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Quantum Theory, together with the principles of special and general relativity, constitute a scientific revolution that has profoundly influenced the way in which we think about the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is a definitive historical study of that scientific work and the human struggles that accompanied it from the beginning. Drawing upon such materials as the resources of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics, the Niels Bohr Archives, and the archives and scientific correspondence of the principal quantum physicists, as well as Jagdish Mehra's personal discussions over many years with most of the architects of quantum theory, the authors have written a rigorous scientific history of quantum theory in a deeply human context. This multivolume work presents a rich account of an intellectual triumph: a unique analysis of the creative scientific process. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is science, history, and biography, all wrapped in the story of a great human enterprise. Its lessons will be an aid to those working in the sciences and humanities alike.
A social history and a history of science as well, this intimate biography reveals scientist Max Born's struggle with morality, politics, war, and obscurity.
The dismissal of civil servants on racist or political grounds in April 1933 marked the beginning of a massive, forced exodus of mainly Jewish scholars and scientists from Nazi Germany - a phenomenon unprecedented in the modern history of academic life. The essays in this volume examine whether that 'exodus of reason' lead to significant scientific change, and if so, how that change should be characterised. The volume challenges the focus of earlier work on the 'intellectual migration' on losses (for German science) and gains (for British and American science). Instead, the authors proceed from the assumption that the sciences are open, dynamic, and historically contingent systems, and explore the multiple, complex interactions of biographical, social, and cultural circumstances with changes - or lack of change - in the émigrés' scientific thinking and research.
Theoretical physics is in trouble. At least that’s the impression you’d get from reading a spate of recent books on the continued failure to resolve the 80-year-old problem of unifying the classical and quantum worlds. The seeds of this problem were sewn eighty years ago when a dramatic revolution in physics reached a climax at the 1927 Solvay conference in Brussels. It’s the story of a rush to formalize quantum physics, the work of just a handful of men fired by ambition, philosophical conflicts and personal agendas. Sheilla Jones paints an intimate portrait of the ten key figures who wrestled with the mysteries of the new science of the quantum, along with a powerful supporting cast ...