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Niels Bohr's Times In Physics, Philosophy and Polity
Abraham Pais's life of Albert Einstein was one of the finest scientific biographies ever written. When it first appeared in 1982, Christian Science Monitor called it "an extraordinary biography of an extraordinary man," and Timothy Ferris, in The New York Times Book Review , said it was "the
biography of Einstein he himself would have liked best," adding that "it is a work against which future scientific biographies will be measured." As a respected physicist himself, Pais was the first biographer to give Einstein's thinking its full due, yet despite the occasional high level of science
needed to discuss Einstein's ideas, it was the winner of the 1983 American Book Award for Science.
Now Pais turns to Niels Bohr, to illuminate the life and thought of another giant of 20th-century physics. Bohr was the first to understand how atoms were put together. He played a major role in shaping the theory of the atomic nucleus, he decoded the atomic spectrum of hydrogen, an
achievement which marks him as the founder of the quantum dynamics of atoms, and his concept of complementarity (which provides the philosophical underpinning for quantum theory) qualifies him as one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. Pais covers all of these achievements with
sophistication and clarity, but he also reveals the many other facets of the man. Perhaps most important, he shows that Bohr was not only a great scientist, but also a great nurturer of young scientific talent, acting as father figure extraordinaire for several generations of physicists. Bohr's
Institute of Theoretical Physics, which he founded in Copenhagen and for which he tirelessly raised funds, was the world's leading center for physics all through the 1920s and 1930s, the birthplace of Heisenberg's papers on the uncertainty relations, Dirac's first paper on quantum electrodynamics,
and other pivotal works. And Pais reveals as well the personal side of Bohr, the avid reader and crossword puzzle solver (Bohr loved Icelandic sagas, Goethe and Schiller, Dickens and Mark Twain--while studying in England early in his career, he improved his English by reading The Pickwick Papers
with a dictionary to one side); his aid to Jews and other refugees in the 1930s and during the war; the tragic loss of his son Christian (who died in a sailing accident right before Bohr's eyes); and his attempts during and after the war to promote openness between East and West, meeting with both
Roosevelt and Churchill (the former was quite courteous, the latter lectured Bohr like a schoolboy).
Niels Bohr's Times, is a marvelous biography that captures the essence of one of the best-loved figures of this century.
biography of Einstein he himself would have liked best," adding that "it is a work against which future scientific biographies will be measured." As a respected physicist himself, Pais was the first biographer to give Einstein's thinking its full due, yet despite the occasional high level of science
needed to discuss Einstein's ideas, it was the winner of the 1983 American Book Award for Science.
Now Pais turns to Niels Bohr, to illuminate the life and thought of another giant of 20th-century physics. Bohr was the first to understand how atoms were put together. He played a major role in shaping the theory of the atomic nucleus, he decoded the atomic spectrum of hydrogen, an
achievement which marks him as the founder of the quantum dynamics of atoms, and his concept of complementarity (which provides the philosophical underpinning for quantum theory) qualifies him as one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. Pais covers all of these achievements with
sophistication and clarity, but he also reveals the many other facets of the man. Perhaps most important, he shows that Bohr was not only a great scientist, but also a great nurturer of young scientific talent, acting as father figure extraordinaire for several generations of physicists. Bohr's
Institute of Theoretical Physics, which he founded in Copenhagen and for which he tirelessly raised funds, was the world's leading center for physics all through the 1920s and 1930s, the birthplace of Heisenberg's papers on the uncertainty relations, Dirac's first paper on quantum electrodynamics,
and other pivotal works. And Pais reveals as well the personal side of Bohr, the avid reader and crossword puzzle solver (Bohr loved Icelandic sagas, Goethe and Schiller, Dickens and Mark Twain--while studying in England early in his career, he improved his English by reading The Pickwick Papers
with a dictionary to one side); his aid to Jews and other refugees in the 1930s and during the war; the tragic loss of his son Christian (who died in a sailing accident right before Bohr's eyes); and his attempts during and after the war to promote openness between East and West, meeting with both
Roosevelt and Churchill (the former was quite courteous, the latter lectured Bohr like a schoolboy).
Niels Bohr's Times, is a marvelous biography that captures the essence of one of the best-loved figures of this century.
582 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 1991
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About the author
Abraham Pais
32 books43 followersAbraham Pais was a physicist, specialising in particle physics, who became a well-known science historian later in life, having worked closely with prominent scientists such as Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 6, 2013
Fully, if clumsily titled Neils Bohr's Times, in physics, philosophy, and polity, this is the definitive scientific biography of Bohr by fellow physicist Abraham Pais who knew and worked with him.
The good news is that this chunky title will give you an in-depth look at Bohr and his work. From his early days in Copenhagen, through his brief but fruitful stay in the UK, his return to Denmark, the rush to safety in the Second World War and his gradual move to elder statesman of quantum physics, it's all here.
As is often the case with a biography written by another scientist, the science content is quite heavy and sometimes not the easiest to digest, but it is worth battling through, and the picture of Bohr himself that comes out of this book is second-to-none. Niels Bohr sometimes gets a rough time of it, in part because his own communication was often rather opaque, but Pais will really open your eyes to Bohr's importance.
The book dates back to 1991 but is none the worse for that. If you really want to understand the development of quantum physics in its historical and scientific context, this should be on your reading list.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
The good news is that this chunky title will give you an in-depth look at Bohr and his work. From his early days in Copenhagen, through his brief but fruitful stay in the UK, his return to Denmark, the rush to safety in the Second World War and his gradual move to elder statesman of quantum physics, it's all here.
As is often the case with a biography written by another scientist, the science content is quite heavy and sometimes not the easiest to digest, but it is worth battling through, and the picture of Bohr himself that comes out of this book is second-to-none. Niels Bohr sometimes gets a rough time of it, in part because his own communication was often rather opaque, but Pais will really open your eyes to Bohr's importance.
The book dates back to 1991 but is none the worse for that. If you really want to understand the development of quantum physics in its historical and scientific context, this should be on your reading list.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
February 5, 2020
Though his views were later refined or corrected, Bohr (1885-1962) was a central figure in the development of quantum physics.* Between 1900 and 1925, the field of physics was in transition as it attempted to adjust its findings to fit the classical Newtonian model. After 1925, the various pieces of the quantum world were pulled together to become the more formalized theory of quantum mechanics to describe the nature and behavior of the sub-atomic world.
It's not an easy world to crack for the non-physicist and this book seems more geared to describing Bohr's central role for those who are better acquainted with quantum physics. For those readers, I think this is probably a top-notch book. Pais documents the important details of Bohr's role. But I found the book so packed with with information - much of it interesting to be sure - that it was a struggle to stay focused on the big picture.
Pais covers some of Bohr's philosophical reflections on his long career, but even here I found the discussion hard to grasp. For me, the philosophical takeaways are: (1) the basic unit of reality is not the atom; the atom is just the starting point for what has emerged as a richly complex sub-atomic world. (2) Bohr's complementarity theory (wave-particle duality) means that a thing (of reality) is not a static point in time and place, but an entity that also has via its wave nature an amorphous existence across space and time. (3) Per Heisenberg and Schrodinger, the key properties of a particle cannot, in principle, be known, thereby giving, perhaps, a new scientific meaning to Kant's "thing-in-itself." And, (4) though Feynman says that physicists do know know what energy is, whatever it is, energy is the fundamental cosmic property that might be regarded as the "One" that manifests itself both as thing (entity, particle) and non-thing (wave), which is in constant motion (within the atom, and in interaction with other atoms). The real beauty of quantum physics is that it offers a scientific basis for (and an elaboration of) Democritus's atomic worldview.
*Among other contributions: The atom contained a nucleus with a proton and neutron, surrounded by orbital electrons containing specific levels of energy (quanta), which jump from one orbit to another when either absorbing energy from a photon (jumps to a level further away from the nucleus) or emitting a photon (jumps closer to the nucleus); that an electron as well as (later-named) photons (Planck 1901, Einstein 1905) was both a particle and a wave; and that the wave nature of photons and electrons operate in ways that are at odds with the classical notions of causality at the subatomic level - causality is probabilistic not linear.
It's not an easy world to crack for the non-physicist and this book seems more geared to describing Bohr's central role for those who are better acquainted with quantum physics. For those readers, I think this is probably a top-notch book. Pais documents the important details of Bohr's role. But I found the book so packed with with information - much of it interesting to be sure - that it was a struggle to stay focused on the big picture.
Pais covers some of Bohr's philosophical reflections on his long career, but even here I found the discussion hard to grasp. For me, the philosophical takeaways are: (1) the basic unit of reality is not the atom; the atom is just the starting point for what has emerged as a richly complex sub-atomic world. (2) Bohr's complementarity theory (wave-particle duality) means that a thing (of reality) is not a static point in time and place, but an entity that also has via its wave nature an amorphous existence across space and time. (3) Per Heisenberg and Schrodinger, the key properties of a particle cannot, in principle, be known, thereby giving, perhaps, a new scientific meaning to Kant's "thing-in-itself." And, (4) though Feynman says that physicists do know know what energy is, whatever it is, energy is the fundamental cosmic property that might be regarded as the "One" that manifests itself both as thing (entity, particle) and non-thing (wave), which is in constant motion (within the atom, and in interaction with other atoms). The real beauty of quantum physics is that it offers a scientific basis for (and an elaboration of) Democritus's atomic worldview.
*Among other contributions: The atom contained a nucleus with a proton and neutron, surrounded by orbital electrons containing specific levels of energy (quanta), which jump from one orbit to another when either absorbing energy from a photon (jumps to a level further away from the nucleus) or emitting a photon (jumps closer to the nucleus); that an electron as well as (later-named) photons (Planck 1901, Einstein 1905) was both a particle and a wave; and that the wave nature of photons and electrons operate in ways that are at odds with the classical notions of causality at the subatomic level - causality is probabilistic not linear.
July 3, 2012
I've read this several times in several ways for obvious work-related reasons. Pais makes very few choices in this sprawling volume, and so there are a lot of good things to say, and also a lot of places where you wish he had an editor or a thread that he felt he was following that might help him steer clear of long sections on Danish royal families or Descartes' thoughts on atoms.
I come back to this book time and time again to mine it for sources. It is really quite a well-researched thing, and I could never ever take the time or talk to all the people that Pais did. And I've also recently become interested in an odd thing that Pais does: He'll often quote an archival letter, say Heisenberg writing to Bohr in 1927, and then he'll immediately follow with an excerpt of Heisenberg explaining what he meant (though this will be from much later, 1963 in this example). He does this while barely signaling to the reader that any time as passed at all. You get the sense that you are getting a straight look into the mind of the author, but of course there is the way that things are filtered and the role that memory plays in all of this. Pais is very clever at disappearing this. And I'm interested in how uninterested he is in in this passage of time. What is he up to pretending that the 1927 conversation can be taken up in 1963 and then again in his book without memory playing much of a role.
This is a practitioners' history in the deepest and most thorough sense, and thus a complicated and kind of awesome source.
So I don't recommend this for casual reading, but if the people you study overlap with Bohr at all at any time, you may as well take a look through it and take advantage of the many year long grants Pais had to fund the research for this beast of a book.
For casual reading on Bohr, I recommend the gorgeous chapter on Bohr in Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."
I come back to this book time and time again to mine it for sources. It is really quite a well-researched thing, and I could never ever take the time or talk to all the people that Pais did. And I've also recently become interested in an odd thing that Pais does: He'll often quote an archival letter, say Heisenberg writing to Bohr in 1927, and then he'll immediately follow with an excerpt of Heisenberg explaining what he meant (though this will be from much later, 1963 in this example). He does this while barely signaling to the reader that any time as passed at all. You get the sense that you are getting a straight look into the mind of the author, but of course there is the way that things are filtered and the role that memory plays in all of this. Pais is very clever at disappearing this. And I'm interested in how uninterested he is in in this passage of time. What is he up to pretending that the 1927 conversation can be taken up in 1963 and then again in his book without memory playing much of a role.
This is a practitioners' history in the deepest and most thorough sense, and thus a complicated and kind of awesome source.
So I don't recommend this for casual reading, but if the people you study overlap with Bohr at all at any time, you may as well take a look through it and take advantage of the many year long grants Pais had to fund the research for this beast of a book.
For casual reading on Bohr, I recommend the gorgeous chapter on Bohr in Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."
August 30, 2017
This is a good biography of Niels Bohr, which, however, fails to fulfil its purpose, namely to provide a synoptic, albeit dense, account of Bohr's scientific, philosophical, and social contributions. Although the scope of Pais' work is admirable, his discussion of complementarity is surprisingly philosophically-thin, while the analysis of Bohr's physics omits most formalisms -- the latter is, perhaps, to be expected given Bohr's well-known 'qualitative' reasoning. Worse, in pure presentist fashion, Pais remains quite dismissive of Bohr's intellectual adversaries, most notably Albert Einstein himself. One gets the impression that the issue of (the failure of) causation in fundamental physics is forever settled, a conclusion which is perhaps more evident of Pais' scientific, rather than historical training. Moreover, some problems in tone and the use of inappropriate phrasing occasionally make an appearance. All in all, a good but flawed book.
June 10, 2020
Neils Bohr, along with Albert Einstein, was the most important scientific figure of the 20th century.
This book is technically lighter than Pais's Einstein biography which makes it much more accessible. The technical sections are clearly marked and can be skipped without loss of continuity.
Bohr was, first and foremost, a physicist. This book sets the scene by explaining the state of physics around the time Bohr started his work around 1910. It explains the influences of Rutherford and Balmer on Bohr's work of the hydrogen atom. More importantly, it also emphasises Bohr's other contributions to quantum theory such as the correspondence principle and complementarity.
Bohr is the only physicist I read about who put great emphasis on words used to describe phenomena. He developed his ideas by conversing with others. Unlike other physicists, his creative principle was not mathematics, and even if he used mathematics from time to time in his calculations, his published papers were light on mathematical content.
Bohr, almost singlehandedly, created one of the three major centres of quantum physics in the world, the Institute of theoretical physics in Copenhagen (the other two were in Gottingen and Munich). Perhaps one of the most impactful scientific contributions Bohr made was to create this environment which led to major achievements in science. Among these were the discovery of isotopic tracers to study biological processes by Georg von Hevesy and the discovery of the uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg.
Bohr also made major contributions to nuclear physics with his liquid drop model which in turn was used in the Manhattan project where the first atomic bombs were built.
Finally, Bohr's involvement with political developments during and after World War II is described in detail. In particular, Bohr foresaw the need of openness regarding atomic weapons way before anyone else in the world thought about it. This made Bohr the pioneer of Glasnost which came in late 80s.
This book is technically lighter than Pais's Einstein biography which makes it much more accessible. The technical sections are clearly marked and can be skipped without loss of continuity.
Bohr was, first and foremost, a physicist. This book sets the scene by explaining the state of physics around the time Bohr started his work around 1910. It explains the influences of Rutherford and Balmer on Bohr's work of the hydrogen atom. More importantly, it also emphasises Bohr's other contributions to quantum theory such as the correspondence principle and complementarity.
Bohr is the only physicist I read about who put great emphasis on words used to describe phenomena. He developed his ideas by conversing with others. Unlike other physicists, his creative principle was not mathematics, and even if he used mathematics from time to time in his calculations, his published papers were light on mathematical content.
Bohr, almost singlehandedly, created one of the three major centres of quantum physics in the world, the Institute of theoretical physics in Copenhagen (the other two were in Gottingen and Munich). Perhaps one of the most impactful scientific contributions Bohr made was to create this environment which led to major achievements in science. Among these were the discovery of isotopic tracers to study biological processes by Georg von Hevesy and the discovery of the uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg.
Bohr also made major contributions to nuclear physics with his liquid drop model which in turn was used in the Manhattan project where the first atomic bombs were built.
Finally, Bohr's involvement with political developments during and after World War II is described in detail. In particular, Bohr foresaw the need of openness regarding atomic weapons way before anyone else in the world thought about it. This made Bohr the pioneer of Glasnost which came in late 80s.
January 4, 2020
Niels Bohr przez kilka dziesięcioleci był uznawany za naukowca-instytucję. Do jego ośrodka w Kopenhadze przybywali twórcy mechaniki kwantowej po pomoc, politycy po radę. Sam fizyk, jako człowiek rodzinny i otwarty na rozmowę z każdym nawet do świtu, pomagał finansowo żydowskim uchodźcom z Niemiec, niezmordowanie zabiegał o środki u przemysłowców na sprzęt laboratoryjny i pensje dla zdolnych młodych badaczy. Nawoływał o opamiętanie w wyścigu zbrojeń. W naukowej biografii "Czas Nielsa Bohra", pióra profesora fizyki cząstek elementarnych Abrahama Paisa znanego z najsłynniejszej naukowej biografii Einsteina, dostajemy panoramę różnych twarzy Bohra - myśliciela, organizatora jednostki naukowej, społecznie i politycznie zaangażowanego obywatela.
Choć Pais był współpracownikiem i przyjacielem Bohra w okresie powojennym i znał go świetnie, to książka świadomie zaledwie dotyka prywatnych sfer wielkiego fizyka. Jest w niej trochę o genealogii inteligencji duńskiej, garść wspomnień synów i opisy pięknego związku z żoną Margrethe. W domu Bohrów młodzi zwariowani twórcy mechaniki kwantowej - Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac i przede wszystkim Werner Heiseneberg - mieli spokojną przystań. Tam był ich drugi dom, tam wykuwała się ta teoria, tam też mogli się wyspać i intelektualnie zmęczyć. Schrödinger po rozmowach z Bohrem, twórczo rozwinął swoje przełomowe koncepcje, a gospodarz spotkania postanowił stworzyć interpretację zdumiewających zjawisk świata atomowego, o której uczy się w szkołach do dziś.
"Czas Nielsa Bohra", choć skupia się na chronologicznym odtworzeniu aktywności bohatera na różnych polach, jest świetnym zrelacjonowaniem przemian w rozumieniu świata fizycznego na przestrzeni ostatnich 150-ciu lat. Każda koncepcja naukowa, którą Bohr stworzył czy rozwinął, została opisana wyczerpująco. W efekcie, całość zaprezentowanej wizji uzmysławia nam, jak wielkie przeobrażenia w wyglądzie świata nas otaczającego dokonały się dzięki postępowi w badaniach podstawowych w pierwszych dekadach XX wieku. Niezrozumiałe wzory i wielkie zderzacze cząstek są nam bliższe, niż mogłoby się wydawać. Zrozumienie struktury atomu skutkujące miniaturyzacją, postępem w medycynie i pojawieniem się użytkowej elektroniki, to bezpośrednie dziedzictwo dociekań Bohra. A on szukał tylko odpowiedzi, pytając pośrednio o granice poznania.
Bohr jest uznawany za twórcę kanonicznej interpretacji mechaniki kwantowej, opartej o zasadę korespondencji (str. 191-193) i komplementarności (str. 298-304). Obie daleko wykraczają poza teoretyczne rozważania akademickie. W odniesieniu do fizyki, pierwsza tłumaczy związek miedzy naszym rozumieniem makroskopowego świata klasycznego i mikroświata kwantowego wraz z niepokojąco nieprzystającym przejściem miedzy tymi domenami, druga opisuje dualizm falowo-korpuskularny obiektów rozmiarów atomowych. Bohr dostarczył, dzięki tym koncepcjom, ciekawego języka do metody naukowej, który z powodzeniem wykorzystuje się w innych dziedzinach. Pais świetnie te idee przedstawił w kontekście fundamentalnego sporu z Einsteinem, który nigdy nie zgodził się na konsekwencje mechaniki kwantowej. Ta wielka debata, która ostatnio w nowej odsłonie jest kontynuowana, dotyczy pytania o determinizm i sens prawdopodobieństwa w ujęciu kwantowym. Czy coś, co obserwujemy, to faktycznie to, co jest obiektywnie? A może to zaledwie deformacja powstała w wyniku interferencji fal opisujących przedmiot dociekań i nas badaczy? Takie pytania filozoficzne, to konsekwencja bohrowskich przemyśleń.
Zabierając się do lektury, trzeba się przygotować na wzory. Nie są zaawansowane, bo na poziomie szkoły średniej, a do tego pięknie i spójnie tłumaczą opisywane zagadnienia. Środkowe partie książki (str. 176-353), zawierające pewne fundamenty kwantowych metod rachunkowych opisanych językiem dość technicznym, będą w pełni dostępne czytelnikom z podstawami w tej dziedzinie. Warto jednak spróbować przeczytać je z uwagą, nawet nie mając tego minimum, bo oddają świetnie ferment lat 20-tych i 30-tych, kiedy powstawała współczesna fizyka. Każdy miesiąc przynosił w tym okresie nowe ustalenia. Takiego okresu przyspieszenia w rozumieniu fizykalnego świata nie doświadczyliśmy, jako cywilizacja, ani wcześniej ani później. Zaś Niels Bohr był w samym centrum tych wydarzeń.
Fizyk słynął z umiejętności formułowania daleko nieoczywistych prawd. Czasem odbierano go, jako człowieka 'wolno myślącego'. Jednak, jak zaznacza Pais, Bohr w głowie dokonywał wielu przejść myślowych, korekt logicznych niespójności, a komunikował dopiero ostateczny rezultat. Podobnie przebiegała jego praca nad artykułami. Ciągle poprawiał, rzadko będąc zadowolonym z ostatecznego efektu. Słynął z głębokich sentencji, które u Paisa pojawiają się często:
"Nie wystarczy nie mięć racji, trzeba jeszcze być uprzejmym" (245)
"Wiedza to władza. Ale niewiedza, niestety, nie oznacza jeszcze braku władzy" (okładka)
"Nie istnieje świat kwantowy. Istnieje tylko abstrakcyjny kwantowy opis fizyczny. Jest błędem myśleć, że zadanie fizyki polega na odkryciu, czym jest natura. Fizyka zajmuje się tym, co możemy powiedzieć o naturze." (405)
Książka "Czas Nielsa Bohra" to coś więcej niż biografia. To panorama świata nauki z okresu rewolucji w fizyce. To pean na cześć rozumu i głęboko humanistyczny przyczynek do debaty o roli nauki w służbie człowieka, w szczególności w kontekście zagrożeń atomowych. Jeśli ktoś chciałby wyrokować o współodpowiedzialności naukowców za negatywne konsekwencje ich odkryć, zachęcam również jego do lektury, szczególnie kilku stron z końca książki (str. 470-476). Nie można współczesnego świata zrozumieć bez Bohra i bez poznania jego wkładu intelektualnego.
Gorąco zachęcam wszystkich do lektury książki o geniuszu, który wymyka się łatwemu zaklasyfikowaniu do niszowego i abstrakcyjnego świata fizyki.
Bardzo DOBRA - 8/10
Choć Pais był współpracownikiem i przyjacielem Bohra w okresie powojennym i znał go świetnie, to książka świadomie zaledwie dotyka prywatnych sfer wielkiego fizyka. Jest w niej trochę o genealogii inteligencji duńskiej, garść wspomnień synów i opisy pięknego związku z żoną Margrethe. W domu Bohrów młodzi zwariowani twórcy mechaniki kwantowej - Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac i przede wszystkim Werner Heiseneberg - mieli spokojną przystań. Tam był ich drugi dom, tam wykuwała się ta teoria, tam też mogli się wyspać i intelektualnie zmęczyć. Schrödinger po rozmowach z Bohrem, twórczo rozwinął swoje przełomowe koncepcje, a gospodarz spotkania postanowił stworzyć interpretację zdumiewających zjawisk świata atomowego, o której uczy się w szkołach do dziś.
"Czas Nielsa Bohra", choć skupia się na chronologicznym odtworzeniu aktywności bohatera na różnych polach, jest świetnym zrelacjonowaniem przemian w rozumieniu świata fizycznego na przestrzeni ostatnich 150-ciu lat. Każda koncepcja naukowa, którą Bohr stworzył czy rozwinął, została opisana wyczerpująco. W efekcie, całość zaprezentowanej wizji uzmysławia nam, jak wielkie przeobrażenia w wyglądzie świata nas otaczającego dokonały się dzięki postępowi w badaniach podstawowych w pierwszych dekadach XX wieku. Niezrozumiałe wzory i wielkie zderzacze cząstek są nam bliższe, niż mogłoby się wydawać. Zrozumienie struktury atomu skutkujące miniaturyzacją, postępem w medycynie i pojawieniem się użytkowej elektroniki, to bezpośrednie dziedzictwo dociekań Bohra. A on szukał tylko odpowiedzi, pytając pośrednio o granice poznania.
Bohr jest uznawany za twórcę kanonicznej interpretacji mechaniki kwantowej, opartej o zasadę korespondencji (str. 191-193) i komplementarności (str. 298-304). Obie daleko wykraczają poza teoretyczne rozważania akademickie. W odniesieniu do fizyki, pierwsza tłumaczy związek miedzy naszym rozumieniem makroskopowego świata klasycznego i mikroświata kwantowego wraz z niepokojąco nieprzystającym przejściem miedzy tymi domenami, druga opisuje dualizm falowo-korpuskularny obiektów rozmiarów atomowych. Bohr dostarczył, dzięki tym koncepcjom, ciekawego języka do metody naukowej, który z powodzeniem wykorzystuje się w innych dziedzinach. Pais świetnie te idee przedstawił w kontekście fundamentalnego sporu z Einsteinem, który nigdy nie zgodził się na konsekwencje mechaniki kwantowej. Ta wielka debata, która ostatnio w nowej odsłonie jest kontynuowana, dotyczy pytania o determinizm i sens prawdopodobieństwa w ujęciu kwantowym. Czy coś, co obserwujemy, to faktycznie to, co jest obiektywnie? A może to zaledwie deformacja powstała w wyniku interferencji fal opisujących przedmiot dociekań i nas badaczy? Takie pytania filozoficzne, to konsekwencja bohrowskich przemyśleń.
Zabierając się do lektury, trzeba się przygotować na wzory. Nie są zaawansowane, bo na poziomie szkoły średniej, a do tego pięknie i spójnie tłumaczą opisywane zagadnienia. Środkowe partie książki (str. 176-353), zawierające pewne fundamenty kwantowych metod rachunkowych opisanych językiem dość technicznym, będą w pełni dostępne czytelnikom z podstawami w tej dziedzinie. Warto jednak spróbować przeczytać je z uwagą, nawet nie mając tego minimum, bo oddają świetnie ferment lat 20-tych i 30-tych, kiedy powstawała współczesna fizyka. Każdy miesiąc przynosił w tym okresie nowe ustalenia. Takiego okresu przyspieszenia w rozumieniu fizykalnego świata nie doświadczyliśmy, jako cywilizacja, ani wcześniej ani później. Zaś Niels Bohr był w samym centrum tych wydarzeń.
Fizyk słynął z umiejętności formułowania daleko nieoczywistych prawd. Czasem odbierano go, jako człowieka 'wolno myślącego'. Jednak, jak zaznacza Pais, Bohr w głowie dokonywał wielu przejść myślowych, korekt logicznych niespójności, a komunikował dopiero ostateczny rezultat. Podobnie przebiegała jego praca nad artykułami. Ciągle poprawiał, rzadko będąc zadowolonym z ostatecznego efektu. Słynął z głębokich sentencji, które u Paisa pojawiają się często:
"Nie wystarczy nie mięć racji, trzeba jeszcze być uprzejmym" (245)
"Wiedza to władza. Ale niewiedza, niestety, nie oznacza jeszcze braku władzy" (okładka)
"Nie istnieje świat kwantowy. Istnieje tylko abstrakcyjny kwantowy opis fizyczny. Jest błędem myśleć, że zadanie fizyki polega na odkryciu, czym jest natura. Fizyka zajmuje się tym, co możemy powiedzieć o naturze." (405)
Książka "Czas Nielsa Bohra" to coś więcej niż biografia. To panorama świata nauki z okresu rewolucji w fizyce. To pean na cześć rozumu i głęboko humanistyczny przyczynek do debaty o roli nauki w służbie człowieka, w szczególności w kontekście zagrożeń atomowych. Jeśli ktoś chciałby wyrokować o współodpowiedzialności naukowców za negatywne konsekwencje ich odkryć, zachęcam również jego do lektury, szczególnie kilku stron z końca książki (str. 470-476). Nie można współczesnego świata zrozumieć bez Bohra i bez poznania jego wkładu intelektualnego.
Gorąco zachęcam wszystkich do lektury książki o geniuszu, który wymyka się łatwemu zaklasyfikowaniu do niszowego i abstrakcyjnego świata fizyki.
Bardzo DOBRA - 8/10
August 30, 2025
There is much to be said about this massive work, which blends a deep and technical (to this reader!) exposition of some dense physics with a lively and colorful portrait of Niels Bohr the man. Pais does an excellent job bringing Bohr and contemporaries to life - we understand not just the content of their work but their natural inclinations and its effects on their thinking, e.g. in Bohr’s work on complementarity (“we are suspended in language”) and glasnost.
There is no one overriding message to the book. Rather, we see the complexities and ambiguities of Bohr’s life, enmeshed within the historical forces of his time. Bohr was not just scientist but also statesman, family man, mentor, outdoorsman, etc etc. Some time is spent on the details of other contemporaries’ lives as well, such as Pauli, Heisenberg, Einstein, Planck, Rutherford, etc.
While the author does a fair job of both giving serious depth to the technical matters discussed, and at the same time ignoring large swathes of the history which were not directly relevant to Bohr’s life, the book is quite long winded and can drag at times. This is not necessarily to its detriment, but as a non expert I doubt I will have retained much of the details of, e.g. splitting of spectral lines and their role in the historical development of quantum mechanics. Therefore I would tentatively rate this book a 4 out of 5, but still highly recommend it to any ambitious readers.
There is no one overriding message to the book. Rather, we see the complexities and ambiguities of Bohr’s life, enmeshed within the historical forces of his time. Bohr was not just scientist but also statesman, family man, mentor, outdoorsman, etc etc. Some time is spent on the details of other contemporaries’ lives as well, such as Pauli, Heisenberg, Einstein, Planck, Rutherford, etc.
While the author does a fair job of both giving serious depth to the technical matters discussed, and at the same time ignoring large swathes of the history which were not directly relevant to Bohr’s life, the book is quite long winded and can drag at times. This is not necessarily to its detriment, but as a non expert I doubt I will have retained much of the details of, e.g. splitting of spectral lines and their role in the historical development of quantum mechanics. Therefore I would tentatively rate this book a 4 out of 5, but still highly recommend it to any ambitious readers.
October 3, 2025
This is a very good biography that manages to cover the science, philosophy, political engagement, and life story of one of the 20th century's most important figures. The author was a highly ranked physicist himself and knew Bohr well. He also developed a real knack for writing about his fellow physicists and has a style that is always interesting, engaging, and distinctive.
As may be expected, the technical physics sections are a little difficult for a non-physicist like myself to understand fully, but they are accessible enough. The philosophy is harder to understand and I'm not sure many of Bohr's closest colleagues understood his philosophy either. The more philosophical sections and those relating to Bohr's administrative roles and the parts he played in wider society were less compelling for me than the scientific and personal sections.
Overall, this is a good book and is definitely recommended reading.
June 5, 2024
I am not rating the in depth scientific discussions which are important to the book but beyond my understanding.
The book provides a detailed account of his admirable, interesting, and productive life, both professionally and personally.
The book does not, however, provide the necessary critical analysis of Bohr’s fervent belief that international cooperation could neutralize the threat of neutral weapons and lead to world peace. It does establish that F. Roosevelt (ingenuously) and Churchill (meanly) quickly reacted negatively to Bohr’s observations. One might suggest that President Eisenhower’s unsuccessful “Atoms for Peace” proposed program contained a flavor of Bohr’s thinking.
The book provides a detailed account of his admirable, interesting, and productive life, both professionally and personally.
The book does not, however, provide the necessary critical analysis of Bohr’s fervent belief that international cooperation could neutralize the threat of neutral weapons and lead to world peace. It does establish that F. Roosevelt (ingenuously) and Churchill (meanly) quickly reacted negatively to Bohr’s observations. One might suggest that President Eisenhower’s unsuccessful “Atoms for Peace” proposed program contained a flavor of Bohr’s thinking.
October 15, 2023
The physics and much more are told in this wonderfully written and well-researched book on the life of Niels Bohr. If one has any interest in the early years of physics, this is a must-read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about one of the great men of physics.
December 1, 2018
I found this very interesting, but it could be quite a ramble at times. Written by someone who knew Bohr and clearly revered him - I learned a lot about his role in the early atomic discoveries.
March 11, 2024
Impegnativo, è necessaria una buona conoscenza della fisica (almeno una laurea triennale) per comprendere i vari passaggi, ma una volta letto si ha una visione completa sulla vita di Bohr. Tanta roba
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