The End Of The Certain World

by Greenspan, Nancy Thorndike

• ISBN13: 9780738206936
• ISBN10: 0738206938
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

In 1920, Albert Einstein wrote to Max Born, "Theoretical physics will flourish wherever you happen to be; there is no other Born to be found in Germany today."The End of the Certain Worldpresents for the first time Born's full story: Nobel physicist, a discoverer of quantum theory, exile from Hitler's Germany, teacher of nine Nobel physicists. Born's role in the "Golden Age of Physics" helped to shape the science of the twentieth century and open the door to the modern era. Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner, among others, flocked to Gottingen, Germany in the 1920's to work with Born, the physicist who had discovered one of the most profound principles of the century - the physics of indeterminacy. In a cruel twist of fate Born, a pacifist who loved science for its beauty, had educated these renowned scientists who developed the atom bomb. Not everyone embraced Born's revolutionary quantum principle. Throughout much of his forty year friendship with Einstein, the two debated the nature of the universe - deterministic versus non-deterministic - with Einstein declaring "God does not play dice", even though the Nobel Committee supported Born's position when they awarded him the 1954 Prize. A social history and a history of science as well as an intimate biography,The End of the Certain Worldreveals the story of a great physicist and humanitarian and his struggle with the forces of religion, politics, and war during the upheavals of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Nancy Thorndike Greenspan has co-authored three books with her husband, child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan. She has spent the past four years gathering, translating, and cataloging documents from archives around the world for The End of the Certain World. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Prologue	1	(4)
ONE A Kind of Shell	5	(16)
TWO A Higher Desire	21	(24)
THREE Matters Physical	45	(24)
FOUR A Bitter Pill to Swallow	69	(18)
FIVE There Is No Other Born in Germany	87	(20)
SIX Thinking Hopelessly About Quanta	107	(22)
SEVEN But God Does Play Dice	129	(22)
EIGHT Dark Future	151	(22)
NINE Seeing How Expendable You Are	173	(16)
TEN Talking of Desperate Matters	189	(24)
ELEVEN Worse Than Imagination	213	(22)
TWELVE There Are So Many Ifs	235	(24)
THIRTEEN A Curse of the Age	259	(20)
FOURTEEN A Trip to Stockholm	279	(22)
Epilogue	301	(4)
Acknowledgments	305	(4)
Notes	309	(42)
Bibliography	351	(8)
Index	359