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Too Big for a Single Mind
- How the Greatest Generation of Physicists Uncovered the Quantum World
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
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Publisher's summary
The epic gripping history of how a group of physicists toppled the Newtonian universe in the early decades of the twentieth century
The epic true story of how a global team of physics luminaries—Einstein, Curie, Schrödinger, and more—toppled the Newtonian universe amid the turmoil of two World Wars
There may never be another era of science like the first half of the twentieth century, when many of the most important physicists ever to live—Marie Curie, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Ernst Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and others—came together to uncover the quantum world: a concept so outrageous and shocking, so contrary to traditional physics, that its own founders rebelled against it until the equations held up and fundamentally changed our understanding of reality.
In cinematic, gripping chapters, Tobias Hürter takes us back to this uniquely momentous and harrowing time, when war and revolution upended the lives of his renegade scientists. As they crisscross Europe, Hürter reveals these brilliant thinkers anew, as friends and enemies, lovers and loners, and indeed, men and women just like us. Hürter compellingly casts quantum mechanics as a concept Too Big for a Single Mind—and its birth as a testament to the boundless potential of genius in collaboration.
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Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Heisenberg’s role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist’s personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.
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Well done!
- By David on 12-31-14
By: David C. Cassidy
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Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
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educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
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Robert Oppenheimer
- A Life Inside the Center
- By: Ray Monk
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 35 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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A comprehensive biography
- By Jean on 10-17-14
By: Ray Monk
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The Infinity Puzzle
- Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The second half of the 20th century witnessed a scientific gold rush as physicists raced to chart the inner workings of the atom. The stakes were high, the questions were big, and there were Nobel Prizes and everlasting glory to be won. Many mysteries of the atom came unraveled, but one remained intractable-what Frank Close calls the "Infinity Puzzle."
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Succinct exposition
- By Gary on 06-26-12
By: Frank Close
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The Day We Found the Universe
- By: Marcia Bartusiak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of our most acclaimed science writers: a dramatic narrative of the discovery of the true nature and startling size of the universe, delving back past the moment of revelation to trace the decades of work--by a select group of scientists--that made it possible.
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Worth the Effort
- By Roy on 08-13-09
By: Marcia Bartusiak
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How the Laser Happened
- Adventures of a Scientist
- By: Charles H. Townes
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In How the Laser Happened, Nobel laureate Charles Townes provides a highly personal look at some of the leading events in 20th-century physics. This lively memoir, packed with firsthand accounts and historical anecdotes, is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of science and an inspiring example for students considering scientific careers.
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Great for aspiring physicists
- By James S. on 10-06-18
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The Upright Thinkers
- The Human Journey From Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
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10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Austin on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
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A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
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Copenhagen
- By: Michael Frayn
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Copenhagen, Autumn 1941. The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war.
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My favorite audio book so far
- By Lara H Gertler on 08-07-18
By: Michael Frayn
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Good book, very odd narration
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Excellent
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Science writing done right
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fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
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A good overview of scientific theory
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Good book, very odd narration
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In 1942, a team at the University of Chicago achieved what no one had before: a nuclear chain reaction. At the forefront of this breakthrough stood Enrico Fermi. Straddling the ages of classical physics and quantum mechanics, equally at ease with theory and experiment, Fermi truly was the last man who knew everything - at least about physics. But he was also a complex figure who was a part of both the Italian Fascist Party and the Manhattan Project, and a less-than-ideal father and husband who nevertheless remained one of history's greatest mentors.
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Excellent
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Asked to name a great physicist, most people would mention Newton or Einstein, Feynman or Hawking. But ask a physicist and there’s no doubt that James Clerk Maxwell will be near the top of the list. Maxwell, an unassuming Victorian Scotsman, explained how we perceive color. He uncovered the way gases behave. And, most significantly, he transformed the way physics was undertaken in his explanation of the interaction of electricity and magnetism, revealing the nature of light and laying the groundwork for everything from Einstein’s special relativity to modern electronics.
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Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications.
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fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
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Quantum
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Quantum theory is weird. As Niels Bohr said, if you aren’t shocked by quantum theory, you don’t really understand it. For most people, quantum theory is synonymous with mysterious, impenetrable science. And in fact for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution.
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Biographic facts not explanations.
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One of the most famous, and important, intellectuals to hail from Denmark is Niels Bohr, a world-famous physicist and one of the patriarchs of quantum theory. Given the vibrant, peaceful haven that is Denmark today, it’s somewhat ironic that Bohr played an instrumental role in the development of the atomic bomb. Even so, the truth and depth of the matter, much like the self-professed pacifist himself, is far more complex.
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Weak
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In 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. A lifelong friendship and enormously productive collaboration was born, despite sharp differences in personality. The soft-spoken Wheeler, though conservative in appearance, was a raging nonconformist full of wild ideas about the universe. The boisterous Feynman was a cautious physicist who believed only what could be tested. Yet they were complementary spirits.
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Neither Fish Nor Fowl
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Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
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Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
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A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles - one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.
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Quite nice
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Beyond Uncertainty
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Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Heisenberg’s role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist’s personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.
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Well done!
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In 1911, some of the greatest minds in science convened at the First Solvay Conference in Physics, a meeting like no other. Almost half of the attendees had won or would go on to win the Nobel Prize. Over the course of those few days, these minds began to realize that classical physics was about to give way to quantum theory, a seismic shift in our history and how we understand not just our world, but the universe.
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Turing's Cathedral
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In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses - led by John von Neumann - gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results....
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Needed an editor
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Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the greats of the world's physicists, the most famous Italian scientist since Galileo. Called "the Pope" by his peers, he was regarded as infallible in his instincts and research. His discoveries changed our world; they led to weapons of mass destruction and conversely to life-saving medical interventions. This unassuming man struggled with issues relevant today, such as the threat of nuclear annihilation and the relationship of science to politics.
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Excellent, but...
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The Clockwork Universe
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The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.
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Calculus Ergo Modernity
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Quantum Man
- Richard Feynman’s Life in Science
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Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the 20th century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, offers a unique scientific biography: a rollicking narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits.
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Richard Feynman's Science
- By Tom Miller on 04-23-11
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
What listeners say about Too Big for a Single Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andre Giles
- 02-14-23
Outstanding
Crisp, brisk, mind stretching and fun
The ensemble cast of characters woven brilliantly together over years, theories and countries.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Fred271
- 03-04-24
A nice overview, well read
There's one odd moment. The text rhapsodizes about the Dirac equation for paragraphs -- one of the most beautiful equations in science, epoch making, and so on. It finally gets to the point of telling you what it actually is. It's as follows, the narrator says, and pauses before changing the subject.
Which is funny, but completely understandable. It probably happened because Paul Bellantoni, who is excellent here, had to stop to ask for advice on how to read the equation, and nobody in the audio production had any idea, so it ended up a a loose end. In any case, it would just have been window dressing in a book like this. Tobias Hürter is telling a story. He makes some rudimentary points about quantum mechanics as part of the narrative, just as he fills in some very basic historical context as needed, but this book isn't where you'd go to learn about either physics or history...
What the book is about is the "generation of physicists" who "uncovered the quantum world," as the title puts it, and as such it's quite informative. I'm reasonably well read about this period, but there was a lot I didn't know about, such as the fact that the EPR paper was written by Pololsky and Rosen and sent out without Einstein's participation or approval. Hürter presents a clear picture of Heisenberg's involvement in the German atomic bomb project and how it reflected his personality, and that in itself is worth the price of admission.
Hürter has a lot of balls to keep in the air here, and he makes it look easy.
If you're interested in this book, it might be worth looking at Grace in All Simplicity, by Chris Quigg and Robert Cahn.
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- Right Reason
- 10-04-23
Play it again Sam
Really enjoyed revisiting the physicists who went from zero to boom in so little time. Interesting biographical details. Decent narrator.
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- Steaven Chan
- 01-31-23
Gripping
Interesting presentation and narration, great story. Worth every minute of it. Surely worth sharing the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- RA
- 09-03-24
Excellent
Very well done, but the background world history is not easy to listen to.
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- Ashlyn
- 02-18-24
Packed with Science History
I learned some new bits of history from this book even though I've read many works about the advancements of physics in the 20th century. I actually wish I had read this first before Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb. The narration for the audiobook was pretty good, no complaints.
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- Slim
- 01-07-23
Outstanding
I especially appreciated the chapters dedicated to the great Paul Ehrenfest and Wolfgang Pauli. If you liked Quantum by Manjit Kumar, you’d appreciate this book
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- Anonymous User
- 03-12-24
What an amazing work about the most amazing time in physics!
It amazes me that such a thoughtful, thorough book on such an expansive subject that takes place during such a dramatic period in the history of humankind is even possible let alone so wonderful. All the key players, the events, all there in a fascinating fluid listening experience. The Narrator was perfectly chosen for the subject matter. The Author, a Master in the knowledge of the subject matter, and in weaving together a beautiful, fascinating journey of discovery and the perseverance of the human spirit.
Thank you,
JSelway
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- Jonathan Stensberg
- 03-03-23
Fascinating but occasionally tangential
Ultimately, this could have used another round of edits. The book purports to tell how modern physics (relativity and quantum mechanics) was developed in the early 20th century. This is done by focusing on the key players, cleverly crafting an interwoven biography of sorts. Unfortunately, the chronological story is riddled with numerous tangents that detract from the narrative. The extended biographical sketched of figures like Pauli, for instance, are interesting for what they are, but they deviate extensively from the story of modern physics and defy the chronological progression. The narrative is praiseworthy in its exploration of how physicists interacted with WWI, the rise of Nazism, and WWII; however, there is a similar tangent that seems far from more interested in Nazism than in physics. At these times, the book seems to forget about physics entirely. Overall, it is fascinating story, but it would have benefited from some additional editing.
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- Big_D916
- 06-11-24
Easily understood & followed
Beautiful telling of all of the characters. Good narration and followed the timeline of physics
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