Product Description

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. In a riveting account, David Lindley captures this critical episode and explains one of the most important scientific discoveries in history, which has since transcended the boundaries of science and influenced everything from literary theory to television.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8801 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-12
• Released on: 2008-02-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The uncertainty in this delightful book refers to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, an idea first postulated in 1927 by physicist Werner Heisenberg in his attempt to make sense out of the developing field of quantum mechanics. As Lindley so well explains it, the concept of uncertainty shook the philosophical underpinnings of science. It was Heisenberg's work that, to a great extent, kept Einstein from accepting quantum mechanics as a full explanation for physical reality. Similarly, it was the Uncertainty Principle that demonstrated the limits of scientific investigation: if Heisenberg is correct there are some aspects of the physical universe that are to remain beyond the reach of scientists. As he has done expertly in books like Boltzmann's Atom, Lindley brings to life a critical period in the history of science, explaining complex issues to the general reader, presenting the major players in an engaging fashion, delving into the process of scientific discovery and discussing the interaction between science and society. Thus, Lindley presents a very good chapter dissecting historian of science Paul Forman's iconic, if terribly flawed, analysis of the same time period. (Feb. 20)
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Review
“Brilliantly captures the personalities and the science surrounding the most revolutionary principle in modern physics. This book is . . . truly thrilling.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe

“Charmingly written and a delight to read. . . . Highlights the human element of science.”—The Economist 

“Provides a useful précis of the mind-blowing progress of physics in the early 20th century.” —The New York Times

“Far and away the best popular account of the development of quantum mechanics I have encountered.”
—Michael D. Gordin, American Scientist

About the Author
David Lindley holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Sussex University and has been an editor at Nature, Science, and Science News. Now a full-time writer, he is the author of The End of Physics, Where Does the Weirdness Go?, The Science of Jurassic Park, Boltzmann's Atom, and Degrees Kelvin. He was also the recipient of the Phi Beta Kappa science writing prize. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

terrific read, short on physics
More entertaining than scientific, maybe that's the way it must be to garner a wide readership, but I would have liked more physics. Still, I have to admit this is the first book I remember reading twice in a row, with a short side trip to my modern physics textbook (confession: I have a degree in engineering and applied physics)inbetween. The author pretty much ignores Max Planck's contributions, mentioning them in context again & again without ever telling us what he did to begin with. But, don't mistake here - this is a very much worthwhile read.

amuse and interesting
Lindlye introduce us in the very central point of Physics, the large and controversial discovering of the duality of matter. Amusement and interesting, he made simple the very difficult questions of understanding.

God Not Only Plays Dice, She Cheats!
Richard Feynman once remarked, perhaps apocryphally, that if anyone told you they `understood' quantum theory, that the one thing you could depend on is that they had missed something. That is why I find it interesting that many of the `so-so' or negative reviews of this book focus on the issue that it does not impart an `understanding' of quantum theory or mechanics. The entire point of the book is the debate between `determinism,' the idea that everything is knowable (understandable), and `uncertainty,' the idea that nothing can be `known' in the ultimate sense as everything exists only as a probability.

So, in the limited sense, this book will not allow you to `understand' quantum mechanics; if you are a careful reader you will see that `understanding' in the common sense is impossible if you accept uncertainty.

In the past few years there have been many books about particle physics, string theory, cosmology, and such which are more or less dependent on the idea that at the heart of the matter uncertainty rules the function of physics on both the large and the small scale. Rutherford once asked Bohr what `caused' the electron to shift from one state to another; Bohr spent most of the rest of his life trying to explain that the question was irrelevant; nothing `causes' the shift; it is a probability function. At the larger scale Edward Tryon said "our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time."

I really admire this book because it does focus on the personalities of the big players in this debate, something other reviewers have criticized. But unless you understand the background of these giants of science you will not understand why some of them resisted the idea of indeterminism even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

But the debate continues with some popular writers, Dinesh D'Souza, `What's So Great About Christianity?,' for example, who wish to maintain that all scientists accept a deterministic model of the Universe and that this constitutes a sort of `religious faith' in causality. The fact is that most scientists ignore the issue as it has little to do with day to day science. But if you are at all interested in what the debate means in so far as particle physics and cosmology is concerned, this book is an excellent primer on the topic. Because the book does not present a comprehensive, non-mathematical, explanation for quantum mechanics should not be seen as a fault, it's `simply one of those things.'