The Matter of Everything A History of Discovery

Very nice history on the experiments that defined our understanding of Nature

Bewertung am 19.05.2022
Bewertungsnummer: 1714715
Bewertet: Buch (Gebundene Ausgabe)

There are so many good books on how the understanding of Nature was revolutionized by quantum mechanics and relativity. Thy usually focus on the theoretical thinkers: Einstein, Planck, Dirac, Heisenberg, etc... Often you would read that this or that experimental result did not match the theory and then the story describes how a famous physicist started thinking. Here Suzie Sheehy takes the view of the experimentalists building first small and then much bigger experiments in basements of universities and later big labs like CERN. People like Röntgen are the physicists (and also chemists) who questioned nature and found unbelievable results. They are those who got their hands dirty and spent weeks counting flashes in a cloud chamber. She then explains how the results were understood, which requires again more experiments. In every chapter Sheehy connects all the technological developments brought by these experiments with sometimes billion-CHF industries now routinely using these technologies; X-rays, scanners, electronics, etc.. A very nice history of the last century of science written in clear words. It reads like a novel with a few technical terms here and there.