Einstein Defiant: Genius Versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution

"I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a physicist." -Albert Einstein
A scandal hovers over the history of 20th century physics. Albert Einstein – the century's greatest physicist – was never able to come to terms with quantum mechanics, the century's greatest theoretical achievement. For physicists who routinely use both quantum laws and Einstein's ideas, this contradiction can be almost too embarrassing to dwell on. Yet Einstein was one of the founders of quantum physics and he spent many years preaching the quantum's importance and its revolutionary nature.
The Danish genius Neils Bohr was another founder of quantum physics. He had managed to solve one of the few physics problems that Einstein ever shied away from, linking quantum mathematics with a new model of the atom. This leap immediately yielded results that explained electron behavior and the periodic table of the elements.
Despite their mutual appreciation of the quantum's importance, these two giants of modern physics never agreed on the fundamentals of their work. In fact, they clashed repeatedly throughout the 1920s, arguing first over Einstein's theory of "light quanta"(photons), then over Niels Bohr's short-lived theory that denied the conservation of energy at the quantum level, and climactically over the new quantum mechanics that Bohr enthusiastically embraced and Einstein stubbornly defied.
This contest of visions stripped the scientific imagination naked. Einstein was a staunch realist, demanding to know the physical reasons behind physical events. At odds with this approach was Bohr's more pragmatic perspective that favored theories that worked, even if he might not have a corresponding explanation of the underlying reality. Powerful and illuminating, Einstein Defiant is the first book to capture the soul and the science that inspired this dramatic duel, revealing the personalities and the passions – and, in the end, what was at stake for the world.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
A RADICAL FACT RESISTED<br> 1 The Opposite of an Intriguer
2 Not German at All
3 I Never Fully Understood It
4 Independence and Inner Freedom
5 A Mercy of Fate
6 Picturesque Phrases
7 Scientific Dada
8 Such a Devil of a Fellow
9 Intuition and Inspiration
10 Bold, Not to Say Reckless
11 A Completely New Lesson
12 Slaves to Time and Space
13 Where All Weaker Imaginations Wither
14 A Triumph of Einstein Over Bohr
A RADICAL THEORY CREATED<br> 15 Something Deeply Hidden
16 Completely Solved
17 Exciting and Exacting Times
18 Intellectual Drunkenness
19 The Observant Executrix
20 It Might Look Crazy
21 Taking Nothing Solemnly
22 How Much More Gratifying
A RADICAL UNDERSTANDING DEFIED<br> 23 Sorcerer's Multiplication
24 Adding Two Nonsenses
25 Admiration and Suspicion
26 An Unrelenting Fanatic
27 The Secret of the Old One
28 Indeterminacy
29 A Very Pleasant Talk
30 The Dream of His Life
31 The Saddest Chapter
32 A Reality Independent of Man
33 A Certain Unreasonableness
Afterword
Bibliography
Sources
Index