Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution - Hardcover

John Gribbin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593067762 ISBN 13: 9780593067765

Publisher: Bantam, 2012

Synopsis

Erwin Schrodinger was an Austrian physicist famous for his contribution to quantum physics. He won the Nobel Prize in 1933 and is best known for his thought experiment of a cat in a box, both alive and dead at the same time, which revealed the seemingly paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics. Schrodinger was working at one of the most fertile and creative moments in the whole history of science. By the time he was starting university in 1906, Einstein had already published his revolutionary papers on relativity. Now the baton of scientific progress was being passed to a new generation: Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Niels Bohr, and of course, Schrodinger himself. In this riveting biography John Gribbin takes us into the heart of the quantum revolution. He tells the story of Schrodinger's surprisingly colourful life (he arrived for a position at Oxford University with both his wife and mistress). And with his trade mark accessible style and popular touch explains the fascinating world of quantum mechanics, which underpins all of modern science.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Erwin Schrödinger is the grandfather of quantum physics best known for his thought experiment of a cat in a box, simultaneously dead and alive, which demonstrated the maddening absurdity of quantum physics. Author of the bestselling classic In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, John Gribbin now explores the physicist behind the box.

Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution is a riveting biography of a giant of physics who was as passionate about philosophy and Eastern religion as he was about science, who broke social convention to the detriment of his career, and who was a reluctant revolutionary of quantum physics. Raised on the scientific tradition of the nineteenth century, Erwin Schrödinger's major contribution to the new science of the twentieth century was his masterpiece wave theory of quanta for which he received a Nobel Prize. Schrödinger remains an integral part of the new physics of the twenty-first century.

Few scientists are known as snappy dressers, but Schrödinger sometimes made Einstein look like a fashion icon. On one occasion he had trouble gaining admission to an important scientific meeting because of his bedraggled appearance. Far more problematic were his unorthodox domestic arrangements. He horrified the old-fashioned establishment at Oxford when he turned up in England with both his wife and his mistress, and he was later not considered for a job at Princeton, working alongside Einstein, for the same reason.

More than a century after the first skirmishes of the quantum revolution, it may be difficult to understand what a profound shock it was for brilliant scientists like Schrödinger and Einstein to be confronted by the specter of uncertainty at the atomic level. Gribbin creates an almost wistful picture of the solid, predictable universe understood by Newtonian physicists—a world in which immutable laws of nature governed every micron of movement in a clockwork system. How, then, could an electron be in two places at once, or move from one place to another without passing through the space between, or be in no definable place at all? John Gribbin explains the complexity of quantum mechanics, as well as the complex character of this quantum pioneer, in his signature, lucid approach that any curious mind can understand.

From the Back Cover

A lively, fascinating biography of the father of quantum mechanics by the bestselling author of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat

Erwin Schrödinger, best known for his famous Schrödinger's Cat paradox, is one of the most famous physicists of the twentieth century and the father of quantum mechanics. Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution is the first accessible, in-depth biography of the Nobel Prize–winning Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. It takes you into the heart of the quantum revolution and explains the captivating world of quantum mechanics, which underpins all of modern science. Written by bestselling author John Gribbin, one of today's greatest popular science writers, this book unlocks the mysteries of quantum physics as it tells the memorable life story of one of the most colorful and unorthodox scientists of the twentieth century.

Gribbin is an established master in the game of demystifying quantum mechanics
–Jim Al-Khalili

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0593067762
• ISBN 13: 9780593067765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336