Physics Biography

Two of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by 40 years - discovered the existence of the electromagnetic field and devised a radically new theory which overturned the strictly mechanical view of the world that had prevailed since Newton's time.

What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed that it did - and in doing so, put at risk everything we know about the fundamental laws of the universe. Leonard Susskind and Gerard 't Hooft realized the threat and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics.

In the 1970s, amid severe cutbacks in physics funding, a small group of underemployed physicists in Berkeley decided to throw off the constraints of academia and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued a freewheeling, speculative approach to physics. Some dabbled with LSD while conducting experiments. They studied quantum theory alongside Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading, discussing the latest developments while lounging in hot tubs.

A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future. One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions...

Nikola Tesla did not merely invent machines. He listened for the hidden rhythm of the universe. To Tesla, electricity was more than a practical tool. It was a doorway into the unseen architecture of nature — a world of energy, frequency, vibration, resonance, radiant force, and invisible power. He imagined a cosmos alive with motion, a planet capable of transmission, and a future in which humanity might draw upon the hidden energies woven through reality itself. In Tesla and the Hidden Energies of the Cosmos, Clayton Louis Turnage explores the visionary imagination behind one of ...

Paul Dirac Explained: Major Ideas, Quantum Physics Contributions, and Lasting Impact examines the work of the physicist who gave quantum theory much of its modern form. Rather than offering a broad life story, this book focuses on the ideas that made Dirac central to twentieth-century physics: his role in organizing early quantum mechanics, his introduction of durable mathematical tools and notation, and his insistence on precision at a time when the subject was still unsettled. Readers see how Dirac approached physical problems, why other physicists relied on his methods, and how his ...

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.

One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is Feynman's last literary legacy, prepared with his friend and fellow drummer, Ralph Leighton.

Understanding Max Planck: Quantum Theory, Blackbody Radiation, and the Birth of Modern Physics tells the story of the physicist who tried to solve one technical problem and helped change physics in the process. The book begins with Planck’s early life, education, and place in German academic culture, then moves into the scientific setting of the late nineteenth century, when physicists struggled to reconcile heat, light, and thermodynamics. Rather than treating quantum theory as a sudden stroke of genius, it shows how Planck’s work grew out of careful, methodical effort and a deep ...

To his colleagues, Richard Feynman was not so much a genius as he was a full-blown magician: someone who “does things that nobody else could do and that seem completely unexpected.” The path he cleared for twentieth-century physics led from the making of the atomic bomb to a Nobel...

From the Marginalian creator and bestselling author Maria Popova, a bold exploration of what makes a meaningful life. "It's difficult to imagine a better narrator than Natascha McElhone for this...McElhone's soft voice and poetic cadence guide listeners into the personal and professional lives...

Enrico Fermi Explained: Quantum Physics, Nuclear Reactions, Fermi-Dirac Statistics, the First Nuclear Reactor, and the Methods Behind Modern Physics is a focused introduction to the scientist who helped build modern quantum theory, nuclear physics, and particle physics. Rather than treating Fermi as only the man behind the first nuclear reactor or a name attached to statistics and equations, this book explains the specific ideas and experiments that made him so important. It is written for intelligent non-specialists who want a readable account of what Fermi discovered, how he worked, and ...

Albert Einstein was not born as a legend. Before he became the face of genius, before relativity, before E = mc², before the Nobel Prize, before the wild hair and famous photographs, there was a curious child shaped by family, school, music, machines, invisible forces, rejection, exile, war, and lifelong questioning. Albert Einstein: The Hidden Life, Habits, Questions, and Legacy of the Man Who Changed Time is a vivid narrative biography that goes beyond the usual story of a brilliant scientist. This book explores how Einstein became the kind of thinker who could challenge humanity’s ...

Pioneers of Human Behaviour: Richard Feynman A Gateway to His Life, Discoveries, and Legacy Richard Feynman was one of the most brilliant, playful, and uncompromising scientific minds of the twentieth century — a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who changed how modern science sees the invisible world, yet whose deepest lesson may be about something far more human: how not to fool ourselves. This concise yet powerful volume distils Feynman’s life and work into clear, engaging chapters. From his childhood in Far Rockaway and his teenage reputation for fixing radios “by thinking,” to his ...

What happens when a young physicist searches for hidden order and finds himself caught between genius, war, politics, and suspicion? Before David Bohm became the visionary thinker of the implicate order, before he challenged quantum orthodoxy, before Einstein, exile, and his later reputation as a scientific mystic, he was a restless student trying to understand the invisible structure beneath reality. This book follows Bohm through his college and young adult years, from Pennsylvania State to Caltech, from Berkeley to the charged intellectual world of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It explores the ...

A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial. Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as...

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.

Discover the fascinating world of quantum physics through the life and groundbreaking ideas of Werner Heisenberg, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. Werner Heisenberg Explained: A Complete Guide to the Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Mechanics, and the Philosophy of Modern Physics unpacks complex scientific concepts in clear, accessible language for beginners and enthusiasts alike. Explore Heisenberg’s revolutionary development of matrix mechanics, his formulation of the uncertainty principle, and his central role in shaping the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum...

The Life and Legacy of Jules Henri Poincaré A Master of Pattern Recognition, He Laid the Groundwork for Chaos Theory, Relativity, and More Step into the life of one of history’s most quietly transformative minds—Jules Henri Poincaré, the mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and polymath who bridged the old world of Newtonian mechanics and the modern age of chaos and relativity. In this sweeping and intimate biography, The Life and Legacy of Jules Henri Poincaré traces the journey of a man whose insights redefined the laws of the universe—often before the world was ready to ...

Pioneers of Human Behaviour: Isaac Newton A Gateway to His Life, Discoveries, and Legacy Isaac Newton changed the universe by asking what lay beneath appearances. A falling apple, the orbit of the Moon, the colours hidden inside white light, the movement of comets, the laws of force and motion — all became, in his hands, parts of one deeper order. Yet the man behind this revolution was far stranger than the marble image suggests: solitary, secretive, brilliant, wounded, ruthless, devout, heretical, and drawn as much to alchemy and prophecy as to mathematics and physics. This concise yet ...