Physics and Beyond (World Perspectives) [Perfect Paperback]

Werner Heisenberg (Author), A.J. Pomerans (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (December 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0049250205
• ISBN-13: 978-0049250208
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,588,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Book. Mind in Motion of a Great Scientist., September 20, 2002

By 

Joe Walker (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Physics and Beyond (World Perspectives) (Perfect Paperback)

Werner Heisenberg is the one great, if not provocative figures of the 20th. century Science. Famous for his Uncertainty Principle and formulation of Quantum Mechanics.

Unfortunately, the two great great theories of the 20th. century science, quantum theory and relavity theory was formulated in Central Europe during the two World Wars. Heisenberg, born in 1901 was a witness to the World War I, World II and the Cold War.

Heisenberg reflects this in detail. How does one deal with political chaos and diaster during the Hitler reign in Germany. He himself decided to stay in Germany. Bohr, Fermi, Einstein all fled Europe, he decided to stay.

Enrico Fermi tells in 1939 "America is a bigger and freer country. Leave the ballast of the past, pettiness of the Old World, One can start anew in the New World."

History will forever debate the Heisenberg of World War II.

Part history, part science, but the most interesting is his encounters with the great scientist of the 20th century. Science you can learn from any textbook.

Moreover, his emphasis on experiment, experiment data, experimental observation as basis for all science is important here.

Written in "conversation" form, we meet and hear the great scientist of the 20th century. Sommerfeld was his teacher, Wolfgang Pauli his classmate. He fellow scientist Born, Neils Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Paul Dirac, Einstein and many other greats are here.

This book makes them all human because they had to struggle to come "discover" science and the political diaster that engulfed Europe in the first half of 20th. century. Edward Teller "Mr. H-Bomb" was student of Heisenberg. All has to grapple with politics and history.

This book should be back in Print. Book is the mind in motion of a great scientist. With discovery of atomic theory, the linking of science and politics is joined forever. Science can never just be science and politics just be politics.

Unfornate but true. Knowledge renders power. No one is more "powerful" than scientist now and in the future.

Once you know the "laws of nature", you then can be "master of nature".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great read for anyone interested in science, February 8, 2010

By 

Barbara Carey "science/religion seeker" (Bethesda, Md.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (World Perspectives Series, Vol. 42) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this book. It delightfully combines the biography of Heisenberg with the early developments in quantum physics. So many of these great physicists were friends and their constant communications and sharings with one another were extremely interesting and gave me a feeling of intimacy with them. They stimulated one another to new creative ideas; that is surely the way most innovative ideas are created. It gives one hope for the continual communication being carried on through today's technology.

5.0 out of 5 stars essential reading, March 21, 2011

By 

boudu (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Physics and Beyond (World Perspectives) (Perfect Paperback)

The single best introduction to the development of quantum theory, far from limited to considerations of physics; I have been obliged to acquire my own library of copies for classes I teach, because it has not been reprinted: inexplicable, and inexcusable: Heisenberg's moral reputation is not unscathed by his history, but he remained still mostly accepted by his colleagues in physics, and whatever revisionism is implicit in this document, its thoughtful, almost innocent unfolding of the intellectual revolution he steered ultimately requires us to yield to the honesty of his mind. Physicists everywhere, as well as historians, appeal for its re-release.