Reader's review from Amazon.com

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

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

'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'

'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'

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

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

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

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

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

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

'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

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

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'

'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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quantum reviewed by Words of a Wandering Mind

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

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!

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

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

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

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

'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!

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

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.