Science at 12

Tobias Hürter

The age of uncertainty
The brilliant and dark years of physics 1895-1945

From Marie Curie to Max Planck, from Einstein to Heisenberg - the reinvention of the world

Marie Curie, Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Einstein not only revolutionized physics, they also reinvented our world, indeed our reality. They were intellectual adventurers, dandies or nerds, who had deep friendships and bitter enmities. The often intersecting lives of these heroes of thought offer a wealth of great stories. At the same time, their research triggered an unimagined scientific thrust that led to a new world view of physics that is still not fully understood today. But the age of relativity and quantum mechanics was also the age of wars and revolutions. The discovery of radioactivity revolutionized science and ultimately led to the catastrophes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

(Klett-Cotta)