I just finished reading Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science. The book covers the development of atomic theory, quantum theory, and most importantly, quantum mechanics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The central figures are the de facto fathers of modern physics. The author, David Lindley, doesn’t delve too deeply into the math or even hard science of the topic but instead focuses on the personalities of Born, Bohr, The Curries, Einstein, Heisenberg and others prominently represented in the book.
The author could have taken a deeper dive into the actual physics. Throughout much of the book Einstein and Company battle Heisenberg and Company for “the soul of science” aka Einstein’s more classical views vs. Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics. I would have appreciated a more thorough discussion of which concepts have really taken hold in quantum mechanics. For example, Lindley discussed how the Schrödinger’s cat analogy (Schrödinger being from the Einstein camp) has been abandoned by modern physicists as misrepresenting what is know about quantum mechanics. What are the facts, as understood by the leading physicists today? I would have happily read another 10 or 20 pages covering what has made it into the modern view, and what hasn’t. That being said, this book did a marvelous job framing the arguments so that they can be understood by the lay person. The characters are brought to life and humanized. I felt the author treated everyone more than fairly. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a better idea of quantum mechanics without having to learn too much science.
