Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World

by Abraham Pais

The history of physics since the discovery of X-rays would be too simplistic a description of this book. Certainly it covers the historical period from the late nineteenth century to the present day, but the book attempts to relate not only what has happened over the last hundred years or so, but why it happened the way it did, what it was like for those scientists involved, and how what, at the time, seemed a series of bizarre or unrelated events, now with hindsight presents a logical narrative. The author, himself a notable physicist and author of the highly successful Subtle is the Lord (Clarendon Press 1982), was personally involved in many of the developments described in the book. As with his previous book, unique insights into the world of big and small physics are to be gained from this major work.

Genres: Physics, Science, Nonfiction, History, History Of Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Abraham 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.

Reviews

[Nick Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazon used 2009-03-0x. A lavish, wonderful, fanatically detailed and researched history of the last century's "golden era" of physics; Pais begins his story with Roentgen's discovery of x-rays and Becquerel's subsequent coinage of radioactivity, and ends with the tour de force discovery of the weak nuclear force's W and Z exchange particles (for a hilarious look into this, check out RESONAANCES's post "Pauli's Other Principle" or Luboš Motl's rather politically incorrect lark on The Reference Frame, "Bosons are From Europe, Hadrons are From America" (gotta love that cheeky world map with Africa's "Boltzmannions" and South America's "Anyons" -- see the caption. We're all going to hell)). Pais is a trained physicist and not at all wary of bringing math into the thick of things -- this is *not* a book for fans of pop science, and I'd not have made it through seven or eight years ago. Anyone who can hack it, however, will be richly rewarded; Pais brings in a ton of primary source material I've seen nowhere else, including fantastic conversations from various conferences. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the subject, with at least BS-level training in quantum (no need for advanced solid state physics) and the associated mathematics.

[Dan Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a peculiar book. It requires far too much knowledge of the science to be accessible to the lay reader (eg. me) but it's not a textbook. It's a history (sort of) of parts of physics focusing on several decades from the tail end of the nineteenth century, looking at the various advances and dead ends and including anecdotes and personal observations mixed in amongst the equations and scientific descriptions that really aren't explained for the non-physicist.

Reading this was hard work and I had to skim over the surface of most of it. But buried in the masses of equations and science are lots of interesting bits where I found I was getting just an inkling of the science or of the personalities involved. I think it would be a great read for a particle physicist and even for those who aren't it is fascinating.

[Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have pointed out; anyone who reads this and understands the majority of the second half of this book already knew all of that before they started.

The story of particle physics is cool, and I never considered quitting on this book, but I'd be lying if I said I understood a lot of it. Thankfully Pais is a personable guide, cheerfully throwing equations and anecdotes and silly narrative asides at the reader.

[Markus Himmelstrand · Rating 4 out of 5]

General thoughts

I very much enjoy this genre of history written by professionals working in the field. Firstly, they can competently expand on the popular narrative of the period preceding their careers with critical details about what ideas were truly impactful to physicists themselves. Secondly, they add flavor to the telling of the story of physics discoveries in their own lifetime. Pais excels at the first part (1895-1930s) but gets somewhat lost in telling the story of the 1940s to 1980s period. This is not entirely his fault as publication rates post-40s runs explode. Pais conveys effectively the vibe of this later era but requires one to basically already know all the facts. I recommend the first half to a' general audience' who have 1-2 years of university-level education and the second half only really to people with a strong interest in particle physics.

The structure of the book is also truly impressive. It is mostly chronological but has an internal reference system on the level of a modern web page. There is both a glossary/index and an 11-page timeline at the end of the book which references every section where the concept occurred.
This is about as good as it gets for refinding quotes or looking up a reference.

Some comments on the chapters:

Chapters 1-9 -- Tabletop science. Not too much math.

The first chapters (constituting about half the book) deal with the discoveries of x-rays, radioactivity and evolving understanding of the structure of the atom and describe with great care the interplay of experiment on theory and vice versa. These chapters are quite readable even to someone with minimal background in physics and serve as a serviceable introduction to topics (though they are undoubtedly more interesting to someone with at least).

Unlike later chapters, the treatment is not overly mathematical and many of the experiments are outlined to a very satisfying level of detail where Pais confers the central idea without getting bogged down in technicalities.

A recurrent topic in these early chapters is difficulties in the development of the theory of beta decay which Pais takes great care to outline. One of my favorites was the debate between Ellis and Meitner's groups [pages 303-308] on the interpretation of the difference between the mean and maximum energy of the electron in the beta spectrum and using the heating of a wire coated with radioactive material to show that the heating corresponds to the mean and not the maximum (as would be expected if the spectrum originates in the nucleus).

Chapters 12 through 17 -- Desk science. Quantum mechanics. More math

These chapters deal with the development of quantum mechanics and are more technical and abstract. For these chapters, I gauge it necessary for one to have some familiarity with quantum mechanics from this point on. Fun anecdotes about Niels Bohr (likely lifted from Pais's biography are interspersed with a rough timeline of the emergence of fundamental concepts like the uncertainty principle, matrix mechanics, wave mechanics, spin, and so on.

For the modern reader, this is mainly interesting to learn about the chronology development and how the proton-electron-model of the nucleus and classical electron radius continued to create tensions within the theory in the early years. We get some discussion of the Dirac- and Klein equations but their discussion is a low point as they are deferred to later chapters where they are lost in the sea of field theory discussions.

Chapters 18-21 Postwar -- Big Machines. A lot of math

These chapters constitute part II of the book and ostensibly deal with developments after World War II though

The first chapter deals very lucidly with Ernest Lawrence and the concepts of particle accelerators and their evolution and leads into quantum field theory maturing and the discoveries of new particles.

I am sure these chapters are a wonderful resource to the reader who has a good grasp on modern field theory and the standard model but the density of mathematics

The epilogues also serve as a charming time stamp of Pais's thoughts on particle physics at the end of the 80s. He for example mentions Lederman and the work on the 'super collider' which we now of course know was never finished.

In the epilogue, we find a quote that contains the title

"Phycisits impressed by, but never content with, one glorious moment, move on to the next, inward bound" [page 625]

[Michael McEllin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true classic in the history of the "modern physics" of the 20 Century, written by a man who was closely involved in many of the developments, and who knew and was respected by many of the major players.

It is very much a technical history - so don't expect to follow everything unless you have some background in physics and maths.

[F Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with Pais' earlier book "Subtle is the Lord", a biography of Albert Einstein, this is a tough read because he doesn't shy away from deep technical discussions including some high level mathematics to describe how the physical theories developed over time. Although I do have a background in mathematics and science, I just didn't have the time to stop and comprehend every equation. But I did enjoy it over all. I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5.
The most surprising thing I learned from the book is that the existence of the positron was theorized and then experimentally confirmed before the neutron was. This in spite of the fact that neutrons exist in all "normal" atoms except hydrogen 1, and positrons are rare in nature because as soon as one encounters an electron the two annihilate each other in a last gamma ray fling.
The discovery of the positron is a credit to the great mind of Paul Dirac, whose formulation of the electron equation was the key to theorizing the existence of the "anti-electron". As a result of this intriguing history I'm now reading a biography of Dirac.

[Jiahao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pais writes a gripping tale of scientific discovery beginning from the last decades of the 19th century with the discovery of the X-rays and radioactivity and continues the tale of the study of the forces of nature culminating in modern high-energy, big-budget physics. The book of course neglects the other large branch of physics, i.e. condensed matter physics, and I quibble with some of the omissions, most notably that of the effects of indistinguishability in many-body quantum mechanics, and the writing style at times is inconsistent, sometimes disjointed, but always compelling.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

In depth, detailed history of the development of nuclear physics. Read about how toothpaste containing Radium was sold to German civilians during WW1 for example. If you teach Physics or are a practitioner of that black art, this book is a must read.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't read all of this, too much advanced mathematics. Skipped those parts and just read inbetween.

[Michael Pointer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour de force that inspired me to wish I was alive back in the glory days of 20th century physics, working with Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Fermi, Pauli, Dirac, and on and on

[Ludwig · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a good book. Read several sections not all of the content due to limited time.

[Lulu]

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