Customer Reviews

Niels Bohr the Man, His Science, and the World They

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First off, I am a physics major so i am quite familiar with Bohr and his fantastic acheivements! I read this book for a history of science and technology class and found it to be quite longwinded. The author goes into detail about events she has no knowledge of, for instance she says describes how Bohr looked at the water in the fountain of the Institute - there is no way she could know that(the only on being Bohr himself), just that he sat out by the water thinking about something. My other gripe with this book is the chronology - while generally sticking to the right order, several chapters moved forward a few years then back again. In once chapter the author talks about Bohr and his going to America to work on the Manhattan Project, at one point it's 1940 and he is in sweden, next page it's 1943 and Bohr and his son have gone to the USA, only to find two paragraphs down it's back t0 1941, Bohr writing a letter to a colleage about his proposed trip to the USA. Now this book does contain a lot of information on the man who turned the quantum world on it's head, but something better could be written...and doesn't a man of Bohr's stature deserve a good biography?

This biography recalls the entire life of Niels Bohr, one of the preeminent scientists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the author even likens his influence to Aristotle's. Though focusing primarily on his scientific life, the book traces his life from his promising beginnings in Denmark until his death in 1962. Also included is the author's assertion that Bohr was nearly able to halt the nuclear Arms race that spawned the Cold War. Other notables that are mentioned in conjunction with Bohr include: James Franck, Lord Rutherford, Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Sir John Cockcroft, Ernest Lawrence, and Adlai Stevenson.