Overview

Time travel, parallel worlds, random behaviour: the language and the imagery of quantum mechanics are ubiquitous, yet the science—and its journey into everyday language—still confounds us. Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber tell how a controversial idea from an obscure branch of optics grew in complexity and authority, eventually dominating the scientific community and commanding the attention of the culture at large. Recounting fiery disputes between figures including Einstein, Schr?dinger and Pauli, the authors trace popular images back to their scientific roots and uncover modern manifestations in everything from architecture and sculpture to the prose of John Updike. The Quantum Moment combines an exhilarating history of the quantum with shrewd insight into our experience of the everyday.

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9780393067927

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Reviews

An entertaining read. --Jim Baggott

This is an amazing book for scientists and humanists alike! Every page yields surprises not only about the complex history of quantum physics but about how it impacts our understanding of ourselves in daily life. Required reading for anyone concerned with casting the fate of humankind in a radically new light. --Edward S. Casey, author of The World at a Glance

While examining and celebrating the interplay between the sciences and humanities, Crease and Goldhaber do a first-rate job of explaining what quantum theory is all about... -- Prospect The general level of cultural commentary is more thoughtful and will engage and perhaps even challenge the attitude of scientists as well as philosophers and cultural critics. -- Times Higher Education

A fascinating tour of the lives and afterlives of some of the most captivating concepts of quantum theory. -- David Kaiser, author of How the Hippies Saved Physics A delight! A tour de force that is both illuminating and extraordinarily readable. -- Gino Segre, author of Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern Science This is an amazing book for scientists and humanists alike! Every page yields surprises-not only about the complex history of quantum physics but about how it impacts our understanding of ourselves in daily life. Required reading for anyone concerned with casting the fate of humankind in a radically new light. -- Edward S. Casey, author of The World at a Glance Reading The Quantum Moment is a very fun way to learn about where quantum physics comes from and the strange, even astonishing places it has gone with or without the physicists for whom it is the language of their craft. -- Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps, professor of science and physics, Harvard University Fascinating... Crease and Goldhaber have written an accessible and entertaining history that embraces both the science and the silliness of quantum mechanics. An entertaining read. -- Jim Baggott

Author Information

Robert P. Crease is the chairman of the philosophy department at Stony Brook University and the author of several books on science, including The Quantum Moment and The Great Equations. He lives in New York City. Alfred Scharff Goldhaber is a professor of physics at Stony Brook University whose research ranges from elementary particles to cosmology. He also teaches an unorthodox course that introduces quantum mechanics by way of optics.

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