Synopsis
A report from the frontiers of atomic physics reveals how scientists are realizing the quantum dreams of Einstein, Schro+a5dinger, and Bohr and studying a fantastic new world of intertwining waves and particles that make up physical reality.
Reviews
Not many physicists these days have Baeyer's assured curiosity, which allows him to borrow a title from Saint-Exupery ("One only understands the things that one tames") for his discussion of the wraiths and phantoms of nearly 50 years of quantum theory. Baeyer has the Little Prince's determined faith that the next generation will see the atomic world, and perhaps will at last unify atomic theory and quantum mechanics, the physics of Einstein and Bohr. As in his Rainbows, Snowflakes and Quarks, Baeyer dances gracefully with everyone's theories and makes them all seem charming to the general reader. But this is straight quantum, without clever analogy, Tao insights or any apology for the contradictions in current theories; the volume is, unfortunately, also without mathematics, even as an appendix. When the third revolution in physics ("a second quantum revolution") comes--not necessarily, Baeyer points out, as a synthesis of past ones--Baeyer's readers will have already been alerted. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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.
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.
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