Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb

by David C. Cassidy

Overview

“A fascinating, well-documented biography.” —New York Times Book Review

“A monumental effort.” —New York Review of Books

“An excellent piece of science writing. . . . Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read.” —Los Angeles Times

“Cassidy has written the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist.” —Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Werner Heisenberg’s role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist’s personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.

David C. Cassidy is the author of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb; A Short History of Physics in the American Century; J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century; and Einstein and Our World. He is the recipient of the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society, the Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society, and an honorary doctorate from Purdue University. Dr. Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra Universityand resides in Bay Shore, New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934137284
Publisher:	Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David C. Cassidy is the author of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb; A Short History of Physics in the American Century; J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century; and Einstein and Our World. He is the recipient of the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society, the Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society, and an honorary doctorate from Purdue University. Dr. Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra Universityand resides in Bay Shore, New York.

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating, well-documented biography.” —New York Times Book Review

“A monumental effort.” —New York Review of Books

“An excellent piece of science writing. . . . Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read.” —Los Angeles Times

“A page-turner.” —American Scientist

“[An] excellent discussion of science, society, and the influence of the individual scientist.” —Physics Today

“An excellent work in its comprehensiveness and accuracy, and in its success in recreating the personal drama of one of the greatest and most influential scientists of this century.” —Times Higher Education

“Exhaustively detailed yet eminently readable, this is an important book.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An excellent follow up on Cassidy’s earlier masterwork Uncertainty. Cassidy offers deep insight into Heisenberg’s role as a principle founder of quantum mechanics and as the leading German physicist during the WWII years in the quest for atomic energy and weapons.” —Benjamin Bederson, physics professor emeritus, New York University, editor-in-chief emeritus of the American Physical Society, and Manhattan Project member

“A must-read book about key players in science and world history.” —Gerald Holton, research professor of physics and history of science, emeritus, Harvard University, and author of Einstein, History, and Other Passions and coeditor of Einstein for the 21st Century

“Cassidy has written the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist.” —Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb

“An excellent work of scholarship. . . . Cassidy tells this story with nuance and passion.” —Mark Walker, author of German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939-49 and Nazi Science

From the Publisher

Drawing on captured Nazi documents found in Soviet archives and other recently released materials, Cassidy (J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century) offers a new view of the German wunderkind Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), who won the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics for revolutionizing the nascent field of quantum physics, first with his matrix interpretation of quantum mechanics, then with his famous uncertainty principle. What Cassidy seeks to understand is why Heisenberg chose-indeed fought-to remain in Germany under the Nazi regime and then took a leadership role in its efforts to split the atom. Heisenberg later rationalized these activities, but Cassidy shows that the account in the scientist's memoirs doesn't always agree with evidence in the recovered documents. Heisenberg's famous wartime meeting with his one-time mentor Niels Bohr in Copenhagen is parsed in detail as Cassidy considers their conflicting accounts. Exhaustively detailed yet eminently readable, this is an important book, though it moves too quickly through Heisenberg's 30 postwar years. Photos. (Feb.)

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