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A review by edgeworthstan2000
What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics by Adam Becker
4.0
I love that each chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Made for very compelling reading and a "just one more chapter" late into the night kind of experience.
In a way, I didn't learn anything from this book. Before reading it, I knew that relativity and quantum mechanics aren't compatible. After reading it, I still know that. I just know a bit more about the players and the history. But the fault is largely mine -- I'm really at my limit here, not having any sort of background in physics.
Halfway through, I started to be bothered by the lack of women. Marie Curie and Chien-Shiung Wu are mentioned but surely there were others? And then - boom - at the end he mentions the bias and names one more -- Grete Hermann -- whose work went unnoticed for decades. Why not bring her up in the main body of the book & describe her research instead of reproducing the bias and then pointing it out?
Anyway, in another world, I am a physicist. Not this one.
In a way, I didn't learn anything from this book. Before reading it, I knew that relativity and quantum mechanics aren't compatible. After reading it, I still know that. I just know a bit more about the players and the history. But the fault is largely mine -- I'm really at my limit here, not having any sort of background in physics.
Halfway through, I started to be bothered by the lack of women. Marie Curie and Chien-Shiung Wu are mentioned but surely there were others? And then - boom - at the end he mentions the bias and names one more -- Grete Hermann -- whose work went unnoticed for decades. Why not bring her up in the main body of the book & describe her research instead of reproducing the bias and then pointing it out?
Anyway, in another world, I am a physicist. Not this one.