Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science

Excellent historical perspective of how the personalities and the scientific process moved unevenly toward the creation of quantum mechanics during a very turbulent time in history.

The development of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was a watershed moment in the history of physics when science and philosophy converged to create a whole new way of looking at reality. Early 20th century physicists were trained in the safe, deterministic environment of Newtonian physics where effect followed cause. Already, the physics world was reeling from the impact of relativity and now the uncertainty principle was telling scientists that at its most fundamental level the universe cannot be precisely known. Perhaps even worse was Heisenberg's other brainchild, quantum mechanics, which said that nature is more than just unknowable it works in an irreducibly random fashion. Together, the uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics suddenly opened up all new discussions on fate, the nature of free will and the effect of observers on subjects.For a book on such a weighty subject, `Uncertainty' is easily digestible by even layman readers. `Uncertainty' centers on Germany in the period around and between the first and second world wars when physics enjoyed arguably its most productive period ever. Legendary figures like Niels Bohr, Max Born, Ludwig Boltzmann, Erwin Schrodinger and some fellow named Albert Einstein were making spectacular advances pushing the boundaries of human knowledge. The author puts the birth of quantum mechanics in historical perspective having occurred at the same time as the rise of Nazi party. Germany became an increasingly hostile environment for some of the best minds in its midst. It's an example of how intolerance in a country can sabotage its future. Many of the scientists who fled Germany found a much friendlier environment in the U.S. moving the center of physics research away Europe. In the end it was the United States that led the world in nuclear physics.One person in the book who gets knocked a bit is Albert Einstein himself. After toppling some of the most sacred cows of science Einstein suddenly found himself the grumpy old man trying to rain on the parade of quantum mechanics. The author writes, "Other physicist heard more than they wanted to know about the secrets of the Old One, about the God who doesn't play dice, about the Lord being subtle but not malicious. Einstein talked as if he alone could know the inner truth of nature". Obviously Einstein has earned his place in history many times over but it's interesting to see an author show how even Einstein is a fallible human being and this is what sets `Uncertainty' apart. David Lindley makes the characters come alive. Rather than just listing who developed what and when, he creates fully formed personalities with hopes and bitterness, desires and regret. It's to his credit that the author doesn't paint Einstein as a man who walks on water and many of Einstein's contemporaries do far worse than stand in the way of progress. Max Planck, for instance, had some lamentable moments defending the Nazi's.This is the first book I have ever read that focused as much on the personalities of the physicists as it does on their achievements. `Uncertainty' is more about the uncertainty of life and the interaction of characters and events than it is about Heisenberg's principle. It's doubtful that physics will ever again have a period even approaching what occurred in the early 20th century. It's an excellent recounting of physics last golden age.

It's a book about the development of quantum mechanics and controversies of interpretation. Of course, as a physicist I knew most of it in a broadbrush, history-of-physics way. But I did learn a lot about how the players interacted and I got some insights into their philosophy of physics. I wasn't aware of the role of Wien or the effect on Spengler. Born's role is described but Jordan isn't even mentioned. I was surprised to learn that even after Einstein had explained the photoelectric effect, Bohr adamantly opposed the quantization of light. The book covers from the Bohr atom up thru the 1930 Solvay Conference in terms of the physics, beyond that the discussion is more about the philosophical conundrums of EPR and Schroedingers cat. Lindley doesn't give a modern resolution in terms of decoherence; he just nods to it. But it's more a book about the people than the science.

This is an excellent book; one well suited to a general reader as well as for a scientist. The book deals with evolution of physics from the classical view of strict causality (everything due to a specific, well defined and analyzable, cause), to one based on statistics and probability. Many physicists did not accept physics based on probabilities and uncertainties, instead of one based on certainties and strict causality, and many still have trouble with this idea.The book provides an excellent history of the evolution of quantum mechanics from classical physics. It is very readable and entertaining and uses absolutely no mathematics, mathematical terms or even mathematical constants. The book is thus very well suited to someone who just wants to know something about the evolution of physics and why Einstein and others had so much trouble accepting what was being predicted. The author writes with style and, being a physicist himself, he brings clarity to a very difficult subject. He makes the personalities come alive, while still getting into the meat of the subject of how physics evolved from the strict causality of Newton, to the probabilities of the kinetic theory of gasses, to the concept of the statistical nature entropy, to the complete negation of strict causality required by quantum mechanics. The historical development, the discussion of the personalities and the clear exposition of the philosophical quandaries that quantum mechanics created, will also be of interest to physicists as well as to those in a general audience.The subtitle of the book - Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and the struggle for the soul of science, sounds like one made up by the publisher, and it not completely representative of what is in the book. Heisenberg does not enter the book until the second half and I do not know what the publisher means by the soul of science, a term that is never once used in the book itself. The actual scope of the book goes well beyond quantum mechanics and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. As has been noted, it begins with thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gasses and the need to use statistics to describe the behavior of huge collections of atoms and molecules. This was the first crack in the façade of classical causality, one that Einstein himself helped widen. Einstein helped develop statistical mechanics and saw these statistics as the way to explain the unpredictable (at least for a single atom) process of radioactive decay. From here the book ventures into the realm of quantum mechanics and the more profound uncertainties that it describes.My one criticism is that the book does, in my opinion, a poor job of explaining Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, his explanation of the uncertainty principle via the thought experiment of his "quantum microscope", and of the EPR experiment proposed by Einstein. There is not even a mention of the fact that the uncertainty principle is required by the non-commutative nature of the matrix mathematics that he used or the equivalent wave mechanics approach. I would recommend Rosenblum and Kutter's Quantum Enigma for a much better discussion the uncertainty principle and EPR. However, all in all, this is an excellent book, and I recommend it to both a scientific and to a general audience.

Lindsey provides the untrained a map of milestones leading to the role of quantum mechanics today. Interesting connections to other disciplines at the end of the book.

Finally, an excellent book on Quantum Theory.

It is really well-written and it gives a comprehensive description of one of the most important periods in the history of physics.

If you like both Physics and History this book is the perfect synthesis. Even if you are not interested in history, this should be a necessary knowledge for a good physicist. Enjoy it!

This provides an excellent history and explanation of important concepts in quantum theory. It helps to have some knowledge of Physics, but any intelligent layperson can learn much that is important in modern science. Recommended.

This book captures so nicely the timeline of how quantum physics evolved from application of statistical methods to explain natural phenomena such as Brownian motion. What I also find very interesting is how the physicists (and chemists) demonstrated different form of intelligence/skills and research approach to solve different problems. If Bohr had the intuition then Pauli was analytical and Rutherford was a hard-fact guy driven by experimental facts. I haven't completed reading the book yet but I find its fascinating enough already to share my experience.