Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar (PDF)

Description

“A lucid account of quantum theory (and why you should care) combined with a gripping narrative.”―San Francisco Chronicle Quantum theory is weird. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren’t shocked by quantum theory, you didn’t really understand it. For most people, quantum theory is synonymous with mysterious, impenetrable science. And in fact for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution, focusing on the central conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. This revelatory book takes a close look at the golden age of physics, the brilliant young minds at its core―and how an idea ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century. 16 pages of photographs

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Lively….Chock-full of colorful characters.” ― Graham Farmelo, The New York Times Book Review”[Kumar] leavens the mind-bending with sketches of the remarkable human beings involved in this godlike enterprise.” ― Sara Lippincott, Los Angeles Times”Exhilarating. . . . Reading [Quantum] is a bit like lifting the hood of your mind and moving the working parts around; it’s challenging and trippy―as only the Dr. Seuss realm of the quantum can be.” ― Laura Miller, Salon”A necessary, mesmerizing and meticulous volume.” ― Sam Coale, Providence Journal”A super-collider of a book, shaking together an exotic cocktail of free-thinking physicists, tracing their chaotic interactions and seeing what God-particles and black holes fly up out of the maelstrom… Provides probably the most lucid and detailed intellectual history ever written of a body of theory that makes other scientific revolutions look limp-wristed by comparison.” ― The Independent [UK]”As a fairly innumerate non-scientist, I am perversely drawn to books about maths and science and usually abandon them with ignorance intact. However, Quantum by Manjit Kumar … is so well written that I now feel I’ve more or less got particle physics sussed. Quantum transcends genre―it is historical, scientific, biographical, philosophical.” ― The Guardian”Kumar is an accomplished writer who knows how to separate the excitement of the chase from the sometimes impenetrable mathematics.” ― Financial Times”Kumar brings lucidity and a sense of drama to what is usually considered by lay readers as an esoteric, bubble-chambered subject. He does this without sacrificing the ‘science of it’ at the altar of readability. The triumphs and the tribulations, the politics and the physics, the humanity and the genius of the protagonists all collide to produce the sort of energy that we usually expect in a Le Carre thriller.” ― The Hindustan Times”One of the best guides yet to the central conundrums of modern physics.” ― John Banville, author of The Sea About the Author Manjit Kumar has degrees in physics and philosophy and has written for Slate, The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, and New Scientist. He lives in London.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Author Manjit Kumar wrote in the Prologue to this 2008 book, “Whereas the name Einstein is a byword for scientific genius, Niels Bohr was, and remains, less well known. Yet to his contemporaries he was every inch the scientific giant… When Einstein and Bohr first met in Berlin in 1920, each found an intellectual sparring partner who would, without bitterness or rancour, push and prod the other into refining and sharpening his thinking about the quantum. It is through them and some of those gathered at Solvay 1927 that we capture the pioneering years of quantum physics… Without the quantum, the world we live in would be very different. Yet for most of the twentieth century, physicists accepted that quantum mechanics denied the existence of a reality beyond what was measured in their experiments.” (Pg. xii-xiii)He notes, “Years after [Max] Planck’s death in 1947, at the age of 89, his former student and colleague James Franck recalled watching his hopeless struggle ‘to avoid quantum theory, [to see] whether he could not at least make the influence of quantum theory as little as it could possibly be.’ It was clear to Franck that Planck ‘was a revolutionary against his own will’ who ‘finally came to the conclusion, “It doesn’t help. We have to live with quantum theory. And believe me, it will expand.’ It was a fitting epitaph for a reluctant revolutionary.” (Pg. 29)He notes, “Over a quarter of a century, the developments in quantum physics… were the product of an unhappy marriage of quantum concepts and classical physics. It was a union that by 1925 was increasingly under strain. ‘The more successes the quantum theory enjoys, the more stupid it looks,’ Einstein had written as early as May 1912. What was needed was a new theory, a new mechanics of the quantum world… Given the pivotal role of young physicists in making the revolution that shaped the modern world, these were the years of knabenphysik—‘boy physics.’” (Pg. 153)He points out, “In December 1926, Einstein had expressed his growing disquiet at the rejection of causality and determinism in a letter to Born: ‘Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the “old one.” I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.’ As the battle lines were being drawn, Einstein was unwittingly the inspiration for a stunning breakthrough, one of the greatest and profoundest achievements in the history of the quantum—the uncertainty principle.” (Pg. 224)He explains, Bohr never used the term the ‘Copenhagen interpretation,’ nor did anyone else until Heisenberg in 1955. Yet from a handful of adherents it quickly spread so that for most physicists the ‘Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics’ because synonymous with quantum mechanics. Three factors lay behind this rapid dissemination and acceptance of the ‘Copenhagen spirit.’ The first was the pivotal role of Bohr and his institute… Secondly, around the time of Solvay 1927 a number of professorships became vacant. Those who had helped create the new physics filled nearly all of these… Lastly, despite their differences, Bohr and his younger associates always presented a united front against all challenges to the Copenhagen interpretation.” (Pg. 276-277)He states, “One possible reason for the misunderstanding may be that Einstein first said that God ‘is not playing at dice’ in December 1926 when he tried to convey to Born his unease at the role of probability and chance in quantum mechanics and the rejection of causality and determinism. Pauli, however, understood that Einstein’s objections went far beyond the theory being expressed in the language of probability. ‘In particular it seems to me misleading to bring the concept of determinism into the dispute with Einstein,’ he warned Born. ‘At the heart of the problem,’ wrote Einstein in 1950 of quantum mechanics, ‘is not so much the question of causality but the question of realism.’ For years he had hoped that he ‘may yet work out the quantum puzzle without having to renounce the representation of reality.’ For the man who discovered relativity, the reality had to be local, with no place for faster-than-light influences. The violation of Bell’s inequality meant that if he wanted a quantum world that existed independently of observers, then Einstein would have had to give up locality.” (Pg. 353)He concludes, “In December 1900, classical physics had a place for everything and almost everything in its place. Then Max Planck stumbled across the quantum, and physicists are still struggling to come to terms with it. Fifty long years of ‘conscious brooding,’ said Einstein, had not brought him any closer to understanding the quantum. He kept trying to the end, taking solace in the words of the German playwright and philosopher Gotthold Lessing: ‘The aspirationto truth is more precious than its assured possession.” (Pg. 360)There is a great deal of interesting “background” information about all of the personalities involved in the development of quantum physics; this book will thus be of keen interest to anyone studying the history of this subject.

⭐The history of the development of quantum physics has been told many times, sometimes for the benefit of future physicists and sometimes more for the general public (as in John Gribben’s books). This book covers the same ground with two differences. One is that Manjit Kumar opts for a middle road in describing in more detail the history of the quantum. As in other histories, the same characters from Max Planck to John Bell are here with biographical sketches of each one in the text. But Kumar also presents more (not a lot) of the basic equations and more of the technical aspects of their work. Kumar does a fine job of digging into the details of the quantum revolution and the non-physicist can always gloss over the material he or she is not interested in. But, while the book is being sold as written for the general public and centered on the Bohr-Einstein debate about reality, it has more details than some readers may expect.The second difference from other histories of the quantum is Kumar’s emphasis (as the title indicates) on the difference between Einstein and Bohr on how to interpret the quantum results. Einstein never denied the reality of the strange results but claimed the theory was “incomplete.” Do cause and effect function at all levels of the universe independent of our observation? Einstein never wavered in the belief that a complete theory of reality could be understood causally (the famous “God does not play dice” quote) and that the weirdness of quantum results would be explained by (or be a subdivision of) that larger more complete picture. Bohr’s claim was that the “quantum world” (he did not like that term) did not function in the same way as our everyday world. Trying to find a theory that encompassed both was pointless because causality as we understand it could not be imposed on the subatomic world. If, as some have claimed, we have to think causally to make sense of our world, then we are in principle incapable of “understanding” the quantum dimensions. What we are left with is the math and the usefulness (and strangeness) of the results of quantum mechanics, from transistors to computers. There is no point trying to subsume electrons or quarks into our classical way of understanding.This is a fascinating debate and Kumar does an excellent job spelling it out when he gets there but he does not actually get there until two-thirds of the way through the book. When the Great Debate finally arrives, it is profoundly interesting. But the book’s title is somewhat misleading since the actual Bohr-Einstein debate is not sharply defined until Part 3, “Titans Clash Over Reality,” on page 251. Kumar covers a great deal of ground and his research is extensive. So, if the reader is looking for a book not just about the main debate itself but also a book with detailed background leading up to the Bohr-Einstein core disagreement, this book is ideal. I would then recommend it.

⭐This book is more of a historical bibliography than a technical investigation; I hadn’t realized how much the geniuses of the Twentieth Century interacted.

⭐I’m half way through and i can’t wait to finally get to the end…. so I can start reading all over again immediately!Possibly ‘not enough physics’ (as another reviewer about to start their 1st year as a Physics undergrad) may think, but there’s plenty to amaze and inspire within these covers – and definitely with wa-hay more insight than a more mathematical treatment would inspire – unless you’re wed to the principle of causality like poor old Schrodinger (and who would have thought Physicist’s were such a randy bunch – you wouldn’t find those sorts of fascinating vignettes in a more theoretical tome!)Some fantastic pictures of all the greats – Curie, Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, Schroedinger, Pauli, Rutherford to name only a few – absolutely the best book I’ve read since I left Uni many moons ago.If you also overlay the economic/political and jingoistic overtones of the times it is amazing to think this scientific revolution all took place less than 100 years ago, especially as without which there would be no smartphone from which to read insightful reviews and order great books

⭐This book charts the unfolding of quantum physics in the early part of the 20th century, from Planck’s solving of the black box problem with the quantisation of energy in 1900 to the great Bohr/Einstein debate at the Fifth Solvay conference of 1927 regarding the interpretation of quantum reality.Written in an as-it-happened manner by a physicist with deep passion for and understanding of the subject, the book supplies a brief curriculum vitae of the major players in the quest – Planck, Rutherford, Thompson, Bohr, de Brogli, Pauli, Heisenberg, Schrȍdinger and of course Einstein himself – and unfolds the problematic experimental data that emerged together with the theoretical means of dealing with these problems.A story of cutting-edge research, academic brilliance, personal rivalry, determination and deeply held convictions, it captures the excitement of the times in a thrilling roller-coaster of a tale, a ripping yarn made all the more enthralling by its historical accuracy. The book does contain a couple of fairly simple equations, but in a way that enhances rather than obfuscates the narrative. As a history of science it’s second to none, but the highly engaging style and sequential unfolding of events adds to an understanding of quantum physics from the perspective of the front-line.The book ends with an account of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and the experimental proof of Bell’s theorem which provides the casting vote between the two opposing viewpoints of objective reality versus quantum subjectivity. Highly recommended.

⭐I have spent twenty years reading countless books on quantum physics. Unlike most of the rest which introduce the reader to a new concept and then leave them dangling, this introduced each new area gradually, did not baffle me with pointless facts, and left me feeling more informed than with most of the others combined.I highly recommend this books to those interested in a subject that few people (even the scientists) know to its fullest extent.

⭐An excellent book that carefully traces the history of Quantum mechanics from it’s beginnings. Manjit Kumar has a talent for being able to explain not just the events of the time but also the physics in a very straightforward way, while giving readers more detail than I expected to find. I found it fascinating and his style is very easy to read, and very difficult to put down. Only snag I have about the book itself (paperback version 2014 by Icon Books) is that the contents page has a list of illustrations for a plate section that isn’t actually included in the book. Such a shame because the titles on the list include the classic fifth Solvay Conference 1927 picture, and many other interesting pictures of the main players from that time (and also Niels Bohr’s last blackboard diagram…which I am now really curious to see). Still, this apparent discrepancy is not enough to lose any stars in my review because the book itself is so good. Highly recommend, but look around for the hardback version which may have the illustrations?

⭐Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful scientific theories ever made. But it is utterly non-intuitive for both the scientist and non-scientist alike.In our everyday lives, things happen for a reason – you place a fork on a table and unless someone comes along and moves it, you can be certain that it will be still there the next day. Not so in the atomic world of quantum mechanics, an electron might be here… or it might be there … or over there. In fact it could be anywhere in the universe at any given time. Quantum mechanics predicts this behaviour in the form of a probability wave function. And it works.But is this the true nature of reality?This is the theme of the book. We have two great scientists – Einstein and Niels Bohr who have a fundamental difference of opinion about the nature of reality.From Einstein’s’ point of view, an electron has a real set of parameters such as location, velocity, spin and so on that is independent of an observer. He admits that quantum mechanics does a good job in predicting atomic behaviour but he is convinced the theory is not complete.On the other hand, there is Niels Bohr’s vision that an electron (or any microscopic entity) has no reality until an observer chooses to measure one of its parameters. He considers quantum mechanics to be complete with no further need for revision or modification.This argument goes on for decades. The book takes the reader through the panoply of scientists who helped put quantum theory together from its beginnings around 1900 to today. Scientists such as Max Planck, Heisenberg, Dirac, Pauli, Oppenheimer, Von Neumann and many, many others are included.The appeal of this book is that it brings humanity to the story of quantum mechanics. It shows the egos, the fears, the ambition of these extraordinary people as the story unfolds over decades.If you want a pure explanation of quantum mechanics then you should look to a dry text book. But if you want the human context in which quantum mechanics evolved then I recommend you read this book.

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