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Quantum Man: RIchard Feynman's Life in Science, by Lawrence M. Krauss, 2011, WW Norton
Description
Born in Far Rockaway, Queens, Richard Feynman became one of the twentieth century's dominant minds in physics, contributing work that reshaped our understanding of the fundamental forces in nature.
Lawrence M. Krauss's Quantum Man captures the life and science of this enigmatic figure, who would go from running a small radio repair business as a child to working on the Manhattan Project to unraveling the nature of quantum mechanics.
Krauss captured Feynman's relentlessly inquisitive spirit and his near absolute refusal to abide by whay was fashionable or expected; in science and in life.
Along the journey readers encounter some of the great minds of the twentieth century, including Paul Dirac, John von Neumann, and Robert Oppenheimer. With great sensitivity to the historical context in which FEynman worked, Krauss offers miniature physics lessons associated with each of Feynman's discoveries even as he points out the mercurial genius of much of the scientist's work.
Ultimately, as seen in this insightful biography, Feynman's life provides a perspective on the key developments in physics during the second half of the century and many of the puzzles posed by his insights that remain unsolved to this day.
An accessible reflection on the issues that drive physics today, Quantum Man is the story of man who was willing to break all the rules in order to tame a theory that broke all the rules.
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