Customer Reviews

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Paul Dirac was one of the founders of quantum theory. He fused quantum theory and the special theory of relativity and, in the process, provided a reason for suspecting that there is such a thing as anti-matter. Dirac died in 1984. Given that (a) the work for which he is remembered was all done by 1931, (b) his work was rather technical, and (c) he had no life apart from his work, how has Graham Farmelo managed to write a 500-page biography and, what's more, to include only five equations, four of which have nothing to do with physics? It's a neat trick. First, Farmelo gives us more than a biography. He gives us a history of quantum theory. Second, he tells us about people associated with Dirac, many of whom did have a life outside physics. Finally, Farmelo has a gift for expressing technical ideas simply, compactly, in mere words--words anyone can understand. For example, his account of the infinities that plagued quantum field theory could not be simpler. The infinities are important to Farmelo's story because, if Pierre Ramond can be believed, it is because of them that Dirac was convinced, as he approached death, that his life had been a failure. Farmelo speculates that Dirac may have been autistic. Strange he certainly was. It's hard to picture this great mind, absorbed week after week in Cher's television show. But, then, this was a fellow who thought Wittgenstein was "awful" because he talked too much. Farmelo suggests that Dirac's truth-via-beauty philosophy is an afterthought, that it did not guide him in his important work. (This matters in biography, though not in physics. In physics, experimenters will always have the last word, and their detectors are indifferent to philosophies.) Farmelo shows us how very lucky Dirac was. Had Dirac not stumbled into physics he might well have shared his brother's fate.

Graham Farmelo has written the best science book you can read. It is written by a distinguished scientist, who knows his equations (especially THAT equation...) but who has done so in a way that can be understood by those of us with degrees in the humanities. This is a very rare feat: he does not stint on the science, but is clear, readable and easy to follow even if your mathematics did not continue beyond high school.

Not only that but Dirac is a fascinating person in his own right, regardless of the science - the human side of the story is gripping, since Dirac was so unusual and yet able to stay this side of sanity and make his great discoveries.

So an ideal book for all of us: buy it and buy copies for your friends.

Christopher Catherwood (author of WINSTON CHURCHILL: THE FLAWED GENIUS OF WORLD WAR II: Berkley, 2009)

This engaging and fascinating biography of one the world's greatest, though mostly unknown, physicist requires no knowledge of physics to tempt the layperson interested in learning about an odd brilliant character and his impact on the world of science. You also get a wonderfully clear picture of Britain in the 20th century. The writing is clear and highly intelligible even when describing Dirac's remarkable breakthroughs in quantum mechanics. I highly recommend this book.

This book, while highly informative and very readable, has, in my view, three irritating flaws. One is poor editing. In the first chapter, Dirac's parents have two children on one page, three on the next, but the third isn't born until a few pages later. At the other end of the book, Dirac's wife is a manipulative shrew on one page, on another a loving wife. Such inconsistencies abound between the covers of this very long book. Indeed, my second concern is its length. Farmelo, like even those closest to Dirac, had little access to his inner life so he tries to create one, of sorts, by describing ad minutum what Dirac would have heard on the radio on this or that day, what he would have seen from this or that window, etc etc etc etc. The real Dirac was, however, lost in thought and likely heard or saw none of it. The book could be cut by a third. Third and most important is Farmelo's superficial discussion of Dirac's view of beauty in science and his (the author's) misleading distinction between "top-down" and "bottom-up" science; space does not permit me to say more about this, but beware. It is true that the book has many excellent qualities, but since other reviewers are extolling its praises without qualification, someone needs to say it isn't perfect.

Having learned of this book through a review in The Economist, I ordered a copy of the UK edition rather than wait for the US edition. Despite that, I have only now finished it, having several times set it aside to read other books. And I would seem to be the idea audience for a biography of Dirac: my (now long ago) dissertation involved a generalization of the Dirac Equation.

The early and mid 20th century was a time of great progress in understanding fundamental physics, with the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics established and their initial combination achieved, the latter in large part through Dirac's work. (The reconciliation of quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity remains, prominently, to be accomplished.)

Several physicists of that period led interesting lives, and their biographies are surprisingly popular despite the lack of broad interest and general education in physics in the US. Two, Einstein and Feynman, are publishing mainstays. In addition to being great physicists, they were also interesting people. They said clever things, wrote clever articles and books, hobnobbed with important people, spoke out on causes, and got mixed up with various women. All great fodder for books. Other great physicists of the century weren't as colorful, but many still managed to be interesting.

Dirac, by contrast, was reticent and taciturn. He could be silent in social situations, and monosyllabic in answering questions. He largely worked by himself. Not so much material for an enthralling biography. (The author speculates, reasonably, that Dirac fell somewhere in the spectrum of what we now call autism.)

His childhood was wretched, with a distant but demanding father and an unhappy mother. His brother committed suicide. This, along with his escape to school and his development into a promising and driven researcher, forms the first part of the book.

In the next phase of Dirac's life we see him develop into one of the world's leading physicists. The book alternates between his private development, the development of physics as seen through his interaction with other physicists and the author's filling in the story, and his painful interactions with his family.

Having passed the period of his greatest accomplishments Dirac, like so many physicists, had to adapt to the role of physics elder; his contributions waned and his planned research became harder to realize. To the surprise of many he married the Hungarian Manci, sister of the physicist Eugene Wigner. While she gave him a family and a new center to his life, she was also strong-willed and presented her own challenges to the reserved Dirac. In the end, she became the defender and promoter of the legacy of Dirac.

I may have found this book hard sledding because I already knew what Dirac achieved as a physicist and the story of physics in the 20th century. Take that out of the book, and what's left is pretty depressing. I feel sorry for the life Dirac lived as a person, separate from his life as a genius. But it's not fun reading.

Most biographies of scientists are uninteresting about their lives and half impenetrable, to the lay reader, about their science. Farmelo's book about this extraordinary man, who was until recently as unknown to the outside world as he was revered among the physics community, breaks with this dreary tradition. It's a wonderfully readable piece of original scholarship that catches the man's weird, unhappy yet oddly serene personality and also explains clearly the reasons for his enormous stature as a scientist. If you want an insight into a truly 'beautiful mind', this is the place to find it. And if you have the smallest interest in quantum physics and the ideas that have shaped our world, the book is essential.

Paul Dirac possessed one of the most profound intellects in history, virtually single handedly creating the fields of relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. But his extraordinarily introverted personality and complete lack of interest in anything outside theoretical physics have left him essentially invisible to the public eye. Even physicists familiar with his stunning achievements know almost nothing about his private life. Hence, Graham Farmelo's wonderful new biography is most welcome indeed.

Carefully researched and very well written with an engaging style, the text flows like a well crafted novel. Not only does this work provide valuable insights into the nature and, often tragic, life of "the strangest man" (as Bohr was said to have called him) but conveys something of the atmosphere in the academic centres (Cambridge, Göttingen, Copenhagen) where the dramatic events in the early history of quantum mechanics took place.

Perhaps inevitably in a work of this length, Mr. Farmelo occasionally stumbles. He asserts that the great Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam was a student of Dirac when, in fact, Salam did his Ph.D. under Paul Matthews and Nicolas Kemmer. And he incorrectly attributes the first explanation of the Lamb shift to Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger when the honour belongs to Hans Bethe. Such errors, however, do not adversely impact the significance and enjoyment of the book. Indeed, if a genuine criticism can be applied, it is in the uselessness of attempting to explain Dirac's scientific contributions to laymen. This is hardly the fault of Mr. Farmelo. It is simply that quantum field theory cannot be understood without the requisite higher mathematics. Fortunately, such diversions are mercifully few and do not affect the flow.

This book is heartily recommended to anyone interested in the history of science and the development of a great mind.

At once a superb biography and an excellent overview of twentieth century physics, the author does an outstanding job of recounting the life and times of the great theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. From Dirac's birth in 1902 to his death in 1984, the author unfolds Dirac's life from the personal, scientific, familial and social aspects. Throughout the book, he is at once objective, respectful and admiring of his subject. Each chapter covers a specific time period in Dirac's life, as indicated at the top of every page; this is often quite useful for the reader. Also, the author is quite successful in his manner of presenting the developments in twentieth century physics in sufficient clear jargon-free details such that the information is accessible to a general readership without being inaccurate. In the second last chapter, the author discusses a possible brain condition that Dirac may have had that would help explain his odd behaviour. The last chapter provides a summary of Paul Dirac's scientific legacy and the importance of his contributions to his field. The writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative, quite accessible and immensely captivating; the book is very difficult to put down. This is a tome that can be enjoyed by anyone who wants an accessible outline of the tremendous discoveries and accomplishments that were made in twentieth century physics, the brilliant people who made them, all centered on the life of one of its greatest contributors.

Many years ago as a physics graduate student, I had the extraordinary honor to have lunch with Dirac along with several of my colleagues. I was warned beforehand not to expect much beyond carefully chosen words from him and to not take this negatively. Sitting directly across the table from him, the lunch was one of those times that I never forgot and thought about repeatedly. I waited for this book anxiously and am thoroughly fascinated by it. I can now understand much more of his nature and how he interacted with others. I also learned about some of the people around him that I spent a bit more time with over the years. I recommend this book very highly.

This book, about Asperger genius Dirac, reminds me of one about another mover and shaker of science, Alfred Loomis, who is subjected to a travesty called Tuxedo Park. This book is not that bad, but it shares the vice of poor editing and hack narrative. And like the Loomis bio, the star ratings here are, in my opinion, completely unwarranted.

What should be a straight history of science work is compromised by clumsily inserted melodrama of the "It was a dark and stormy night" ilk. As great as Dirac was as a scientist, the man himself was a cipher. To compensate, to juice up the story, Farmelo uses Dirac's dreary family as a leitmotif. (Farmelo is trying to make a story about them, when there really isn't much of a story.) And the insertions seem arbitrary. Dirac is invited by Niels Bohr to spend Christmas in Denmark where, we are told, Dirac will produce one of his most important papers. We are not told how exactly this came about, beyond mention of Q&As by Bohr and fellow eccentric Paul Ehrenfest. We are not told whether Dirac stayed with the Bohrs or had Christmas dinner with them or simply worked through the holidays. But we are told about the morose holidays for the mother and father back in Bristol. Then, abruptly, from one line to the next, we are yanked not back to Copenhagen but over to the paper itself. So much for narrative flow.

There are also major inconsistencies. In one passage, Farmelo quotes Dirac:

"I think you can see here the effects of an engineering training. I just wanted to get results quickly, results which I felt one could have some confidence in, even though they did not follow from strict logic."

Shortly thereafter, we get from Farmelo:

"All that mattered to Dirac -- true to his mathematical and engineering training -- was that the theory was logical..."

Really?

Then there's Farmelo's patronizing of the reader, as if he were writing for a yokel. About photon emmision: "This process takes place in the ubiquitous laser -- there is at least one in every CD and DVD player and in every bar code reader...." Oh, *those* things.

There's also a truth in advertising issue: This book is not about "The hidden life of Paul Dirac," for it's apparent that outside his work, Dirac didn't have a life. If it had been written as straight history of science, this book would have been much better, though it would have sold less wood pulp, and it's obvious, from the needless length, that selling wood pulp is the book's primary purpose.

All of that said, this is a readable book. I just wish it were better put together. I see there are other treatments of Dirac, which I've not perused. I think I'll take a look at Dirac: The Man and His Work, by Abraham Pais et al. Pais has also written a fine bio of Niels Bohr that interweaves life and work much better than Farmelo does here. For Dirac, Pais and his colleagues (it's a lecture series) may have done likewise.