it without solid foundations or a logical structure. Out of this state of confusion and crisis emerged a bold new theory; known as quantum mechanics, with Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, third and sixth from the right in the back row, leading the way. In 1927 Heisenberg made a discovery. It was so at odds with common sense that he initially struggled to grasp its significance. The uncertainty principle said that if you want to know the exact velocity of a particle, then you cannot know its exact location, and vice versa.

Bohr believed he knew how to interpret the equations of quantum mechanics; what the theory was saying about the nature of reality. Questions about cause and effect, or whether the moon exists when no one is looking at it, had been the preserve of philosophers since the time of Plato and Aristotle. However, after the emergence of quantum mechanics they were being discussed by the twentieth century's greatest physicists.

The debate that began between Einstein and Bohr at the Solvay conference in 1927, raised issues that continue to preoccupy many physicists and philosophers to this day; what is the nature of reality, and what kind of description of reality should be regarded as meaningful? 'No more profound intellectual debate has ever been conducted', claimed the scientist and novelist CP Snow. 'It is a pity that the debate, because of its nature, can't be common currency.'

When Einstein and Bohr first met in Berlin in 1920, each found an intellectual sparring partner who would, without bitterness or rancour, push and prod the other into refining and sharpening his thinking about the quantum. 'It was a heroic time,' recalled Robert Oppenheimer, who was a student in the 1920s. 'It was a period of patient work in the laboratory, of crucial experiments and daring action, of many false starts and many untenable conjectures. It was a time of earnest correspondence and hurried conferences, of debate, criticism and brilliant mathematical improvisation. For those who participated it was a time of creation.'

Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Born, Pauli, De Broglie, Dirac, the leading lights of the quantum revolution, are all there in that picture.

Originally posted on Nature.com

Paperback of American Edition

2011-03-15T20:27:00.001-07:00

This is the cover of the US paperback edition to be published by Norton on 9 May 2011. My thanks to all involved in its production.

French Edition of Quantum

2011-03-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

The cover of the forthcoming French edition. Soon I'll post a round-up of Quantum related stuff from recent months.

Quantum makes Booklist's Top Ten for 2010

2010-11-30T02:53:00.000-08:00

Quantum chosen as one of the top ten science and technology books of the year by Booklist. They say: 'Kumar illuminates a pivotal episode––Bohr’s triumph over Einstein in their debate over quantum physics––in an accessible and dramatic mix of biography, history, and science.' See the full list here.

Amazon Reader's Review: 'Feeds the brain and the heart'

2010-11-19T04:49:00.000-08:00

Steve from Cardiff had this to say about Quantum on amazon.co.uk:

'Like a good novel, this kept me gripped to the very end thanks to a perfect balance between hard science and human interest. The first thing you notice about the book is the detail. Copiously researched, Kumar has pulled together a truly impressive array of material, both personal and professional, constructing a rich history that transports you to the subject's golden age and to the lives of the key players. He tells a story so engrossing and so detailed that I felt surprisingly moved towards the end. Yes, by a book on quantum theory.

In terms of the science, there are some first-class explanations from blackbody radiation and the photoelectric effect through to EPR and Bell's Theorem, with 30+ pages of end notes. Although the history is structured around the debate between Einstein and Bohr, other key players are afforded considerable coverage - not just the obvious ones like Planck, Rutherford, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, de Broglie and Born, but also (and to his credit) some of the lesser known figures - Sommerfeld, Uhlenbeck, Compton - whose crucial contributions to the field frequently go unmentioned in books and articles on this subject.

The great debate itself is a tremendously invigorating one. Both Einstein and Bohr agreed that quantum mechanics was correct. Where they disagreed was in whether or not it was complete. In fact the implications of this disagreement went deeper, calling into question the fundamental role of physics itself, and whether there is even such a thing to be measured as an independent objective reality. On this, the author's background in physics and philosophy are put to good use. Overall then, this is a captivating fusion of science, history, philosophy and biography, and a great way to feed the heart and the brain.'

Top Ten Science Books for 2010 on Amazon.com

2010-11-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

Quantum makes the list of the top ten science books on Amazon.com at number 5. See the full list here.

'This book may be dangerous to your health,' warns reviewer

2010-09-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Jeffery Bairstow, contributing editor of Laser Focus World had to this say about Quantum:

"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics," claimed Nobel laureate Richard Feynman in 1965, some 10 years after Albert Einstein's death. Not even the great father of atomic science himself could have risen to the challenge of sorting out atomic physics just after completing his theses on relativity. "I thought a hundred times as much about the quantum problems as I have about general relativity problems," said Einstein, in the late 1930s. The quantum literally became Einstein's demon.

But wait a minute–now comes a thick new book that purports to cover all you need to know on the thorny subject of quantum mechanics. The book is Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, by Manjit Kumar. Warning: This book may be dangerous to your health. I almost could not put this book down–I began missing meals and ignoring family member needs.

For once, here is a well-written and highly informative book on a difficult subject. Over the years, I have examined several books by leading authors in this field, but this is the only one that lives up to its title. By reading this book, you may find that you have developed an informed layman's view of quantum mechanics. The book reads more like a novel than a beginning textbook for vigorous demos of proofs.

The book differs from conventional biographies in that it uses a timeline from the days of the pioneers (J.J. Thomson of Britain, Max Planck of Germany, etc.) to contemporary scientists (Anthony Leggett, Richard Feynman, etc.). So what you are reading seems to be a series of essays about Max Planck and the "gang of nine." In rough historical order, the list looks like this: Planck, Rutherford, Pauli, Heisenberger, Bohr, Schrodinger, Einstein, Dirac, Marie Curie, and Bragg. Some list!

Before you read this book, I recommend that you take close look at the first of the B&W photos in the middle of the book. This is a splendid group photo taken at the fifth Solway conference, in October 1927. The two dozen attendees comprise all the key researchers in the field plus a few observers sent to keep their professors abreast of new developments. The assembled brain power is staggering! These meetings were sponsored by Ernst Solvay, a Belgian industrialist who made a fortune from the manufacture of sodium carbonate.

Such "quantum summit meetings" were key conferences for the leading scientists of that time. But there were many larger formal meetings held in London, Berlin, Copenhagen, and other major cities. For example, it was not unusual to have a thousand attendees at the London meetings of the distinguished British Royal Society.

Often the meetings were also supported by leading celebrities of the day. For example, in 1930, the playwright George Bernard Shaw was the master of ceremonies for a lavish fund-raising event at the plush Savoy Hotel in London. Einstein was the guest of honor. Shaw wittily commented that, given the intellectual firepower in the room, "I had to talk about Ptolemy and Aristotle, Kepler and Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, gravitation, and relativity and modern astrophysics, and heaven knows what…"

Shaw then summarized the current state of play as "Ptolemy made a universe which lasted 1,400 years. Then Newton also made a universe which lasted 300 years. Einstein has made a universe and I can't tell you how long that will last." Einstein laughed as loudly as anyone at Shaw's witticisms.

Kumar deftly interposes the developments in quantum physics with the rarely described personal lives of the major players. This combination of the scholarly work with the personal events is rarely attempted with physicists, but Kumar succeeds where others have failed miserably. His sweep is both broad and narrow with surprising success.

Quantum in the USA

2010-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Quantum reviewed in The LA Times on 8 August:

'If thinking about the quantum theory doesn't make you schwindlig (dizzy), then you haven't understood it, Niels Bohr, its great patriarch, famously (well, famously among physicists) remarked. Quantum mechanics lies at the subatomic base of physical reality — and ruptures any attempts to visualize it. This doesn't worry many physicists, who use quantum mechanics to correctly calculate the behavior and attributes of the stupefyingly small and choose to disregard its weirdness. It certainly doesn't worry most nonphysicists; we go about our lives anyway, heedless of the Problem. It worried Albert Einstein profoundly until the day he died. Are you smarter than Einstein?

The British science writer Manjit Kumar has written an intellectual history of the upending, in the 1920s, of classical, Newtonian physics, whose descriptions of an objective, causal reality coincide with our intuition. But quantum theory is counterintuitive. It tells us that a subatomic particle — an electron, say — is in no particular place until it is observed. (Since you cannot see an electron, "observed" here means determining its position experimentally.) It tells us that if you want to know how fast the electron is traveling, then you will have to give up knowing just where it is. It tells us, even, that an electron can be in two places at the same time. The same electron. The various predictions that quantum theory makes have been confirmed in countless experiments.

I recall having all this explained to me in the mid-1960s, over a three-hour lunch in an Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan, by a frightened science journalist who had just learned that the bit about finding an electron in two places at once had been confirmed by the so-called double-slit experiment. Suffice to say that contemplating this made me and my lunch partner so schwindlig that by the last half-hour neither one of us was sure that the other was actually there. What Bohr might also have said is that once you grasp, however dimly, the implications of quantum theory, your life will never be the same.

This is a very good and thorough history of the quantum revolution, which is not to say that it's a particularly easy read. Unlike many books about physics for laymen, there are no equations in it — except for a couple of "simple" ones about an inch long describing the uncertainty principle, Werner Heisenberg's discovery that you cannot simultaneously determine the position and momentum of a subatomic particle. But the ideas are difficult, as you might expect from the book's subtitle, heralding "the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality."

The principals in this great debate are Bohr, whose physics institute championed the counterintuitive "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum physics, and Einstein, who objected to Bohr's "renunciation of the representation of a reality ... independent of observation." Einstein believed, to put it simply, that an electron exists — and exists in a particular place — regardless of whether it is being observed. Bohr, and his disciple Heisenberg, believed that "until an observation or measurement is made, a microphysical object like an electron does not exist anywhere," and that "it was no longer possible to make the separation that existed in classical physics between the observer and the observed."

Kumar leads the reader as carefully as he can through the thicket of permutations that led to the completion of the theory and its eventual experimental confirmation (although his description of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, a vain attempt to dethrone it, may make you feel as if you're meeting yourself coming and going). He leavens the mind-bending with sketches of the remarkable human beings involved in this godlike enterprise. Among them: Max Planck, the "reluctant revolutionary" who discovered and named the quantum in 1900, when he was "forced to accept" his own data showing that radiation is emitted and absorbed in packets. The insouciant Heisenberg, young enough to be able to turn his back on classical concepts with no regrets. Erwin Schrödinger, 14 years older, who invented a rival mechanics while vacationing with his mistress in the Alps and refused to accept nature's fundamental discontinuity — even to the point of collapsing on a visit to the Bohrs after a marathon debate with his host ("Bohr sat on the edge of the bed and continued the argument" ). And the acerbic Wolfgang Pauli, nicknamed "The Wrath of God," whose intelligence scared people and who read Einstein's papers on general relativity under his desk in high school "when bored by a particularly tedious lesson."

Pauli is said to have rocked back and forth while he was thinking hard. You might try this on your way through Kumar's book. It's a wonderful trip and one you should embark on if you're interested in just what exactly is at the bottom of the garden.'

Quantum - an audio review

2010-08-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

From Tower Review

'Leaping into the history of quantum theory'

2010-08-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

A review from the Providence journal in the US:

'Something deeply hidden had to be behind things,” Albert Einstein thought as a child, thereby expressing the human need and compulsion to see through, behind and beyond the world that we inhabit in order to discover religious truths, scientific laws or cosmic visions.

In this clearly written and understandable analysis of quantum theory, the major discovery of 20th-century physics, Manjit Kumar, who has degrees in both philosophy and physics and is the author of “Science and the Retreat from Reason,” tackles an epic task and interweaves his chronological saga with biographies and backgrounds of all the major physicists who were involved — from Einstein, the “Pope,” to Niels Bohr, the Danish “King,” from Paul Dirac’s silences to Wolfgang Pauli’s sarcastic asides, from French princes to German professors, laboratories and “thought experiments” to the quantum leaps of physicists from the major universities and institutes in Munich, Gottingen, Copenhagen and Berlin.

When Max Planck in 1900 discovered the quantum, “the indivisible packet of energy,” as well as matter, he was unaware that he had destroyed centuries of Newton’s mechanical, deterministic and materialistic vision of the cosmos, undermining notions of gravity and clearly defined orbits.

In 1905, Einstein discovered that light was a particle, made up of quanta, and thus upended the century-long belief in light as a wave, though Newton had thought in terms of particles of light as well. Einstein went on to conjure up relativity, in which matter and energy, forever separate before 1905, became interchangeable, limited only, as in all things, by the speed of light.

Kumar makes the fifth Solvay conference in Brussels in October 1927 the centerpiece of this fascinating, intriguing tale of speculations made and shattered, friendships formed and strained, lavish correspondences that exploded and collapsed, and the heady rush to publish papers in leading journals in order to stake out the latest possible theory and reveal yourself on the cutting edge of the new, confounding vision of the subatomic world.

Politics also intervenes, with the Nazis condemning “Jewish physics” and the flight into exile of many German scientists. At that conference, Einstein and Bohr squared off in terms of what all the quantum mechanics, matrices and wave equations meant, wrestling with one another’s theories in terms not of animosity but of camaraderie.

Bohr had decided that everything was both a particle and a wave — the central conundrum of quantum theory — mutually exclusive but necessary. However, one could measure the radioactive traces of electrons and photons on photographic screens only as particles or waves, never simultaneously. Because he believed that the act of measurement always interferes with and disturbs what we are seeing, we can only see snapshots of the quantum realm. “An unobserved electron does not exist,” he declared. Uncertainty, discontinuity, chance and accident govern all things. Only statistical probabilities worked.
Einstein, on the other hand, believed that the subatomic realm exists independent of human observation. Quantum theory had proved itself, but it was incomplete, and that possibility of incompleteness has dominated the study of physics ever since. How does measurement interfere? Is there a border between the quantum realm and our own?

Kumar has done a splendid job of explaining complex theories and describing the people involved with discovering them, mired in cultural and historical upheavals that haunted all of them. This is a necessary, mesmerizing and meticulous volume.'

'Pulsar' on Quantum

2010-08-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

'Pulsar' from Belgium on the League of Reason site gave Quantum this stellar endorsement:

‘I just finished "Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality", by Manjit Kumar.

It's one of the best pop-science books I've ever read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The book describes the history of quantum mechanics, notably the first three decades of the 20th century, and all the major characters involved - physics, biographic info and European history are intertwined into a real page-turner. It's absolutely fascinating to see how Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford, De Broglie, Born, Pauli, Dirac, Heisenberg and Schrodinger constantly inspired each other in their obsession to understand atoms and radiation.

The central part is the Great Debate between Einstein and Bohr about the Copenhagen Interpretation of QM, the relation between physics and reality, and Bell's theorem to test the completeness of the theory. I must say, this book shows Einstein's views of QM in a way I knew little of. Often, Einstein is depicted as a relic who couldn't keep up with the latest physics and never really 'got' QM. But in reality he knew damn well what he was doing (and he convinced Schrodinger, who came up with his cat thought experiment). The standard interpretation of Bohr has dominated the teaching of QM ever since, but this book asks the question whether this domination is really justified. It might be time for a new revolution in physics...

A must-read!’

Book addict on Quantum

2010-08-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

'Addicted to books' blogger Tracy had this to say about Quantum:

'This book is a gem, a history of quantum mechanics, not just about Einstein and Bohr, but about those other giants of physics and their discoveries - Planck's original accidental discovery of the quantum, Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus, de Broglie's wave-particle duality, Pauli's exclusion principle, Heisenberg's uncertaintly principle, and Schrödinger's wave equation (and infamous cat). More than this, Kumar's book brings those Nobel prize-winning scientists to life - Heisenberg's rivalry with Schrödinger, Pauli, the sharp-witted Austrian who rarely surfaced before noon, de Broglie, both a German prince and a French duke and the quiet Englishman Dirac, bullied by his overbearing father.

Having brought you up to speed on the nature of quantum mechanics, lucidly explaining both the experimental evidence and the thought experiments beloved of Einstein, the author then hits you with the real argument, the interpretation of quantum mechanics: What does it really mean? What is the nature of reality? In the 'observer-independent reality, quantum theory is incomplete ' corner was Einstein, whereas Bohr and the majority of quantum physicists at the time were very much in the 'probablistic, observer-dependent reality' corner - Einstein's famous argument that 'God does not play dice with the Universe' countered by Bohr's response of 'But still, it cannot be for us to tell God, how he is to run the world.' And still the debate continues.

Manjit Kumar's book explains the science and the arguments beautifully-clearly and fairly. Highly recommended to anyone who likes science history and essential reading for anyone who is studying any kind of science. The kind of book that really does make you feel slightly more intelligent after you've read it, for a few weeks, anyway, until you forget Pauli's exclusion principle (no two electrons in an atom can occupy the same quantum state), de Broglie's equation linking wavelength and momentum gradually fades, Planck's constant, h, draws a blank and all you're left remembering is Schrödinger's cat, his famous thought experiment about a cat in a box, whose fate is determined by random radioactive decay of an atom.'

Lessons for today from the Golden Age of Physics

2010-08-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Norman Lewis posted this insightful piece at www.futures-diagnosis.com which I'm taking the liberity of reprinting here:

WHEN RESEARCH MAKES QUANTUM DEVELOPMENT SENSE
The call this week by Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, for a sweeping review of the UK’s £4bn-a-year science budget to emphasise projects with the potential to bring short-term industrial benefits, has sparked a fury amongst scientists. (See ‘Common room clashes with boardroom on science budget’, Financial Times. This is precisely what we warned against in the Big Potatoes Manifesto where we argue in principle 4 ‘For Useless Research’ that research remains the bedrock upon which the flow of innovation ultimately depends – a bedrock that is increasingly being questioned and undermined in our short-termist recessionary times.

Lord Browne’s instrumentalism certainly makes re-stressing this point timely and urgent. But the correctness of this fundamental research proposition was forcibly driven home to me during my recent holiday when I had the luxury and sheer delight of reading Manjit Kumar’s tour de force Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality .

This is an absolute must for all those supporters of Big Potatoes. It describes in a remarkably entertaining and accessible fashion, the history of science’s fundamental revolution – quantum physics and mechanics – and the remarkable intellectual battle between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr and other brilliant young scientists who were at the heart of this inspiring story.

More importantly, it reveals some critical insights into the processes and interactions that led to a scientific revolution which gave rise to the innovations we now take for granted: the transistor, the computer, the World Wide Web, the communications revolution.

UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES
Kumar shows that when these great physicists formulated quantum mechanics from 1900 to 1930, they were trying to understand the fundamental laws of the universe, not invent something of great economic importance. Their quest was the sheer beauty of solving some of the most baffling and abstract theoretical questions. The implications of their quest were so far-reaching it impacted almost everything, transforming sister disciplines like chemistry, for example. Today, all chemists and material scientists are trained extensively in quantum mechanics. Biologists like Francis Crick, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of DNA, realized many years ago that the laws of physics and quantum mechanics ultimately govern even biology.

Quantum mechanics is necessary to engineer solid-state devices such as transistors, which are the building blocks of electronics and computers. Understanding semiconductors (the building blocks of transistors), or any material cannot be fully grasped with classical physics alone (i.e. physics known before the discoveries of quantum mechanics and relativity). Without quantum mechanics, the “information age” (and much of modern science) would not exist today. The inventions of the computer, the transistor, the World Wide Web and the laser used in fibre optics, (the basis for a global telecommunications industry) owe their existence to quantum mechanics and are worth trillions of dollars.

But to stress this point again, these were unexpected outcomes. The pursuit was science, the quest for purity and the beauty of an unassailable proof – and a closer approximation of reality.

There were three things about the book that really caught my attention, which are so germane to the debate we have started with the Big Potatoes Manifesto:

THE ‘LIMITS’ OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
Kumar relates the story about Max Planck, the father of Quantum who at the age of sixteen enrolled at Munich University to study physics because of his burgeoning desire to understand the working of nature. Planck spent three years at Munich which were to have a big impact on him, mainly because he was advised to give up physics as ‘it is hardly worth studying physics anymore’ because there was nothing important left to discover. Planck went on to become the father of quantum mechanics because, as he discovered, there was certainly a lot more to discover about how the world works. Planck reacted against the narrowness and conservatism of his peers. He defied the attitude, which we seem to accept today, that mankind had somehow reached the limits to knowledge. Instead his openness and willingness to question existing orthodoxy unleashed a scientific revolution, the creation of new knowledge and ultimately, the development of remarkable innovations that changed life in the 20th century.

PEERS COMMITTED TO THE GREATER GOOD
The second striking point Kumar brings out in his examination of the interaction of this extraordinary group of scientists was their willingness to engage each other as professionals in a common quest for truth. First, what united them was a belief in objective truth. Second, that despite different opinions (and often bitterly at odds) they were nevertheless united as pioneers committed to something greater than themselves.

This is illustrated by the example of Max Planck’s endorsement of Einstein for membership of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1913 despite fundamentally disagreeing with his position on light-quanta. Planck’s proposal contained the following paragraph: ‘In sum, it can be said that among the important problems, which are so abundant in modern physics, there is hardly one in which Einstein did not take a position in a remarkable manner. That he might sometimes have overshot the target in his speculations, as for example in his light-quantum hypothesis, should not be counted against him too much. Because without taking a risk from time to time it is impossible, even in the most exact natural sciences, to introduce real innovations’ (p52)

Not only do we see a remarkable willingness to recommend a fellow scientist despite disagreeing with him but the clear connection between disagreements and risk as critical to scientific advance.

What a stark contrast with today where contestation is regarded as a religious infraction against ‘truth’ (as in the ‘Climategate’ debacle) and where risk is consciously prevented by concentration on what we already know or what Lord Browne thinks can be safely developed. Planck reveals what science is really about in contrast with today’s instrumentalism and manufacture.

THE BEAUTY AND NOBILITY OF SCIENCE
The third and final striking point in the book is the nobility of the young scientists involved in this rich period of scientific discovery. For them, as in the example of Ernest Rutherford, exploiting their research for financial gain was seen as a distraction from the really important goal of making a scientific reputation for themselves. Rutherford who had started working on the detection of ‘wireless’ waves (radio waves) chose instead to pursue his academic passion (in contrast to others working in this field like the Italian Guglielmo Marconi who amassed a fortune).

This is not to suggest that exploiting scientific discoveries were wrong or that the people who did were somehow flawed. Far from it. It highlights how the pursuit of science requires those types of individuals who regard it as a noble calling and are given the freedom to pursue it regardless of measurable outcomes (as we would have it in today’s crude management-speak). Kumar reveals how the young men at the centre of the quantum revolution were driven not only by their own self- belief (and no doubt, huge egos), but also by the pursuit of something greater than material wealth – a belief in scientific and human progress.

Of course that is precisely what is being questioned today, which is why the media concentrates its attention on the exploiters of science rather that present-day pioneers. So the founders of Google are feted for creating Google whereas in the past we would be looking for the scientific contribution they might have made towards humanity’s body of knowledge. Today we celebrate exploitation rather than the wonder of science underpinning these achievements.

The question this raises is how we will ever create a culture that places greater value in the pursuit of knowledge rather than on its results?

As the world discovered through Max Planck, everything had not been explained. Kumar’s book is a great reminder that there is no such thing as natural limits and that the worst dimension of a culture of limits is that it constrains the thing we have an abundance – human ingenuity, perseverance and the noble ability to rise above petty egos, jealousies and parochialism to benefit humanity as a whole.

Kumar’s book is definitely Big Potatoes and should be read widely.

Born with Quantum history in the family

2010-08-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

Carey Born, the granddaughter of the Max Born, the great quantum physicist who was instrumental in the development of matrix mechanics (he even taught Heisenberg what a matrix was) and put forward the probabilistic interpretation of Schrodinger's wave function (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize) wrote this on amazon.co.uk:

'Manjit Kumar has produced a brilliant, insightful account of the quantum story. Through a compelling narrative he interweaves the ideas, events and personalities involved in the paradoxical quest for the truth about uncertainty. The book is a fascinating read about this tumultuous and revolutionary period in the history of science. Highly recommended'.

Another reader's view of Quantum

2010-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

'A brilliant read', says Steve Carleysmith on amazon.co.uk

'I found this a fascinating read. If you are interested in how science works and the power of personalities, you will love this book. Using really well researched personal details of the lives of the key figures, Kumar shows how quantum science developed and led to the scientific and philosophical conflict between Bohr and Einstein - a debate that continues to this day. What is real and what is only observed? Kumar blends biography and quantum theory, covering probably the most exciting period in the development of science and thought.'

'A book that is very difficult to close... maybe it's in a state that is both open and closed until you look at it, who knows?'

2010-08-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

It was the the title of this review by C.A. Whitfield on amazon.co.uk that caught my eye. He or she writes:

'This has to be one of the most gripping non-fiction books I have ever read! It reads like a well-organised narrative and there is rarely a dull moment in the entire book, although the author did have plenty to work with. As well as the emergence of this controversial 'quantum physics' the scientists had to compete with the outbreak of two world wars, it was not an easy time to be a theoretical physicist.

The chapters each focus on a different player in the quantum debate so that the reader gets a taste of the characters' backgrounds and their individual work that all led to the great breakthroughs that were made. This means that by the point in the story when all the characters are starting to meet and debate the implications of quantum mechanics, the reader finds they know their personalities and are compelled to find out who comes out on top.

Any physics that is mentioned in the book is explained thoroughly and generally only goes into as much detail as is necessary for the reader to understand the debate. This can get slightly tedious at times for anyone with a background in physics but it does mean that the book is suitable for anyone.

Overall, it is a fascinating and compelling read that find an exciting balance of scientific content, concerning what still is one of the most mysterious areas of physics, and the personal experience of the people involved.'

Quantum in Canada

2010-08-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a review by Dr Stefan Miesbach on Amazon Canada:

'Manjit Kumar's "Quantum" is an absolute page turner. I could hardly put it away and wanted to read it all over again once I came to the end. There is not a lot of new content which cannot be found in biographies or other expositions of the quantum struggle, which ended with Copenhagen. What makes this book unique is a high-pace narrative style pulling the reader from one chapter with one fundamental discovery into the next combined with an almost uncanny ability of the author to unfold most complex physical and philosophical concepts at that same high pace. The narrative also makes the discussions, tensions and emotions so vivid that one feels compelled to jump right into the scenes to hear the debates first hand.'

Reader's review from amazon.com 3

2010-08-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

'Quantum of Delight' wrote Unfallen. And then went on write:
'A masterful balance of theory and history, Quantum is an engaging dip into one of the most fascinating streams of modern scientific discovery. The book includes simple, carefully calibrated explanations of the most important theories but does not get bogged down by them. The real story here is the colorful pioneers who explore the mind-boggling terrain that is the quantum world. The author fills his account with insightful portraits, revealing encounters, and one or two hilarious anecdotes which both humanize the major players and illuminate their astonishing genius. His style is accessible but never fritters. In fact, I think this material could be adapted for a marvelous course by "The Teaching Company." I think I'll tell them about it.'

Reader's review from amazon.com 2

2010-08-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

'A lot has been written about the Bohr-Einstein debate so when I first saw this book I did not buy it because I was skeptical about what more could be said. On reading other reviews I decided it might be worthwhile', said J Alia.

'Many scientists I've met are still passionate about the implications of quantum mechanics, Einstein's criticisms of the theory and Bohr's responses to those criticisms. Many scientists who are not outwardly enthusiastic about the debate and history seem to have approaches toward science that are influenced by it. (just my opinion). In any case, the subject of this book is fascinating.

Of the books I have read about this topic this one may be the best read.'

Reader's review from Amazon.com

2010-07-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Always good to find out what readers think about the book - especially when they say nice things! Here's a review on amazon.com from David Wineberg in New York:

'There are a number of very striking themes and trends in Quantum that other reviewers have not brought out, being dazzled, no doubt, by the swift pacing, tantalizing prose and cliffhanger hooks that Kumar employs so magnificently in Quantum.

First, as someone who has struggled to understand quantum mechanics when it is presented in textbooks as a whole system, I was delighted to find that physicists have the same problem. Even (if not especially) Albert Einstein. By taking us through the history of it, and enjoying the exhilaration of every incremental discovery, theory and step, I find I am really comfortable reading about it, and have no difficulty assimilating it. When you're along for the ride instead of the textbook, it makes a gigantic difference. Bravo, Kumar.

Second, it became painfully obvious that physics is far more philosophy than science. I felt like the arguments came from my Logic 101 class. Socrates would have enjoyed crossing swords with Bohr. The arguments of the scientists were really basic, philosophical differences of opinion, not the least bit esoteric or idiosyncratic. It seems that medicine is not the only "science" where they tell you to get a second opinion. That was a revelation, and it made physics all that more human.

Third, Quantum confirms a lifelong suspicion that this was and is a young man's game. It seems that every time things started to get stale, some precocious 26 year old student would come along with a new portion of a theory, and rock the establishment. And then live off that discovery for the rest of his life - winning the Nobel Prize (as almost every one of them eventually did), getting professorships - but never shaking the tree again. In music we would call them one hit wonders. Einstein was about the only one with two hits - brainstorms in 1905 and 1916 - but then, even he couldn't fathom the totality of quantum physics and never made another major contribution to its progress. By the age of 50 he was calling himself an "old fool".

So in addition to all the praise heaped on Quantum for its superior exposition, I think it's a wonderful addition to the discussion of the human condition. Valuable on a number of levels.

What a great book.'

Editor's choice, The New York Times Book Review

2010-07-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

The editor of The New York Times Book Review choice Quantum as one of his nine picks in the June 20 edition: 'Quantum mechanics made fascinating for readers who’d rather skip the mathematical complexities.' Full list here.

Quantum reviewed in The New York Times Book Review

2010-07-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

'In his lively new book, “Quantum,” the science writer Manjit Kumar cites a poll about the interpretation of quantum mechanics, taken among physicists at a conference in 1999. Of the 90 respondents, only four said they accepted the standard interpretation taught in every undergraduate physics course in the world. Thirty favored a modern interpretation, laid out in 1957 by the Princeton theoretician Hugh Everett III, while 50 ticked the box labeled “none of the above or undecided.” Almost a century after a few physicists first set out the basic theory, quantum mechanics is still a work in progress.' The rest of the review can be read here.

'The People behind the Quantum'

2010-06-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

'This is the book about the early days of quantum theory,' writes Professor Chris Clarke in a review for the Scientific and Medical Network.

'It is an engrossing read because as each character enters the scene they are introduced with a careful biographical sketch, so that we can identify with them and share their personal grappling with the ideas as they unfold.'

He concludes that 'the book is unequalled as an exposition of the personalities and ideas on which quantum theory is founded'.

Read the entire article here.

'Quantum story leaps off the page'

2010-06-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

This was the title of a review of Quantum by Gordon Miller in Physics Education. Published last year, I was sent a copy of the review recently - it's only available online to subscribers, so here's an extract:

'Most of the book reads almost like a thriller, with clues and evidence appearing, and the ‘physics detectives’ gradually unravelling the plot. The author masterfully builds up the tension, making the book a real page turner because you want to find out how the next piece of the jigsaw fits into place…. What really makes this book stand out from the crowd for me is the biographical detail and the way that the physicists and their work are placed in the wider historical context. This really helps to bring the individual characters and what they were doing to life…. I can certainly see myself returning to read individual chapters at frequent intervals in the future.'

German edition of Quantum

2010-06-11T18:00:00.001-07:00

I’d like to thank the team at Berlin Verlag behind this wonderful edition of Quantum, but especially Ludger Ikas and my German voice, translator Hainer Kober.

Italian edition of Quantum

2010-06-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

My thanks to everyone at Arnoldo Mondadori responsible for this lovely edition of Quantum, but especially Tullio Cannillo for translating my English into elegant Italian.

American edition of Quantum

2010-06-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is the front cover of Quantum published by Norton in the USA and Canada on May 24. Thanks to all those involved in its production, but especially to Angela Vonderlippe, Laura Romain, Winfrida Mbewe and Erica Stern. Thanks also to Zoe Pagnamenta, my American agent, who together with Peter Tallack, found Quantum a home in the US. Lastly, I'd like to thank Simon Flynn of Icon Books, who helped this and other editions of the book by responding to requests from my other publishers for elements, such the line drawings, first produced for the UK version of Quantum.

Manjit Kumar at the Earl's Court Festival

2010-06-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

Manjit Kumar will be speaking about Quantum at the Earl's Court Literary Festival on July 20th at 8pm. Tickets are only £5 - more information here.

Quantum - one of Richard Holmes' favourite science books

2010-06-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Times ran an article this Saturday in which a number of leading scientists and science authors were asked to pick their favourite science book.

Richard Holmes, whose The Age of Wonder was shortlisted alongside Quantum for last year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize, selects Manjit Kumar's book as one of his.

Read the full piece here.

'When physics got spooky' Quantum reviewed on Salon.com

2010-05-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

'Reading [Quantum] is a bit like lifting the hood of your mind and moving the working parts around; it's challenging and trippy -- as only the Dr. Seuss realm of the quantum can be.'

Laura Miller on Salon.com on the American edition:

'"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics," wrote Richard Feynman, and given that he won a Nobel Prize in physics, why should you or I want to take a shot at it? Not that you or I could plausibly claim to understand the weird, protean, paradoxical subatomic world that quantum science describes, but anyone reading Manjit Kumar's "Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality" will surely feel they've gotten a bit closer. It's an exhilarating, if also disorienting, sensation.

"Quantum" orbits around the celebrated fifth Solvay conference, held in Brussels in 1927, a gathering of the greatest minds in 20th-century physics. It was at Solvay that Werner Heisenberg and Max Born presented the theory of quantum mechanics they had been working on for several years under the informal leadership of Niels Bohr. Their understanding of subatomic reality came to be called "the Copenhagen interpretation" (after the location of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, which Bohr ran), and its champions proclaimed it a "closed theory, whose fundamental physical and mathematical assumptions are no longer susceptible of any modification."

Albert Einstein, also present, disagreed, and the following decades saw a series of intense, if friendly, arguments between Einstein and Bohr -- who, as Kumar notes, had a diagram of one of Einstein's most famous thought experiments up on his office chalkboard on the day he died in 1962. That experiment, which involved the imaginary weighing of a "box filled with light" before and after a single photon is allowed to escape, is an example of the surreal mental territory that "Quantum" explores. Reading it is a bit like lifting the hood of your mind and moving the working parts around; it's challenging and trippy -- as only the Dr. Seuss realm of the quantum can be.

Kumar, a science writer in Britain (where this book was first published, two years ago), makes a point of playing up the collaborative aspects of the evolution of quantum theory, as well as the conflicts; the two can't really be separated. He begins with Max Planck's reluctant invention of the "quanta" -- an indivisible unit of energy -- in 1900. He insisted it was a mere theoretical, most likely temporary "trick," designed to get certain formulas to work properly. When, five years later, Einstein, during a period of astounding scientific creativity that included his famous paper on special relativity, suggested that light might be made up of "particle-like quanta" (later called photons), he thought of it as his most daring break with the classical physics of Newton. Light, like other forms of energy, had long been believed to flow in continuous waves, not in tiny chunks.

It was in the 1920s that quantum mechanics as we know it was born, with physicists like Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac scrutinizing each other's proposals, seizing upon weak spots to investigate, discovering little-known laboratory data or mathematical methods that might provide a solution and writing important papers only to find that some theoretician in the hinterlands had gotten there first. It was, as Kumar puts it, "a golden age ... unparalleled since the scientific revolution in the 17th century led by Galileo and Newton." The dollops he offers of these scientists' personal lives and youths emphasize the importance of teachers, mentors and patrons, as well as those rare individuals, like Bohr, whose tact and generosity aided in keeping things collegial. (By contrast, 17th century science was impeded by the paranoia and secrecy of Newton.)

That it can be hard to wrap your brain around the principles of the subatomic world is a given. It's a strange kingdom, full of things that don't exist or exist in two opposite conditions at once until somebody looks at them, particles that influence each other instantaneously despite being separated by lightyears and electrons that move from one place to another without traveling through the space in between. Books on the subject rely on good metaphors, clearly explained, and Kumar delivers them, but "Quantum" is not for the complete novice or those timid souls who quail at the sight of an equation. (I can't claim to understand the few equations Kumar includes myself, but they don't scare me away, and I found this book is perfectly intelligible even though I can't do the math.)

Much of the debate between Einstein and Bohr revolved around Einstein's intuitive rejection of the implication of the Copenhagen interpretation -- which is that objective reality, independent of any observer, doesn't really exist. Bohr, by contrast (and sounding a lot like Wittgenstein), insisted that physics isn't concerned with what is but solely with what we can say about it. Not only were these two geniuses battling over where to draw the line between the familiar, cause-and-effect world of classical Newtonian physics and the quantum Wonderland, they were sketching, erasing and resketching the boundary between science and philosophy, debating the nature of reality itself.

Einstein was for many years regarded as a stubborn, even senile holdout against the quantum gospel, but Kumar finds that view simplistic. "Quantum" concludes by surveying developments since the deaths of Bohr and Einstein, such as Bell's Theorem and the many worlds interpretation, some of which point to critical problems that the Copenhagen interpretation left unresolved. (One is how the phenomenon of the universe came to be in the first place if there was no one to observe the Big Bang.) All of this, the author maintains, has led to "a reconsideration of the long-standing verdict against Einstein in his long-running debate with Bohr." Instead, he paints Einstein as a partisan of that most precious of scientific tools: the question. That's why he ends with one of the physicist's favorite quotations, from the German philosopher Gotthold Lessing: "The aspiration to truth is more precious than its assured possession.'

Meanwhile the book has been selling well in Calgary in Canada - see this bestseller list.

Quantum on BookClubForum

2010-05-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

Book Club Forum contributor Andrea had this to say about Quantum recently:

'Finished Quantum last night and I have to say it was absolutely brilliant! I've never read such a riveting and enthralling science book. To be fair, it's not just science it's a narrative history of the development of qunatum physics and focuses on a debate between Einstein and his rival, Bohr. The science bits are broken up enough by the story to make it very readable. It was great to meet all those famous names as well, like Einstein, Heisenberg and Schrodinger, to meet the personalities not just the scientists. It was fascinating to discover that Einstein struggled with maths and had to receive help developing his theory of relativity. A lot of the book takes place against the backdrop of WW2 as well; there's a good deal of drama here.'

'If you're at all interested in physics, and particularly in particle physics then I'd thoroughly recommend this. It's not just science, it's history and philosophy too.'

'I still don't understand quantum physics. But I'm all the more astonished by its weirdness and I've been very inspired to read more about it.'

You can follow and add to the thread here.

Quantum - American reviews

2010-05-20T01:39:00.001-07:00

Here are some snippets of the press Manjit Kumar's book has been getting stateside:

Library Journal:

'Science editor and writer Kumar (coauthor, Science and the Retreat from Reason) adds to the growing number of popular works on the history of quantum mechanics and to the continuing debate on the sufficiency of quantum theory as a representation of "reality." He devotes the bulk of his book to the work and the debates of the physicists who developed quantum mechanics in the first half of the 20th century. Almost inevitably, Kumar repeats many of the quotes from Bohr, Einstein, and other greats that have already been offered by authors of similar works. His greatest strength is his clear discussion (without mathematics) of the advances and debates in the discipline. The last few pages of the text carry the history of physics into the 21st century as experiments continue to support the standard theory but do not yet end the discussion.'

'VERDICT This is especially good for lay readers who would enjoy an excellent story about the long struggle of scientists to understand an important field of modern science.'

Kirkus Reviews:

'A staggering account of the scientific revolution that still challenges our notions of reality. Kumar provides a gripping narrative of the birth of atomic physics in the first half of the 20th century ... Kumar evokes the passion and excitement of the period and writes with sparkling clarity and wit. Expertly delineates complex scientific issues in nontechnical language, using telling detail to weave together personal, political and scientific elements.'

I Liked Reading:

'This is a great book. If you are interested in the weird and wonderful quantum world, then you will find this book a fantastic read that flows very well from chapter to chapter and instantly engages you. What is particularly refreshing about Quantum is how it weaves in information about the personalities who were engaged in the scientific pursuit themselves rather than focusing exclusively on the science ... even if you know nothing about quantum theory then finding out more about it may be particularly exhilarating. Read it!'

Booklist:

'Kumar keeps the main thread of his narrative accessible to the intelligent general reader, particularly clarifying how Einstein’s belief in objective reality pits him against the daringly agnostic Bohr, who leaves the mysteries of wave-particle duality veiled in statistical probabilities and abstract formulas. Intellectual exhilaration runs high as Einstein repeatedly presses Bohr—posing daunting questions about how to weigh an imaginary box of light and how to explain eerily “entangled” particles. The future of science hangs in the balance: physics becomes high drama.'

'Manjit Kumar breathes new life into this classic story through superb writing and careful research'

2010-05-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

'Just as with the history of all other human endeavors, science has its list of “greatest hits,” dramatic stories that will be told and retold, generation after generation, ad infinitum. Of these, the birth of quantum theory seems destined to be foremost: Other narratives may rival in their sweeping scopes, scenic settings, and cast of characters, but no other area of science has raised deeper questions about the very nature of reality. In Quantum, Manjit Kumar breathes new life into this classic story through superb writing and careful research, focusing on a philosophical conflict between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein that still resonates through physics to this day.'

The American edition of Quantum reviewed in Seed magazine.

Quantum reviewed in Publishers Weekly

2010-03-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

In advance of the publication by Norton of the American edition of Manjit Kumar's book, Publisher's Weekly have this great review on their site.

'With vigor and elegance, Kumar describes the “clash of titans” that took place in the world of physics in the early 20th century ... Kumar, founding editor of Prometheus and a consulting science editor for Wired UK, recounts this meaty, dense, exciting story, filled with vivid characters and sharp insights. With physics undergoing another revolution today, Kumar reminds us of a time when science turned the universe upside down.'

Jacob Weisberg on Quantum

2010-02-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

Jacob Weisberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Group, a columnist for Newsweek and Slate and the author of The Bush Tragedy has these very complimentary things to say about Manjit Kumar's book:

'Manjit Kumar is such an engaging storyteller and lucid explainer of scientific concepts, that for chapters at a stretch I labored under the illusion that I understood what Einstein and Niels Bohr were arguing about. His portrayal of the characters and ideas swirling around the great Quantum debate is a kind of model for intellectual history - Modern Physics brought to life through vivid narrative. I loved reading this book and learned more from it than from anything else I've read in a very long time.'

Quantum reviewed on Goodreads.com

2010-01-29T01:43:00.000-08:00

A reader called Raghu had some very complimentary things to say about Quantum on book lover's site Goodreads.com recently:

'Manjit Kumar's book is a fascinating history of one of the most fundamental areas of science. Just as the title says, it is a history of the great debate about the nature of reality with Einstein and Niels Bohr leading the opposing views. Quantum Mechanics has always been a fascinating subject for me, mainly because I could never hope to understand it enough, however much time I spent on it. This brilliant work takes you through the history of the ideas behind quantum mechanics from the late 19th century all the way till the latter half of 20th century. ...The book is lucid and delightfully accessible in spite of the difficult subject matter. I enjoyed reading it immensely. In many ways, it is like a thriller... I would recommend it strongly to anyone interested in popular science in general and Quantum Mechanics in particular.'

The full piece is here.

Quantum - one of Colin Tudge's best books of the Noughties

2010-01-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

Zoologist and science writer Colin Tudge puts Quantum at the top of his list of the best books of the last decade, in a piece for the Blackwell's website:

'I have hugely admired Manjit Kumar's Quantum, truly getting to grips with the debates of Einstein and Bohr and their predecessors and disciples - showing with brilliant clarity that modern physics is even more intricate than most of us suppose it to be, and leads us, as great science invariably does, to uncertainty - which we just have to live with.'

See the full piece here.

Quantum customer review on waterstones.com

2010-01-14T04:19:00.001-08:00

Waterstones customer 'Gerry' has this to say about Manjit's book:

'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 contributors. It is well researched and just as importantly is a good read, impossible to put down, races along like a mystery novel, and inludes some poignant black and white photos of the most famous names in 20th century Physics. Should be on the compulsory reading list for Physics students in every university.'

The reviewing features on Waterstones page for the book here.

More blog praise for Quantum

2010-01-14T00:56:00.001-08:00

Blogger PJP has some good things to say about Quantum on their site:

'Quantum is an excellent read. Being a fiction lover, I rarely come across some non-fiction that is so nicely written & interesting cover-to-cover.'

Read the whole entry here.

Quantum ebook now available at Waterstones

2010-01-11T03:18:00.000-08:00

Buy Manjit Kumar's Quantum for your ereader at Waterstones now - only £7.99 here!

Quantum reviewed by Words of a Wandering Mind

2009-12-17T00:58:00.000-08:00

This blogger in India has some very nice things to say about Manjit Kumar's book:

'The book went as far as permanently changing my outlook in many fundamental aspects. Brilliant, entertaining, informative, insightful and thought-provoking are only a few words that come to my mind. Sit back and enjoy. It will be on the list of ten best things you did this year.'

The full piece is here.

Quantum - best of the year in the Scotsman

2009-12-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

Andrew Crumey picks Quantum as one of his best books of the year in the Scotsman:

'Two popular science books particularly impressed me this year. Manjit Kumar's Quantum (Icon, £9.99) ably recounts the early history of a theory that continues to intrigue and baffle people a century later, while In Search of the Multiverse (Allen Lane, £20) by John Gribbin explains why some physicists believe the parallel worlds of science fiction could really exist.'

The full piece is here.

Quantum - now available as an ebook!

2009-11-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

After a long wait, Manjit Kumar's bestselling Quantum is finally available as an ebook in the UK.

Buy the version for your Sony Reader at WHSmith here for £5.59.

And you can buy the version for Amazon's Kindle reader here for $11.60 (despite the dollar price this edition is only available to UK residents)

Quantum review by Institute of Physics press officer

2009-10-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

J.O. Winters, press officer at the Institute of Physics has posted this great review of Quantum on Amazon:

'The history of quantum physics is the story of a group of physicists with minds capable of grasping horribly counter-intuitive truths about how the very smallest components of matter behave. The problem with trying to convey the wonder of what was achieved to the uninitiated (most of us!) through a popular science book is that you have to take them on a journey through those discoveries; requiring the reader to make the same leaps of faith that even Einstein wouldn't make. The sort of leaps of faith that have previously, think Earth going 'round the Sun or flat Earth, taken centuries to become common parlance.'

'Kumar offers a masterclass in how to help readers through, possibly, the most difficult field of physics out there. He entertains with a wonderfully illuminating narrative, telling the life stories of not only Bohr and Einstein, but also Planck, Rutherford, Schrodinger and many more. The most remarkable thing about this book however is that you don't, as with so many popular science books, skim the meat of the science, hanging onto the thread of the book through the more easily-accessed narrative. You relish and look forward to grasping the science. I dare say I've read physics books that tackle innately easier physics topics less well than Kumar takes on quantum physics.'

'To understand a fraction of quantum physics will increase ego by degrees of magnitude. To understand as much as Kumar offers (and to enjoy it, which you will) might give you a couple of sleepless nights (thinking about how your wave-particle coffee table is actually solid enough to hold your laptop) but you will end up feeling an intellectual colossus vis a vis anyone who hasn't read it and isn't actually a quantum physicist.'

Quantum - Hindustan Times review

2009-09-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

A great review of Quantum in Indian newspaper The Hindustan Times:

'That science is a many-splendoured sexy thing is the radiating message that comes out of this fabulous book. Manjit Kumar writes a pulsating narrative about the history of modern science’s most fundamental revolution in Quantum (Hachette, Rs 495). The great debate about the nature of reality — between Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr where they and their ‘two schools of thought’ face each other off reads like Corleone-Tattaglia feud from the Godfather minus the machine guns, plus the atom-smashers.'

'Even in the prologue of this historical journey of science, Kumar knows how to hook the reader. “Paul Ehrenfest was in tears. He had made his decision. Soon he would attend the wee-long gathering where many of those responsible for the quantum revolution would try and understand the meaning of what they had wrought. There he would have to tell his old friend Albert Einstein that he had chosen to side with Niels Bohr.... In a note to Einstein as they sat around the conference table, Ehrenfest scribbled: ‘Don’t laugh! There’s a special section in purgatory for professors of quantum theory, where they will be obliged to listen to lectures on classical physics ten hours every day."'

'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.'

See the full piece here.

Quantum - bestselling In India

2009-09-24T04:57:00.001-07:00

We've just seen this bestseller chart in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper, which shows Manjit Kumar's book in sixth place:

1) The Idea Of Justice by Amartya Sen – Penguin Allen Lane Rs. 699

2) Jinnah- India – Partition Independence by Jaswant Singh – Rupa Rs. 695

3) Sociobiology – The New Synthesis by Edward O. Wilson Rs. 2376

4) Authentic Happiness – Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin E. P. Seligman , Ph.d – Nicholas Brealey Rs. 295

5) Think India – The Rise of The World’s Next Superpower by Vinay Rai & William L. Simon – Plume Rs. 399

6) Quantum – Einstein, Bohr And the Great Debate About the Nature Of Reality by Manjit Kumar – Hachette Rs. 495

7) Stop the Excuses! – How To change Lifelong Thoughts by Dr Wayne W. Dyer – Hay House Rs. 295

8) Cricket Biryani – The History of Hyderabad Cricket by P.R.Man Singh Rs. 1500

9) Romance of The Golconda Diamonds by Omar Khalidi Rs. 1400

10) A Better India A Better World by N R Narayana Murthy – Penguin Allen Lane Rs. 499

Quantum: well reviewed in India

2009-09-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

'As an introduction to a fiendishly difficult branch of science it is hard to improve upon Quantum. This is one of the finest accounts of the 20th century’s greatest intellectual adventure' Express Buzz, India.

See the full review here.

Quantum - now big in India, too!

2009-09-14T01:10:00.001-07:00

Hachette have just recently published the Indian edition of Quantum and its first review is just in:

'If theoretical and often boring physics can be delivered in an exciting novel style, Manjit Kumar has done it. His Quantum Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality is an engrossing account of the high caliber intellectual and academic debates, sometimes acrimonious, on the then evolving concept of Quantum, in the 20th century.' The Organiser

Read the full review here.

Quantum reviewed by R.D.Brislin

2009-08-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

Reader R.D. Brislin had these nice things to say about Quantum on Amazon.co.uk:

'I have always been fascinated by how 'it' all fits together, but struggle to find the time to concentrate on dry theoretical texts. It was therefore with great delight that I found myself engrossed in Quantum on the tube, the bus and even occasionally the walk in between. Manjit Kumar's writing eases you effortlessly into the some of the most complex ideas in physics by juxtaposing the personal stories of the authors playing out through the 20th century with the theories themselves. Sufficient detail is provided to challenge all but the most experienced reader, and a comprehensive references list encourages further exploration for those who need to dig even deeper. While having to admit to only momentary glimpses of both the elusive beauty, and the black hole enveloped by quantum theory, I felt strangely comforted that even Einstein struggled to fully embrace such a world.'

Read more reviews on Amazon at the book's page here.

Still searching for God's dice

2009-07-30T04:27:00.000-07:00

A great review piece here on Quantum by Vikram Johri on his blog:

'Kumar’s real achievement is not in throwing light on quantum mechanics per se, which descriptions are often mired in thick scientific jargon, but on a time when the thrill of discovery was so palpable it could slice through butter like a hot knife.'

Read the full piece here.

Quantum mention on Mumsnet.com

2009-07-09T02:00:00.001-07:00

Nice to see that it's far from just geeky men who are reading Quantum - a reader at this post on Mumsnet.com says:

Right. I have finished Quantum by Manjit Kumar and have come to the conclusion
that quantum physicists are nutters!

How else can you explain beleiving that something only happens if you observe it? I used to think that when I hid my eyes when playing hide and seek as a very small child. And the cat thing is a bit daft, not to mention cruel .

I really enjoyed the book though. But wish I understand a bit more

Quantum - reviewed in The Sunday Times

2009-07-08T03:28:00.000-07:00

Robert Collins, writing in The Sunday Times at the weekend, had this to say about Quantum:

'Kumar seamlessly interweaves history and biography with clear explanations of the insights that Einstein and others made into the behaviour of matter at the subatomic level. The result makes you feel that you’ve grasped not only some of the revolutionary concepts of 20th-century science but sensed the thrill these physicists must have experienced as they made their world-changing breakthroughs.'

Quantum - the latest reprint

2009-07-01T09:26:00.001-07:00

Our latest reprint of Quantum has arrived today. We've altered the cover slightly to mention some of the more recent press quotes, and of course the Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisting.

Quantum on the BBC Culture Show

2009-07-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

Quantum missed out on winning the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009 last night but the brilliant short film about the book, featuring Manjit Kumar, almost makes up for it - see it at the BBC here.

Quantum extract in the Telegraph

2009-06-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Daily Telegraph have an extract of Manjit Kumar's Quantum online today - read it here.

Quantum - Paperback of the Week in the Observer

2009-06-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

'A feat of true scholarship interspersed, thankfully, with moments of more accessible entertainment. The result is a book of such ambition that it has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.'

Read the full review here.

Quantum - brilliant review on Amazon

2009-06-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

Amazon.co.uk customer Louis Ryan has just posted the fabulous review of Quantum below. Read it in situ here.

A brilliant account of a fundamental subject

The development of quantum physics through the 20th century is one of the great adventures of science, and here at last is a book aimed at the layperson which clearly explains its key concepts, while situating the scientific development in its broader setting. The result is a challenging and enthralling read.

Quantum is appropriately sub-titled, Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality. The long theoretical duel between these two giants of modern physics is a recurring theme of the book, but the story starts before them with the build-up to the discovery of Planck's constant at the turn of the century, and continues beyond their deaths (in 1955 and 1962 respectively) to take in Bell's Theorem and Everett's "many worlds" interpretation. Along the way we meet other great physicists such as Rutherford, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrödinger, Dirac and Bohm.

One might suspect that a book of such scope would be in danger of being overcrowded with theories and theorists, yet Kumar rises to the challenge, displaying a novelist's sense of pacing allied with an impressive scientific clarity and succinctness. Clearly he has taken to heart the famous injunction attributed to Einstein to "make it as simple as possible, but no simpler!" He also strikes a judicious balance between scientific explanation and human context. This provided for me a welcome alternation between the physics and the lives of the physicists, with each stimulating an interest in the other.

What is so powerful and inspiring about this book is the way it conveys the passion for truth of those great pioneers. No doubt ego played its part as well, they would hardly have been human otherwise, but it is always secondary to the great quest to fathom the nature of sub-atomic reality. Characteristic of this passion is the anecdote of Bohr and Einstein on their first meeting in Copenhagen, straightaway so engrossed in debate that they repeatedly miss their bus-stop. Kumar evidently resonates to this passion, and conveys it vividly in his narrative. Here is an extract from his account of Bohr's first meeting with Schrödinger, one of Einstein's key allies in the great debate:

"After the exchange of pleasantries, battle began almost at once, and according to Heisenberg, `continued daily from early morning until late at night'... During one discussion Schrödinger called `the whole idea of quantum jumps a sheer fantasy'. `But it does not prove there are no quantum jumps,' Bohr countered. All it proved, he continued, was that `we cannot imagine them'. Emotions soon ran high... Schrödinger finally snapped. `If all this damned quantum jumping were really here to stay, I should be sorry I ever got involved with quantum theory.' `But the rest of us are extremely grateful that you did,' Bohr replied, `your wave mechanics has contributed so much to mathematical clarity and simplicity that it represents a gigantic advance over all previous forms of quantum mechanics.'

"After a few days of these relentless discussions, Schrödinger fell ill and took to his bed. Even as his wife did all she could to nurse their house-guest, Bohr sat on the edge of the bed and continued the argument. `But surely Schrödinger, you must see...' He did see, but only through the glasses he had long worn, and he was not about to change them for ones prescribed by Bohr."

This book is a brilliant and compelling account of the genesis of quantum physics, but it is more than that. In the midst of today's pervasive cynicism and disorientation, it is an inspiring reminder of what the human spirit is capable of when it devotes itself passionately to the highest aim, that of understanding the truth of our reality.

Quantum longlisted for Royal Society Prize for Science Books 2009

2009-05-26T03:05:00.000-07:00

Manjit Kumar has made it two prize nominations in as many weeks today with the announcement of the longlist for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books, on which Quantum is included.

The Royal Society's press release is here. Congratulations once again to Manjit!

Quantum - BBC Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisting media coverage

2009-05-22T06:58:00.001-07:00

News of Quantum's shortlisting for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009 has mentioned been in various places today.

The Guardian covered the announcement here, and trade organ the Bookseller published this story. Bookbrunch, a book trade website, had this.

Icon's press release about the book is available to readhere.

We await the 30th June with all fingers tightly crossed!

Quantum shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize

2009-05-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Quantum has been shortlisted for this year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction!

Read the Evening Standard's piece here.

The winner is announced on 30th June.

Quantum longlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize

2009-05-14T04:38:00.001-07:00

Excellent news this - Quantum is on this year's Samuel Johnson longlist.

Read the press release here and an associated story in the Guardian here and keep your fingers crossed!

Quantum paperback reviewed in Nature

2009-04-30T01:07:00.001-07:00

In this popular history of quantum mechanics, Manjit Kumar focuses "on the long-running debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, which took place from the mid-1920s through to the mid-1950s, over the adequacy of the quantum theory as a framework for fundamental physics", explained reviewer Don Howard (Nature 456, 706–707; 2008).

See the full article here.

Win a chat with Manjit Kumar!

2009-03-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

In association with Icon Books and The School of Life, Waterstones are offering holders of their loyalty card the chance to win one of five School of Life 'expert conversations' in London with Manjit Kumar.

See the full competition here and good luck!

Quantum - out this week in Paperback

2009-03-30T01:57:00.000-07:00

Quantum is published on Thursday this week in paperback, priced £9.99 and available from all good bookshops

Nicholas Lezard reviewed the book in the Guardian on Saturday, saying:

'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason; as Rutherford said after one experiment involving alpha particles, "it was almost as incredible as if you had fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it had come back and hit you" - and with extraordinary implications for the nature of reality. Take it nice and slowly and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens.' Read the whole review here.

Buy the Quantum paperback from Amazon using the link on the right or with these other retailers:

Waterstones
The Book Depository
WHSmith
Borders

Quantum - reviewed in Astronomy Now

2009-03-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

‘Kumar’s rich and intensively researched text tells of the development of quantum theory from the perspective of the scientists who worked on it. This qualitative, narrative method is a great way to get your head around the most extraordinary and intellectually demanding theory ever devised. Kumar brings to life the wide spectrum of personalities involved in the development of the quantum theory, from the quiet and thoughtful Bohr, to the lively and womanising Schrodinger. This was a time of the greatest scientific minds in history – unsurpassed before or since.

Quantum’s subtitle is the hub of this book. After the spectacular success Bohr had explaining the nature of the atom (building on the groundwork of Rutherford and others), quantum theory began to get messy. In some experiments photons and electrons behaved like particles, and in others they behaved like waves. Should scientists just accept what could be objectively measured (as Bohr insisted), or was there a deeper reality, as Einstein believed? The intellectual arguments between the two kept the debate about quantum theory and the nature if reality fresh. Only now in the twenty-first century can we even begin to investigate the theory’s fundamental nature. As for myself, I had difficulty putting this book down, even when I should have been sleeping!’

Kulvinder Singh Chadha, assistant editor, Astronomy Now

Quantum - more Amazon reader reviews

2009-02-09T03:58:00.000-08:00

Matthew Burns from Dover has this to say about Quantum on the book's Amazon page:

'I really enjoyed reading this book!
Excellent, interesting, story and subject.

I thought Kumar put it across in a very entertaining way, I did not get all of the minutia of the physics but that did not matter, I especially enjoyed the suspense and his sense of humour. I also enjoyed the way the story wove characters and events together, all the way through I was kept interested, he knows how to tell a story.

I got alot out of the information in the book; it filled in gaps for me in my knowledge about the subject as well as providing a really interesting back drop to the stuff I'd done at school. (I liked science till I got to the 6th Form.) The book worked on many different levels, as a history I became aware that there were quite often unintended results or consequences from experiments or ideas, some times others taking up something someone else had accidently stumbled across and looking at it in a new way, I liked that, I found it thought provoking.

This gave me an interesting insight in to the whole unfolding understanding of the science as it happened in time, this was one of the main areas focused on. Another aspect, the personalities and how they interacted what they got up to I enjoyed hearing about their interests and how they lived. 'Painting a picture' of the scientists as people really worked for me. '

Quantum - an Amazon reader review

2009-01-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

Amazon customer P.G. Harris has submitted this review of Quantum to the book's page on Amazon.co.uk:

Quantum is the unfinished story of the development of quantum mechanics. Unfinished? Yes, because the question which lies at the centre of the book is not yet resolved.

The story starts in late Victorian times when classic physics seems close to completion, to being able to explain the world fully. There seem to be just a few loose ends to be tied up. However, it is those few loose ends inside the atom, explaining the nature of the electron, being able to account for light behaving both like a particle and a wave etc which lead to the unravelling (at the atomic level) of previous world views.

Through the lives of Planck, Bohr, Einstein, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, De Broglie and others we see how diferent strands of quantum theory were hotly contested and how it developed through analysis and synthesis.

One of the most exciting things about the book to me was the rigour and power of true scientific method. Quantum physics, despite being in some ways mind blowingly ethereal is subject to the most searching challenge and detailed research. We see two of the greatest minds of the 20th century, Einstein and Bohr sitting on opposite sides of the dispute, deploying their most powerful destructive intellectual weapons in order to test the veracity of each others ideas. If ever you doudt bthe superiority of genuine science over pseudo Science (are you listening Charles Windsor), read this book.

At the centre of the dispute is the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics, at the heart of which is the assertion that reality is not indepedent of measurement. (it would take too long to explain more, but Schrodingers famous cat is involved). Through the book we see Bohr besting Einstein, but one feels that the author is sympathetic towards Einstein and there is a sense of relief at the end of the book that the door remains open for the father of relativity.

Also fascinating is that roughly half of the book is about the major advances in the development of quantum theory in the first three decades of the 20th Century and thereafter debate switched to the interpretation, in a nutshell, is it reality or just a convenient model describing the effect of an underlying reality.

This is no dry science book however, one gets to know the people involved and the story has as its setting the major events of 20th Century history, the first world war, the rise of the nazis, the development of the atomic bomb, and the cold war.

Kumar is a clear and engaging writer, and my only two criticims would be firstly that in his efforts to be comprehensoible he maybe keeps too far away from the hard science at times. Secondly the odd summarising passage, showing briefly what the current state of play was would be helpful.

Overall, definitely recommended, it's a book for everyone, not just the scientifically minded.

Read various other Amazon reader reviews here.

Quantum - a reader's book of the year in the Guardian

2009-01-05T01:04:00.001-08:00

Audrey Fogelman from Rutland had this to say about Quantum in the Guardian on 27th December:

'As a fairly innumerate non-scientist, I am perversely drawn to books about maths and science and usually abandon them with ignorance intact. However, Quantum by Manjit Kumar (Icon) is so well written that I now feel I've more or less got particle physics sussed. Quantum transcends genre - it is historical, scientific, biographical, philosophical.'

The full article is here.

Quantum - reviewed in Odyssey magazine, South Africa

2008-12-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

'Beautifully written ... a tour de force that covers the fierce debate about the foundations of reality that gripped the scientific community through the 20th century.'

Read the full review - alongside one on another Icon title, Atom - here.

Quantum - one of John Banville's Books of the Year

2008-12-15T01:10:00.000-08:00

John Banville, who won the Man Booker prize for his novel The Sea in 2005, chooses Quantum as one of his three books of the year in Australia's The Age newspaper:

'Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality (Icon Books) by Manjit Kumar is one of the best guides yet to the central conundrums of modern physics.'

Quantum - reviewed in the Daily Telegraph

2008-12-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

'Admirably ambitious ... for those who already know at least some of the physics and want a brief, non-academic but thorough history of the subject's golden age, it is hard to beat.'

Read the full review here.

Quantum - new reprint jacket

2008-12-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

Quantum has just recently been reprinted and we've taken the opportunity to include some of the brilliant press quotes the book has received on the new jacket - and here it is:

Quantum - an exclusive extract

2008-12-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

Read the Prologue of Manjit Kumar's Quantum here - click on the book below to zoom in:

Get your own - Open publication

Quantum - reviewed at The Book Depository

2008-12-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

'A thrilling account of quantum theory that focusses on the central relationship between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein'

Scroll down on this page to see the full piece.

Quantum - reviewed in the Independent

2008-12-05T01:17:00.000-08:00

'Manjit Kumar's Quantum is 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. He 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.'

Read the full review here.

Quantum - reviewed at 26.org.uk

2008-11-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

'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.'

Quantum - reviewed in the Financial Times

2008-11-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

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

Read the full review here.

Quantum - reviewed in the Guardian

2008-11-15T02:55:00.001-08:00

Steven Poole reviews Quantum in today's Guardian and calls it:

'An exhaustive and brilliant account of decades of emotionally charged discovery and argument, friendship and rivalry spanning two world wars.'

Read the full review here.

Quantum - reviewed by thebookbag.co.uk

2008-11-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

'I found Quantum a fascinating, riveting read. I have not read individual biographies of the scientists concerned beyond what can be found in customary introductory sections of popular science books, and I normally dislike the biographical approach to popular science, but in this case the interweaving of the stories of the scientists and of the science worked brilliantly. Quantum shows not only the body of science, but also its human face. I had a real feeling of observing one of the greatest revolutions of human understanding of the world as it happened; from the personalities of people involved to the administrative details of their employment to the grand sweeps of history that engulfed them. Particularly compelling was how essential for the development of ideas was the communication, co-operation and competition between the scientists: how ideas were bounced between them, reused and refashioned, and how astonishingly creative this cohort of incredibly young men became in the process. ... 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.'
Magda Healey

Quantum - Amazon.co.uk reader review

2008-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Amazon.co.uk customer Jenny Gardener says this (and much more) of Quantum in her review on the site, titled 'Quantum - The Human Story':

'Part social history, part popular science as well as raising questions of a philosophical nature - this makes a cracking read and comes highly recommended.'

Click the Amazon click on the right to read the full review.

Quantum - reviewed in Spiked Online

2008-10-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

'How could anyone not believe in the importance of ‘reality’ in developing a scientific theory? The subtleties involved in that apparently simple question are what make the debate between Bohr and Einstein so fascinating and of such importance, a debate expertly told and analysed in a new book by Manjit Kumar. At stake, he argues, were the soul of physics and the nature of reality.'

Read the full review here.

Quantum - reviewed in Scotland on Sunday

2008-10-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

'An elegantly written and accessible guide to quantum physics, in which Kumar structures the narrative history around the clash between Einstein and Bohr, and the anxiety that quantum theory "disproved the existence of reality".'

Einstein & Bohr after Solvay 1930

2008-10-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

Quantum Lives 6: Erwin Schrodinger

2008-10-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) spent the Second World War at a safe haven provided by the Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera. A keen amateur mathematician, de Valera brought forward the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin and appointed Schrödinger to a professorship. The seventeen years he spent in the Irish capital proved to be among the happiest years of his life as he devoted himself increasingly to philosophical questions surrounding the foundations of physics and the relationship between the physical and biological sciences. It was during this period that Schrödinger wrote one of the most famous and influential books of twentieth century science, What is Life? His belief that the essential nature of living organisms could be studied and understood in terms of physical principles convinced some of the brightest young minds to swap physics for the new field of molecular biology. Schrödinger led an unconventional personal life that included sharing a home with his wife and mistress. In March 1956, aged 69, Schrödinger returned to Vienna as professor of theoretical physics. Walter Moore (1989) Schrödinger: Life and Thought is a fascinating tale of a complex man: a scientist, a serial womanizer, and an enthusiastic explorer of Eastern mysticism.

Solvay 1911

2008-10-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Quantum Quotes 4

2008-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

‘Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the “old one”. I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.’

Albert Einstein

Quantum Lives 5: Werner Heisenberg

2008-10-16T18:27:00.001-07:00

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) was placed in charge of the German atomic bomb project during the Second World War and became the physicist most feared by allied scientists. In September 1941 Heisenberg visited Bohr in German-occupied Denmark. One evening they went for a stroll in the park next to the institute. It was like old times, but instead of quantum physics Heisenberg raised the possibility of constructing an atomic bomb. Neither man agreed later on who said what. Was Heisenberg trying to open a channel of communication or was he trying to elicit information about the status of the allied atomic bomb? Whatever the truth of the matter, it has been the subject of speculation ever since and forms the basis of Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen, their friendship effectively ended that day. After the war, Heisenberg was arrested and interned in a secluded farmhouse in Britain for six months with other leading members of the Germany’s atom bomb programme. David C. Cassidy (1992) Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg is the definitive biography that charts the highs and lows in the life of this flawed genius. Cassidy reconstructs Heisenberg’s role in the German atomic bomb project and the ill-conceived visit to see Bohr. Although highly respected and regarded as one of the greatest theorists of the twentieth century, Cassidy’s majestic work reveals exactly why Heisenberg never enjoyed the same degree of affection from his colleagues as Pauli despite lacking his friend’s bite. After the war and Planck’s death, Heisenberg became a leading spokesman for German science.