Quantum

Quantum

2007 • 448 pages

Ratings5

Average rating4.4

15

Short review: This is really the story of a classic paradigm shift in science. (Shift from Newtonian to Quantum Physics) It is more history than science writing. I learned some of the concepts of physics but it is sort of like watching a documentary about Citizen Kane. You find out why something was new and important, even if you don't really fully understand the whole picture.

Part of what is interesting is that the last hour of audio is a post script talking about where science has gone since Einstein and Bohr. The whole fundamental nature of our understanding of reality has changed in the last 110 years. It is easy to forget how much what we know (as a society, not we as individual people) that was considered heresy 100 years ago.

It is also interesting to really look at how specific and focused science has become. I had friends that were married while I was in grad school in University of Chicago. He was working on a PhD in Physics and she a PhD in bio-chemistry. They said they had a hard time even reading one another's papers let along understanding them.

Longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/quantum-einstein-bohr-and-the-great-debate-about-the-nature-of-reality-by-manjit-kumar/

February 10, 2011Report this review