The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life Of Paul Dirac, Mystic Of The Atom (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
The book is well written and presented! Not to mention that it is inspiring and informative. I like how Dirac had a unique (kind of eccentric) personality, yet he was a great physicist. He was popular for his short and precise answers. One of the many stories that I like is the one that occurred after he presented a lecture at a conference. One colleague raised his hand and said: I don't understand that equation. After a long silence, the moderator asked Dirac if he wanted to answer the question, to which Dirac replied "That was not a question, it was a comment Paul Dirac was probably the most fruitful quantum physicist involved in the revolution of Born, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Pauli etc., yet I barely recognised his name, let alone his achievements, before reading this. The title is certainly appropriate if unfortunate. Dirac was very peculiar in his deliberate withdrawn ness, becoming a little less so as he aged, and it seems that this was also related to his academic brilliance, whether through an underlying autism or extreme single minded ness. At times the personal interactions are humerous, especially the replies he gave to the woman who became his wife when she cola ones he didn't answer questions. Strangely, I felt that I could relate to this withdrawn nature, partly out of sympathetic reading perhaps, but also because there are times and circumstances where solitude and disengagement feels the more authentic response for me to take to the stress of 'people'. I suspect I'm not too unusual in this.This book is nicely balanced between the personal and technical aspects of Dirac's life, working through it chronologically as might be expected. The reduction in productivity typical,of many physicists after hitting 30 (apparently) is discussed. This was somewhat true for Dirac, but not enough to convince me it is not a perception that becomes reality, rather than something inevitable. Certainly, the effect can be quite severe, with some of Dirac's colleagues becoming depressed and ending their lives as a result.Overall, this book gives a personal insight into the nursery of quantum mechanics and arguably it's most significant contributor. Strange meets stranger. Not likely to be of wide interest beyond science book nerds and spouses seeking to learn about the strange ways of their scientist partners!
What do You think about The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life Of Paul Dirac, Mystic Of The Atom (2009)?
A very well-researched and insightful biography of one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics.
—cassaundra_redwood
Not very well written but very interesting.
—grace
