Taming the Atom: The Emergence of the Visible Microworld (Penguin science) - Softcover

Baeyer, Hans Christian Von

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140156216 ISBN 13: 9780140156218

Publisher: Penguin, 1994

Synopsis

While the quantum theory of the internal structure of atoms remains a matter of theory, inaccessible to everyday experience, atoms themselves have become increasingly tangible and perceptible in recent years. The invention of the scanning-tunnelling microscope has made it possible to photograph them, and atomic traps are making it possible to isolate individual atoms in ways that are vastly increasing our understanding of their behaviour. Much recent science writing has concentrated on the far reaches of theory - particle physics, quantum theory and cosmology. In this book Von Baeyer shows how this links into the world we inhabit and how electron clouds and probability waves add up to the physical, tangible world of objects.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Take seriously that subtitle--for what this fascinating book is all about are devices and procedures that allow the imaging of even a single atom suspended in a tiny doughnut-shaped trap. Von Baeyer (Physics/College of William and Mary), who charmed lay and professional readers alike with his Rainbows, Snowflakes and Quarks (1984), takes his main title from the fox in Saint Exup‚ry's The Little Prince, who described ``taming: as establishing bonds--a process that happens slowly and with patience.'' So it has been, von Baeyer contends, with the history of atomic theory from Democritus to Einstein down to the latter-day stars of quantum mechanics. He reminds us that no less a giant of physics than Ernst Mach stoutly denied the existence of atoms at the end of the 19th century. Now, while there are no doubters, there remain the paradoxes of quantum mechanics--such as wave- particle duality: In the ``Copenhagen'' interpretation, an electron is potentially either a wave or a particle and the act of measurement determines which. Einstein rejected that notion, arguing instead that there is an objective reality beyond acts of measurement. Von Baeyer sorts out the history and experiments behind the paradoxes to bring us up to date with new theories to resolve them--including the use of ingenious devices such as a ``quantum eraser'' sensitive to a photon extracted from a single atom. Other clever atom-taming devices in the author's marvelous catalog include an apparatus that can prevent the spontaneous emission of an atom; ``tuned'' lasers that can detect impurities in a sample down to a single atom; and the ``magic wrist''--a machine that ``feels'' the ``surface roughness of the atomic landscape.'' And all this told in that combination of depth of knowledge and eyewitness narrative that marks the best science writing. (Eight pages of color illustrations--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

At the beginning of this volume, von Baeyer ( Rainbows, Snowflakes and Quarks , LJ 7/84) tells of his recent visit to a physics laboratory to actually see an individual mercury atom, captured, isolated, and made visible by very new techniques of microphysics. He then backs up to review the whole history of atomic theory, from the classical Greek philosophers to 20th-century quantum mechanics. Next, he tells us more of the modern techniques for manipulating and viewing atomic particles; this section features the technique known as "scanning tunneling microscopy." Finally, he refers to the still-unresolved mystery of the foundations of quantum mechanics. All of this is accomplished without resort to diagrams or equations but with marvelously fluid and intelligible prose. The book will be accessible to well-informed lay readers but should also be entertaining even to advanced researchers. A superior work of scientific popularization; highly recommended for academic and public libraries.
- Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140156216
• ISBN 13: 9780140156218
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368