Full Description
A century after the complete formulation of quantum mechanics, this book retraces this scientific revolution through its key figures and locations, from the quiet colleges of Cambridge to the cliffs of Helgoland, blending captivating biographies with passionate correspondence in an engaging narrative of this remarkable era in science. Quantum mechanics is the ultimate theory of nature, explaining all fundamental physical interactions. However, it introduces a paradox: rather than offering certainty, it asserts that probability governs the universe. This concept, unprecedented in scientific thought, challenges the foundations of science, philosophy, and epistemology. At its core, quantum mechanics imposes a limit on the precision with which we can measure quantities like a particle's position and velocity, revealing nature's inherent granularity. It also uncovers strange correlations between events that defy common sense, contradicting centuries of classical knowledge, from Newton's laws to the early 20th century. Quantum mechanics introduces inherent ambiguity, rooted in the duality of matter's particle and wave behaviors and the observer's influence on measurements. Even Einstein questioned this, famously asking, "Do you really believe the moon isn't there when no one is looking?" God Plays Dice with the World offers a vivid account of the revolutionary shift in science, from early 20th-century challenges to classical physics to the experimental proof of Bell's inequalities. It explores the development of quantum theory, including the wave equation, the Uncertainty Principle, and quantum field theory, while chronicling the golden age of physics, its brilliant minds, and intellectual battles in an engaging and accessible way.
Contents
Preface.- 1. The colour mystery (Am Kupfergraben 7, Berlin; Something Absolute).- 2. The Century of Wonders (The Age of Romanticism;Calculating the World;The Mechanics of the Universe; Fiat Lux; The Secret Life of Force Lines; Heat in Motion; Kinetic Theory; Entropy and Probability).- 3. The Blackbody (Good Masters, Poor Lecturers; The Origin of the Problem; A Blackbody That Isn't Really Black; Exact and Approximate Laws; The Fatal Attraction of Entropy; Planck's Version)- 4. Ordinary Geniuses and Wizards (Birds and Frogs; Portrait of a Scientist as a Young Man;Third-Class Patent Office Clerk; Quanta of Light; Perpetual Motion; Crystal Heat).- 5. The Experimental Side of Physics (The Importance of the Vacuum; Joseph John Thomson; Seeing the Invisible; Alpha Beta Gamma;The Crocodile from New Zealand; Spectral Lines).- 6. Natura Facit Saltum (Two Brothers; From Copenhagen to Manchester, via Cambridge; The Risks of a Theorist; Back to Denmark; The Colors of a Butterfly's Wings; Mocking Logic; Quantum Jumps).- 7. The Music of the Spheres (The Spider's Skill; Experimental Discoveries; It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times; New Quantum Numbers; Probability and Perplexity; The Impulse of a Photon).- 8. The Little Prince (Noblesse Oblige; The Lab in Rue Chateaubriand; Wave Mechanics; The Music of Atoms; Matter Waves; The Pilot Wave).- 9. God's Punishment (Bohr's Festival; The Periodic Table; Celtium? No, Hafnium; The Pauli Effect; Light and Shadows; Born and Bohr; Brilliant Insights; The Intricate Story of the Spin; A Trunk Full of People; The Analyst and the Stubborn Rationalist).- 10. The Birth of a New Mechanics (Top of the Class; Pride and Prejudice; The Sorrows of Young Werner; The Rage of the Defeated; Calm Chaos; The Noblest of Gases; Bohr's Blunder; Helgoland; Matrix).- 11. The Passion for Waves (A Christmas Gift; A World Full of Women; The Stage of Vienna; Inseparable; A Wave in Search of an Equation; Atomic Undulations;Two Different Worldviews; Probability Waves;The Spirit of Copenhagen).- 12. Beauty is Truth, Truth is Beauty (A Quiet Child; St. John College; A Seminar at the Kapitza Club; The Greatest Satisfaction in Life; In Search of an Equation; Dirac's Sea).- 13. The Race Toward Absolute Zero (The Coldest Place on Earth; Offer No Resistance; A Letter from India; Loss of Identity; Black Holes and Atomic Condensates).- 14. Dialogue concerning the two Chief World Systems (A River of Words;The Uncertainty Principle; Complementarity Principle; The 1927 Solvay Conference; Redde Rationem; The Quintessence of Quantum Strangeness; A Fatal Blow).- 15. Quantum Field Theory (A Fascinating Union; Classical and Quantum Fields; The Origin of Particles; Neutrino, Neutron, and Positron; Matters of Principle; The Enigma of Infinities; Shelter Island; QED, the Jewel of Physics; Weyl's Insight).- 16. The Drama of War (The Weaving of History; The Sky Over Berlin; The Red Fish Fountain; At the Heart of the Nucleus; The White Jew; J. Robert Oppenheimer, Portrait of an Enigma).- 17. The Speakable and the Unspeakable (The Nature of Things; Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen; Bohr's Response; Alive and Dead; Entanglement and Locality; The Garden of Forking Paths; John Stewart Bell and Dr. Bertlmann's Socks; Mermin's Device; God Plays Dice with the World).- Afterword.- Notes.- Glossary.- Chronology.- Selected Bibliography.- Physical Constants.- Index.
