This book makes me wish I had studied Physics. If you’re a science nerd, don’t miss this
blend of fact and fiction, but even if you’re not a science nerd, this book is
spellbinding. The only downside is that
I will never remember which scientist made which discovery, particularly in the
area of quantum mechanics, in which subatomic entities behave both as particles
and as waves. Einstein, Oppenheimer, and
Niels Bohr are bit players here, while Schrodinger (of Schrodinger’s cat fame),
Heisenberg, de Broglie, Schwarzschild,
Mochizuki, and
Grothendieck steal the limelight here.
Unfortunately, the only part of this book that I am likely to remember
is the beginning when the author recounts the various drug addictions of
Hitler, Goring, and other Nazi bigwigs.
He goes on to talk about cyanide and its original development as a
pigment for paint. Apple seeds contain
cyanide (who knew?), and half a cup of them contains enough cyanide to kill a
human. This book is not exactly dripping
with little-known facts like that, but fascinating stuff abounds. One would assume that brilliant scientists
would collaborate, but apparently they were just as likely to feud, each
convinced that his (no women here) theory offered the truth about the behavior
of matter.
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