Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science

This is an excellent book; one well suited to a general reader as well as for a scientist. The book deals with evolution of physics from the classical view of strict causality (everything due to a specific, well defined and analyzable, cause), to one based on statistics and probability. Many physicists did not accept physics based on probabilities and uncertainties, instead of one based on certainties and strict causality, and many still have trouble with this idea. The book provides an excellent history of the evolution of quantum mechanics from classical physics. It is very readable and entertaining and uses absolutely no mathematics, mathematical terms or even mathematical constants. The book is thus very well suited to someone who just wants to know something about the evolution of physics and why Einstein and others had so much trouble accepting what was being predicted. The author writes with style and, being a physicist himself, he brings clarity to a very difficult subject. He makes the personalities come alive, while still getting into the meat of the subject of how physics evolved from the strict causality of Newton, to the probabilities of the kinetic theory of gasses, to the concept of the statistical nature entropy, to the complete negation of strict causality required by quantum mechanics. The historical development, the discussion of the personalities and the clear exposition of the philosophical quandaries that quantum mechanics created, will also be of interest to physicists as well as to those in a general audience. The subtitle of the book - Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and the struggle for the soul of science, sounds like one made up by the publisher, and it not completely representative of what is in the book. Heisenberg does not enter the book until the second half and I do not know what the publisher means by the soul of science, a term that is never once used in the book itself. The actual scope of the book goes well beyond quantum mechanics and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. As has been noted, it begins with thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gasses and the need to use statistics to describe the behavior of huge collections of atoms and molecules. This was the first crack in the façade of classical causality, one that Einstein himself helped widen. Einstein helped develop statistical mechanics and saw these statistics as the way to explain the unpredictable (at least for a single atom) process of radioactive decay. From here the book ventures into the realm of quantum mechanics and the more profound uncertainties that it describes. My one criticism is that the book does, in my opinion, a poor job of explaining Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, his explanation of the uncertainty principle via the thought experiment of his "quantum microscope", and of the EPR experiment proposed by Einstein. There is not even a mention of the fact that the uncertainty principle is required by the non-commutative nature of the matrix mathematics that he used or the equivalent wave mechanics approach. I would recommend Rosenblum and Kutter's Quantum Enigma for a much better discussion the uncertainty principle and EPR. However, all in all, this is an excellent book, and I recommend it to both a scientific and to a general audience.

I wanted a brief historical explanation of quantum mechanics and this book ably provided it. It is a fascinating subject and the author has done a fine job of summarizing and presenting it. Even though I think the author is too dismissive of the philosophical importance of quantum theory, the final chapter is an excellent summation and I found it to be the most enjoyable chapter of the book. This is a book that I had to read slowly. At times I think the author assumes too much from the non-physicist reader. But it is the best introduction to the subject that I know of and I would recommend it to anyone who, like me, wants to improve upon a vague understanding of this history.

I never took a physics course at college and have never been strong at math. Yet I was somehow able to read all of David Lindley’s “Uncertainty” with pleasure and unflagging interest. Lindley possesses the rare talent of being able to communicate matters of great scientific complexity in a manner that provides meaning and a sense of understanding to the lay reader. The mysterious behavior of sub-atomic particles remains central to the work of theoretical physicists today. Lindley provides a fascinating account of the debate that took place a century ago among a group of brilliant theorists concerning the puzzling movement of electrons within the atom. The evident unpredictability of that movement was a revolutionary finding, one that has set the course of what became known as quantum mechanics and related issues within physics ever since. It seems hard to believe that these sweeping new developments took place a hundred years ago. Lindley does a masterful job of sketching in the background and vicissitudes of the arcane and enormously intricate discoveries relating to sub-atomic particles that developed both before and after World War I.The temperament, rivalries, and eccentricities of the geniuses who thought, worked and argued over them are equally well described. And what an extraordinary group they were: Heisenberg, Bohr, Kramer, Born, Dirac, Pauli, Schroëdinger, and of course, Einstein, who until his death in 1955 never reconciled himself philosophically to the idea that a principle of uncertainty could exist within the realm of physics. It’s an extraordinary and exciting historic tale. I feel indebted to David Lindley for his skill in making it comprehensible to an entirely non-scientific reader such as me.

Finally, an excellent book on Quantum Theory.

If you like both Physics and History this book is the perfect synthesis. Even if you are not interested in history, this should be a necessary knowledge for a good physicist. Enjoy it!

It is really well-written and it gives a comprehensive description of one of the most important periods in the history of physics.

This provides an excellent history and explanation of important concepts in quantum theory. It helps to have some knowledge of Physics, but any intelligent layperson can learn much that is important in modern science. Recommended.

This book captures so nicely the timeline of how quantum physics evolved from application of statistical methods to explain natural phenomena such as Brownian motion. What I also find very interesting is how the physicists (and chemists) demonstrated different form of intelligence/skills and research approach to solve different problems. If Bohr had the intuition then Pauli was analytical and Rutherford was a hard-fact guy driven by experimental facts. I haven't completed reading the book yet but I find its fascinating enough already to share my experience.