The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

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The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

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Overview

Paul Dirac was among the greatest scientific geniuses of the modern age. One of Einstein's most admired colleagues, he helped discover quantum mechanics, and his prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics. In 1933 he became the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Dirac's personality, like his achievements, is legendary. The Strangest Man uses previously undiscovered archives to reveal the many facets of Dirac's brilliantly original mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465022106
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	06/28/2011
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	8.98(w) x 6.18(h) x 1.45(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Graham Farmelo is the author of several books, including The Strangest Man, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Farmelo is a Fellow at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, an Affiliated Professor at Northeastern University, and is a regular visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He lives in London.

Prologue 1

The Strangest Man 7

Abbreviations in Notes 439

Notes 441

Bibliography 495

List of Plates 507

Acknowledgements 509

Index 515

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Editorial Reviews

Theoretical physicist Paul Dirac (1902-84) was "the British Einstein," the youngest man to ever win the Nobel Prize for Physics, the gifted scientist who predicted the existence of antimatter, and a man so taciturn and strange that he seemed to reside in a separate universe. At times, his literal-minded rigidity could seem severe: He once scolded Niels Bohr, "I was taught at school never to start a sentence without knowing the end of it," and it is said that he cried only once in his life, the day Einstein died. Graham Fermelo's compassionate biography uses previously undiscovered family archives to rescue Dirac from facile caricature. He explores the origins of this seminal thinker's autistic behavior and explains how his remorseless pursuit of research ultimately rested on his absolute belief in the beauty of mathematics.

This biography is a gift. It is both wonderfully written…and a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two. Here we find a man with an almost miraculous apprehension of the structure of the physical world, coupled with gentle incomprehension of that less logical, messier world, the world of other people…The science writing in The Strangest Man isn't glib, but neither does it require problem-solving on the part of the reader. In most cases, Farmelo presents the technical matter clearly and efficiently, and in all cases—one of the great joys of the book—Dirac's scientific insights are placed within the circumstances in which they were born…the most satisfying and memorable biography I have read in years.
—The New York Times

Louisa Gilder

American Scientist
“[A] highly readable and sympathetic biography of the taciturn British physicist who can be said, with little exaggeration, to have invented modern theoretical physics. The book is a real achievement, alternately gripping and illuminating.”
Natural History
“Farmelo’s eloquent and empathetic examination of Dirac’s life raises this book above the level of workmanlike popularization. Using personal interviews, scientific archives, and newly released documents and letters, he’s managed – as much as anyone could – to dispel the impression of the physicist as a real-life Mr. Spock, the half Vulcan of Star Trek.”
Science
“[A] consummate and seamless biography…. Farmelo has succeeded masterfully in the difficult genre of writing a great scientist’s life for a general audience.”
Physics Today
“[An] excellent biography of a hero of physics…. [I]n The Strangest Man, we are treated to a fascinating, thoroughly researched, and well-written account of one of the most important figures of modern physics.”
Kirkus *Starred Review*
“Paul Dirac was a giant of 20th-century physics, and this rich, satisfying biography does him justice…. [A] nuanced portrayal of an introverted eccentric who held his own in a small clique of revolutionary scientific geniuses.”
Library Journal
“Farmelo did not pick the easiest biography to write – its subject lived a largely solitary life in deep thought. But Dirac was also beset with tragedy… and in that respect, the author proposes some novel insights into what shaped the man. This would be a strong addition to a bibliography of magnificent 20th-century physicist biographies, including Walter Issacson’s Einstein, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and James Gleick’s Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman.”
American Journal of Physics
“[A] very moving biography…. It would have been easy to simply fill the biography with Dirac stories of which there is a cornucopia, many of which are actually true. But Farmelo does much more than that. He has met and spoken with people who knew Dirac including the surviving members of his family. He has been to where Dirac lived and worked and he understands the physics. What has emerged is a 558 page biography, which is a model of the genre. Dirac was so private and emotionally self-contained that one wonders if anyone really knew him. Farmelo’s book is as close as we are likely to come."

From the Publisher

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

Paperback(First Trade Paper Edition)

Paperback(First Trade Paper Edition)

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Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews