Heisenberg Probably Slept Here: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Physicists of the 20th Century

A century ago, physical scientists believed they understood the universe on a very fundamental level, complete with equations for every phenomenon. Newton's Laws described the mechanical universe, Maxwell's Equations united electricity, magnetism and light. Only a few puzzling phenomena remained to be explained, foremost among them results from the Michelson-Morley experiment that suggested a mismatch between the equations of Newton and Maxwell, and the spectrum produced by hot bodies, which in comparison with theoretical predictions was skewed toward the infrared. No one could predict that the 20th-century would resolve those puzzling results by reformulating Newtonian mechanics, declaring atoms divisible, blurring the distinctions between matter and energy and between particles and waves and abandoning the precise determinability of natural phenomena. Brennan (Levitating Trains and Kamikaze Genes) tells the story of our century's revolution in physics and the lives of seven great scientists (plus Newton) who brought it about in times marked by war and social and political turmoil. Unfortunately, the book is weakened by lapses in physics (especially relativity, where Brennan mixes one of the theory's basic assumptions-the constancy of the speed of light-with its counterintuitive predictions) and a text that can be as superficial as a poor encyclopedia. In spite of this, many readers will find the book useful for its insights into brilliant, complex minds grappling with scientific, technological and political problems. (Jan.)