Customer Reviews

Across the Frontiers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Werner Heisenberg is one of the most famous physicists in the history of the development of the quantum theory, his name is attached to the famous uncertainty principle dictating the inablity to both measure the position and the velocity of a particle with the same degree of accuracy at the same time, one accurate measurement leads to inaccuracy in the other. This book does not discuss Heisenberg's science but rather his own interest in discussing science as part of the whole human endeavour. It is a book of essays ranging from the philosophy of Wolfgang Pauli, the state of education in German universities, the use of abstraction in science and art, the truths inherent in science and religion to Einstein's lifetime work. Most of the essays are obtained from the transcripts of lectures or talks Heisenberg gave at various times during the 50's, 60's and 70's. His writing is straightforward without the subtlety of say Schroedinger in his "What is Life" but nonetheless quite deep at times. As you go through each essay you find that a small gem usually awaits, sometimes it is a simple statement and at other times its more hidden. His discussions are intelligent and thought provoking often allowing the reader to progress further in his own thinking and developing the ideas themselves. Heisenberg makes no rash statements much as his own scientific career has shown when he states something there is real meaning behind it. Heisenberg is willing to consider much that others would rather look past. Heisenberg does not dismiss religion or philosophy which many others do, thinking both to be unnecessary for science, rather he is willing to consider the ideas present in both and even as being other ways to reach truth. He possesses a good judge of character as his essay on Einstein suggests. All in all a very satisfying book.

Leon Lederman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, saw the role of modern science as a search for beauty "When Coleridge tried to define beauty, he returned always to one deep thought: beauty, he said, is `unity in variety.' Science is nothing else than the search to discover unity in the wild variety of nature--or more exactly, in the variety of our experience." Werner Heisenberg's "Across the Frontiers" is indeed a work of beauty. Most fascinating from a philosophical view is his pronouncement that Plato was right: "... modern science has definitely decided for Plato. For the smallest units of matter are in fact not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word; they are forms, structures--or in Plato's sense--Ideas, which can unambiguously be spoken of only in the language of mathematics." [Page 116]

Beyond his scientific concepts, Heisenberg the philosopher is also a man of spiritual and moral insight ... "It is only within this spiritual pattern, of the ethos prevailing in the community, that man acquires the points of view whereby he can also shape his own conduct wherein it involves more than a mere reaction to external situations; it is here that the question about values is first decided. Not only ethics, however, but the whole cultural life of the community is governed by this spiritual pattern. Only within its sphere does the close connection first become visible between the good, the beautiful and the true, and here only does it become possible to speak of life having meaning for the individual." [218] This book is highly recommended for scientists, visionaries and philosophers.

If you are an EE, physicist or scientist then definitely you will like it. Or if you just like to read stuff to stimulate your mind to think about deep thoughts then you will like it too. This is one of those books that you go over things slowly and if you are lucky then eventually you will run across stuff like "Ahhh !!!... I didn't think that way !!!!". On the other hand, stuff written by the one an only Heisnenberg, how cool is that !!!!. Anyways, this book is a miscelaneous collection on several different topics, not a biography.

I do not understand why the person from Cardiff only gave it 3 stars. Even the most distinguished physicists of all time have commented upon a page in this book which falls in the same vein as people like Beethoven being satisfied with the 9th at its end. Consider these lines "I concentrated on demonstrating that the conservation law held, and one evening I reached the point where I was ready to determine the individual terms in the energy table, or, as we put it today, in the energy matrix, by what would now be considered an extremely clumsy series of calculations. When the first terms seemed to accord with the energy principle, I became rather excited, and I began to make countless arithmetical errors. As a result, it was almost three o'clock in the morning before the final result of my computations lay before me. The energy principle held for all the terms, and I could no longer doubt the mathematical consistency and coherence of the kind of quantum mechanics to which my calculations pointed. At first, I was deeply alarmed. I had the feeling that, through the surface of atomic phenomena, I was looking at a strangely beautiful interior, and felt almost giddy at the thought that I now had to probe this wealth of mathematical structures nature had so generously spread out before me. I was far too excited to sleep, and so, as a new day dawned, I made for the southern tip of the island, where I had been longing to climb a rock jutting out into the sea. I now did so without too much trouble, and waited for the sun to rise". These lines rank among the most vivid in the description of scientific discovery. It is strikingly beautiful and the man is pretty much telling us how he gave birth to MATRIX MECHANICS AND THE UNCERTAINITY PRINCIPLE. Beauty in exposition warrants 5 stars, not a suffocating 3!