Un pensiero abbagliante: Niels Bohr e la fisica dei quanti

by Jim Ottaviani, Leland Purvis, Martha Fabbri (Translator)

6 marzo 2013: il modello atomico di Bohr compie 100 anni.

La gustosa biografia a fumetti di uno dei più grandi scienziati del ‘900.

Gli anni d’oro della fisica nucleare in un fumetto originale e rigoroso al tempo stesso.

Tutti conoscono la rappresentazione dell’atomo come un piccolo nucleo centrale intorno al quale un elettrone percorre un’orbita determinata, ma pochi sanno da dove deriva questa figura. Il 6 marzo del 1913, Niels Bohr presentò a Ernest Rutherford suo mentore il suo modello di atomo: da quel giorno la fisica e la chimica non sarebbero più state le stesse. A 100 anni esatti da quel giorno Sironi pubblica la seconda edizione della sua rocambolesca biografia a fumetti.

Sapevate che Niels Bohr, l’inventore dell’atomo moderno, durante la guerra, rischiò la vita attraversando la Manica nascosto nel vano bombe di un aereo?

Leggendo questo fumetto capirete che la vita di un fisico può essere assai movimentata. Bohr aiutò Fermi a scappare dall’Italia, Churchill lo considerava l’uomo più pericoloso nel gruppo che costruì la bomba atomica e, tanto i nazisti quanto i sovietici, volevano rapirlo. Lo vedrete poi battagliare con quel cocciuto di Einstein, con Heisenberg e Pauli...

Avrete le vertigini – perché non si può parlare di meccanica quantistica senza averle – ma vi farete anche un sacco di risate.

Genres: Science, Graphic Novels, Comics, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Physics

318 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2004

About the author

I've worked at news agencies and golf courses in the Chicagoland area, nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Japan, and libraries in Michigan. When I'm not staying up late writing comics about scientists, I'm spraining my ankles and flattening my feet by running on trails. Or I'm reading. I read a lot.

Reviews

[Zanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Physics is apparently a field full of curious characters, like Feynman and Einstein, each probably meriting comic(al) biographies like this. So, why Bohr? What brought folks together in this celebratory endeavour to spread the word about A Danish family man who gave mumbled lectures and was allergic to brevity?

Well, maybe because Bohr's theoretical 'intuition' was legendary. Or because his politeness reached levels of comedy. Or because he hung out with Einstein, met Roosevelt and Churchill and lived in the age of the Manhattan Project fighting for 'an open world' where there would be no fatal nuclear secrets - where the spirit of friendly cooperation in the international scientific community would guide diplomacy and policy around the bomb. Bohr's work contributed to Manhattan, but his image remains free of the taint of it: he was never on any of the wrong sides.

For science peeps there is nostalgic heart-warming pleasure in reading about Bohr and his Copenhagen theoretical physics institute, which so tirelessly welcomed and supported students and guests from around the world. The working mood of the institute (from which the 'Copenhagen interpretation' of gloriously weird double-slit results emerged) was called der Kopenhagengeist, one of, Ottaviani says, 'playful intensity or intense playfulness'. I wonder if the mood at CERN could be described that way today...

One of the things Bohr liked playing with was the Tippe Top

which, when spun rapidly, stands on its small end, because physics. And while we're enjoying ourselves, can I commend this book for highlighting and giving credit where due to woman physicist Lise Meitner for linking E=mc^2 to the mass defect in nuclear fission? Thanks.

But maybe this tribute is so necessary because Bohr failed. He failed to convince Einstein to accept quantum mechanics. His Nobel-winning model of the atom is wrong. His philosophical books and papers are read little. His pleas to the president and the prime minister were dismissed, and the world missed a brief opportunity to save humans and the Earth from the insane threat of nuclear weapons. Every teacher knows that failure, if we have the heart and spirit to recover from it, is the best way to learn. In retelling the tale of Bohr's frustrated endeavours we hand on the flame of hope.

[Dov Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of fantastic moments, but they didn't add up to a great book. The storytelling is uneven -- at times impatient and not thorough enough, and at times going a bit overboard with detail. In my experience it doesn't ever take a solid shape (perhaps it is one of those substances that is part liquid and part solid depending on how it is being handled.) That said, I am glad I read it and appreciate the care given to drawing Bohr's social and intellectual communities and his fairness and willingness to be wrong on scientific questions while not backing down on his ethical beliefs.

Here are some bits of dialogue I enjoyed:
Schrodinger to Bohr: "Well Bohr, you surely must understand that the idea of quantum jumps leads to nonsense...After all, where is an electron while it's jumping?"
Bohr: "The Question has no meaning. You might as well ask what happens between the pictures in those 'comic strips' they print in American newspapers."

Bohr goes on to say "You see, you are not thinking, you are just being logical. It must not be forgotten that just because we cannot visualize them doesn't prove there are no quantum jumps. Our concepts which we base on direct experience do not apply."

Schrodinger: "I don't want to discuss the philosophy of forming concepts. I just want to know what happens in an atom." (p. 145)


I really appreciated this goodreads review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is such a poor entrant in the "Graphic Novel as Biography" category that I'm fairly sure I won't ever be tempted to try one again. There are excellent and moving graphic novels out there and this is not one of them. It teases you will all sorts of interesting tidbits: things like his philosophical debates with Einstein about the nature of Quantum Mechanics and God, or his ideas that led to the liquid drop model of the nucleus, but gives you none of the details you'd like to know. I'm left at the end thinking I might like to read a real biography of Bohr. The best thing about this book is it's list of references that lead me to potential books that might actually tell me something about the life of Niels Bohr.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

They had me at the first page. With inventive and interesting layouts by, I assume, Leland Purvis, who seems to be the foremost of the many artists who worked on this graphic novel, it's an endlessly thought-provoking study of quantum physics in the twentieth century, the rise of the Nazis and their implications for European science and scientists, and of the character of Niels Bohr: a serious, funny, gentle genius.

I didn't understand the physics or the math, but I understood the humanity of it.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Pervis have written a decent book in Suspended in Language. It is primarily the biography of Theoretical Physicist Neils Bohr and through him the development of Quantum Physics. Of Quantum Physics one of the most important concepts is that if you think you understand it, most likely you do not. Over all this is a good enough graphic text, but it is too deliberately disorganized and cross purposed. The intent seems to be to have the flow of the story somehow reflect the leaps and counter intuitive nature of the physics begin described. A brave notion that ultimately works against the goals of storytelling and explanation.

The business of teaching physics is daunting. In my High School it was the single most feared course in the curricula. Because so much of it obtuse and bounded by difficult mathematics colleges commonly have special Physics for Poets classes. Add to that the fact that the boundaries of physics have moved from the visually demonstrable, such as action and reaction to the obviously impossible action at a distance; absent both higher math and a very focused mind and a student can be reduced to merely taking the lectures on trust.

Action at a distance, which this books demonstrates as a proven fact involves actual experiments wherein two matched particles are moved very far apart and an induced change in the properties of one is reflected by a change in the properties of the other. There is nothing in conventional, non-quantum physics that can explain this result and a necessary implication is the end of cause and effect. I cannot recommend that you take this a proof that a human does not need a parachute or similar device to safely jump from an airplane flying at altitude. In fact there is a very short, mentioned one time comment that that cause and effect still seems to operate at levels above the sub atomic.

When the reader is not being directed to jump ahead to read up on something in the text or to shift back while an earlier situation is explained, Suspended in Language does several things well. A large cast of mathematicians and physicists; their scientific contributions and something of their fates is presented. A surprising amount of very difficult material is rendered comprehensible and the complete package is not boring. All these people and events occur during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II. This historic context is important to the story of these people and how they came to be involved in the development of the Atomic Bomb. This too is managed by Ottaviani and Purvis.

Very few physics teachers have the luxury of presenting the thinkers behind the theories as humans. Suspended in Language is at it best in helping the reader to understand the people as well as their science. Neils Bohr foremost but many others are presented as real people and not just producers of abstract thought. Something of the politics of academia and of international science is also likely to be new points of view for the reader.

Page for page much of the artwork is beautiful. Unfortunately it can also be cluttered and confusing. If a picture needs to be footnoted to explain that a pictured event never happened or that people drawn into a scene were not part of that discussion, then that pictures and text are unnecessary of counterproductive.

There is much to learn and much to admire about Suspended in Language. Unfortunately there is also too much that is unnecessary or misdirecting.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had a lot (a LOT) of physics in it, as it should. And the author is a former nuclear engineer, as I discovered from reading the blurb in the back. Both of those things combined should have probably scared me away.

But damn it I love science comics whether I fully understand them or not (and I don't expect to understand Quantum Mechanics any time soon, so it's fine) and this was no exception. There are also some "endnote" comics from other artists that describe in fuller detail some of the anecdotes and such mentioned throughout, and those were just extra-sweet frosting blossoms on the Niels Bohr cake.

Although this was a bit dialogue/caption-heavy, I can't imagine it being any different. Bohr in real life was very dialogue-heavy. And he accomplished- even via failure- so much that merits recognition, that cutting chunks out would have made the biography feel incomplete or rushed; two things that do not seem to describe Bohr at all.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel provides a lot of information on many key figures in the world of science that lived at the same time as Bohr. Also, it provides a lot of the various theories. It is not light hearted reading.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done bio of Neils Bohr. It's done as a graphic novel, so it's a bit sketchier in places than I would prefer. I particularly enjoyed reading about his work and philosophy during World War II. I may go out and get a full fledged biography of the man, based on my reading this.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life and science of Niels Bohr in comics form. The science was very heavy and difficult to read, which made it a chore to get through. I usually like Ottaviani, but this one's just okay.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is a biographical graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Leland Purvis, which is a concise biography of Niels Bohr – a Danish physicist and Nobel Laureate.

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

As Bohr was finishing college, physics was entering a revolutionary state. Einstein and Planck had introduced relativity and the idea that measurement couldn't be exact. Building on their foundation, Bohr used his invention of quantum mechanics to improve the classical model of the atom. He became a leader in theoretical physics, with just about every Nobel Prize winner coming to his institute. Later in life, he moved into political work, helping intellectual refugees on the eve of World War II and using his celebrity to argue for arms control after development of the atomic bomb.

Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is written and constructed rather well. Purvis' distinctively thick line is well-suited for a biography, since it foregrounds the figures in a panel, drawing the reader's eye to them. The visuals and text combine in such a way that it's difficult to separate the two, unusual for a book with separate writer and artist. The narrative is rather playful with noted physicists as characters who talk to the reader when needed. This approach suits Bohr's character, as a writer who loved language and argument, and the theories he was essential in developing.

All in all, Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is a wonderful biographical graphic novel that portrayed the life of Niels Bohr, a physicist and Nobel Laureate.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favourite of the several GT labs science histories I've read. I have been exposed to the story of modern physics several times in my reading, but never gone so far into Bohr. What was of special interest was the sections on Bohr's attitude to nuclear weapons and despite helping with the a-bomb and realising it was going to happen, he worked really hard on solving the next issue of arms control. Although the threat of nuclear terror defined the next half century amongst the major superpowers, Bohr started the conversation on arms control early and i'm sure helped get people thinking about and building the political mechanisms to prevent nuclear disaster.

I also was fascinated by his idea of the nucleus of an atom as a liquid drop and that that theory came out of his doctoral thesis on surface tension- the great theorists hold so much together.
His wife was a champ and she gets a lot of due here and the relationship with einstein is fleshed out satisfyingly as well.
Great stuff.

[Sara Ghotb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic-strip biography written by Jim Ottaviani is a very informative biography of the father of quantum mechanics, Niels Bohr. “Suspended In Language” starts by his work through his phd and continues by his relationships with famous physicists like Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli,… Also some interesting discussions with some political figures like Winston Churchill. Half of the book is focused on his role in the Manhattan Project and nuclear war. In my opinion, Ottaviani did a great job connecting several topics of physics and illustrating the various relationships between physicists at that time. However, the storyline is not very straightforward, it's disorganized and looks like it's written deliberately complex. On some pages, the content is very dense and difficult to read, however in general, it was a good read.

[Mangoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissimo volume (tradotto dall'originale inglese "Suspended in language") che ritrae vita, carattere, scienza e filosofia di Niels Bohr, assai accurato nella riproduzione della cronologia e biografia, e quasi del tutto accurato nell'interpretazione dei fatti e della teoria, e allo stesso tempo leggiadro, stimolante e rinfrescante come forse solo un fumetto puo' essere.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

un'opera ben fatta, accurata, divertente.

[Stefano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storia difficile e affascinante, nonché complessa, quella del personaggio. Fa perdonare la resa grafica per me non sempre impeccabile, e gli espedienti narrativi.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnifico, abbagliante in contenuti e grafica. Divertente la vita di Niels Bohr!😂

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rispetto agli altri fumetti di Jim Ottaviani, questo ho fatto proprio fatica a finirlo. Per come ha rappresentato Bohr, credo. Il tipo era francamente insopportabile. Quando cominciava a parlare poi, urca... Poi tutto questo saltare di qua e di là, peggio delle ranocchie. E anche i fumettini brevi alla fine: a che pro?

Come al solito, vengono buttati dentro un sacco di personaggi e scienziati. Alcuni li riconosco perché sono comparsi nei fumetti che ho già letto del duo Ottaviani-Purvis. Il risultato, però, è un po' confuso.

La parte teorica? Beh, comincia ad essere fuori dalla mia portata.

Va beh, vediamo come sarà T-Minus: The Race to the Moon. Speriamo meglio di questo. Per il momento, tra tutti i volumi della collana I grandi della scienza a fumetti il mio preferito rimane quello dedicato alla costruzione della bomba atomica. Ma non ho ancora letto quello di Bernard Russell.

[Sam Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've made contact with stories of Bohr through Feynman's stories, and more recently in The Wizard War (http://amzn.to/1YklftC), where R.V. Jones talked about Bohr's failed effort to convince Churchill that the Allied powers needed to release the details of the bomb, trust the diplomatic power of science and free sharing of ideas, and nip the "arms race" problem in the bud. Churchill seemed to think that the bomb was just a bigger bomb, not the game changer that nukes are; he also thought that Bohr was trying to force the UK and US to give their secrets to the Russians.

I love coming back to the graphic novel format. I want MORE detail, now, but this book is a beautiful overview of Bohr's life, and the dramatic changes he lived through (and caused, at the center of the development of quantum mechanics!) in science and tech.

Read this one, dig deeper with the books in the bibliography if you find you're hooked on world war II era physics, then go get Feynman (http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Jim-Ott...) by the same author.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

To his colleagues, Niels Bohr was the “Pope of Physics.” Razor-edged minds like Dirac, Franck, Frisch, Gamow, Klein, Mott, Oppenheimer, Pauli, Planck, Schrödinger, and others -- many of whom would later become Nobel laureates themselves -- to proud to say they had studied with Bohr. He was a poor lecturer because he never knew where his thoughts would take him and would often stop in the middle of an explanation when a new idea occurred to him. Without him, there would be no modern physics, no quantum mechanics, no basic understanding of the atom. And while Bohr sometimes entertained theories that turned out to be wrong -- which he was the first to admit -- even Einstein was wrong in areas where Bohr was right. Ottaviani is a very uneven graphics chronicler of modern science and scientists, but this is a very well thought out book, as successful an attempt as I have seen to explain Bohr’s thought (as well as his humane and internationalist personal beliefs) and the basics concepts of quantum physics.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Komik biografi yang aneh. Dibilang berat, tapi kok rasanya ringan. Dibilang serius, tapi kok penuh humor. Ah, sudahlah... yang penting asyik dibaca.

Baca komik ini tak berarti pembaca jadi mendadak paham fisika kuantum. Minimal jadi paham dunianya Niels Bohr, lebih paham daripada baca biografi singkat terbitan yang ini:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Jadi kebayang serunya perdebatan (diskusi?) legendaris dengan Einstein di Konferensi Solvay.

Tuhan tidak bermain dadu.

Tidakkah kamu pikir perlu hati-hati ketika menggunakan bahasa sederhana untuk menggambarkan sifat Tuhan?

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graphic novel about Niels Bohr. I think I truly realized while reading this book that there is no such thing as objectivity or absolute truth. Truth is defined by the information we have at hand put through our best attempt at a rational calculation. However, without the right information, the method of calculation is irrelevant; the answer is only truly reasonable to ourselves, or those who have the same set of information. I realized this when the novel was describing the difficulties Bohr was having proving very simple concepts in math. It was impossible. He ended up writing thick textbooks to try and prove the most simple concepts that we take for given, and even then he failed.

[Sweetdhee]

15rb ajah di Gramedia Ambassador..

hmm, pengen kembali mengingat mengapa aku menyukai fisika waktu SMA dulu..
Slogan Fisika itu mudah yang dicetuskan alumnus SMAku, benar-benar mendoktrin dalam kepala dan membuat proses belajar fisika tidak lagi menyeramkan..

Selain itu selama tiga tahun, Pak Miftah -guru SMA ku- sangat sukses membangkitkan kecintaan pada banyak fenomena alam..
whuaaa, kangen Pak Miftaaaaaah...

tapi eh tapi.. kemana aja pelajaran-pelajaran itu ya?
kok ga ada satu pun yang tertinggal di otakku?
bwahahahahaha

[Rizalul Fikrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Komik Dunia Niels Bohr menyajikan kisah hidup dan karya Niels Bohr, Salah stu ahli fisika paling berpengarus pada abad ke 20. Bohr bukan hanya seoarang ilmuan, melaiknan juga pembimbing banyak ahli fisika muda, penolong bagi para ilmuwan yang mengungsi dari kekejaman nazi serta penganjur perlucutan senjata pemusnah massal. penelitian bohr mengungkapkan betapa fisika kuantum membuat kita "terganjal bahasa" ketika dunia yang dijelaskan olehnya tak lagi dapat terperikan oleh kata" biasa.

[Zephyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saya sangat tertarik untuk membacanya karena saya merupakan siswa Jurusan Fisika yang kuliah pindah ke Ekonomi. Fisika Quantum bisa dianggap ilmu tertinggi dalam ilmu Fisika dan berbicara Fisika Quantum siapa yang tidak kenal nama Niels Bohr.

Sayangnya terjemahannya (dalam bahasa Indonesia) sangat menganggu. Saya tidak bisa menangkap kalimat2 yang tertera atau kadang rasanya sedikit janggal. Kalau ada versi bahasa Inggrisnya, ingin sekali untuk membaca ulang buku ini.

[Matt Heavner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a regular graphic novel reader. I did enjoy this quite a bit and found it very well researched and presented. It was a pretty fast quick overview/review of Bohr's life and impact. I wonder how well this would fly for someone with no background knowledge of physics (especially 20th century physics). Well, I guess I do agree with the author's assumption that everyone should have the working knowledge! :)

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was awesome! I didn't understand a lot of science and mathematics but it was fascinating all the same. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments, I especially liked Einstein stealing tobacco from Bohr when they were sharing an office in Princeton! Niels Bohr led an amazing life.

[Jack Treml · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suspended in language started strong and had my interest, but simply couldn't maintain it. I wanted to like this so badly, but never found a rhythm I could get into. Most importantly, for my rating, it made Bohr seem befuddled and I eloquent to the point that you wondered whether he actually had anything worthwhile to say at all. Is this actually what Bohr was like?

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

megan, remember me talking about this. did you ever read it? you have to. really really have to if you haven't. the drawing is not my favorite but it is in no ways bad. it is the story that drives this work. i love biography graphic novels, but you don't see them too much.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A graphic novel about niels bohr. I don't know enough physics to reall grasp everything that's going on, but it's hard to walk away from this book without feeling afection and admiration for who he was and what he did. recommended for folks who have a working knowledge of physics.

[Matthew Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book on Bohr by Jim Ottaviani, for my money the best writer of science comics out there. Good as pop-sci, good as biography, good as comics. I liked it so much that I'm teaching it in my comics course next semester.