Book description
Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist famous for his
contribution to quantum physics. He won the Nobel Prize in 1933 and is
best known for his thought experiment of a cat in a box, both alive
and dead at the same time, which revealed the seemingly paradoxical
nature of quantum mechanics.
Schrödinger was working at one of the most fertile and creative
moments in the whole history of science. By the time he started
university in 1906, Einstein had already published his revolutionary
papers on relativity. Now the baton of scientific progress was being
passed to a new generation: Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Niels Bohr,
and of course, Schrödinger himself.
In this riveting biography John Gribbin takes us into the heart of
the quantum revolution. He tells the story of Schrödinger's
surprisingly colourful life (he arrived for a position at Oxford
University with both his wife and mistress). And with his trademark
accessible style and popular touch, he explains the fascinating world
of quantum mechanics, which underpins all of modern science.
John Gribbin
gained a PhD from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (then under
the leadership of Fred Hoyle) before working as a science journalist for
Nature
and later
New Scientist
. He is the author of a number of bestselling popular science books,
including
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat
,
In Search of the Multiverse
,
Science: A History
and
The Universe: A Biography
. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex and in 2000 was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
