Quotes
“Halpern tells the entangled tale…with humor and concision.” Nature
“Fascinating and thought provoking…Halpern’s engaging account is a great human story and should be of interest as well to anyone fascinated by the still-unsolved questions that they pursued together.” Wall Street Journal
“[A] fascinating book…Takes the time to explain the intricacies and significance of the two men’s work in wonderfully clear ways. He employs helpful analogies and metaphors to lower the reader gently into a strange new world…[written with] entertaining and evocative prose.” New Scientist
“A highly approachable book that will appeal to readers high school and up, who are interested in physics, the history of science, and the human and political aspects of scientists and their work.” Library Journal
“What Halpern plucks from obscurity is the revealing backstory of how Einstein claimed an improbable intellectual sibling in his quixotic fight against quantum randomness.…A tale of cosmic ambitions in earthbound men.” Booklist
“With verve, Halpern explores the fragile nature of scientific collaboration…Give Halpern serious credit for melding the wealth of math and physics that influenced both Einstein and Schrödinger’s work into a coherent whole…The author imbues the story with issues that touched the personal lives of both men…[and] ably explores the clashing personalities and worldviews that had physics in churning ferment during the early part of the twentieth century.” Kirkus Reviews
“With his trademark grace and clarity, Paul
Halpern shines new light on the personalities, lives, and achievements of two
of the twentieth century’s greatest theoretical physics, at the same time
illuminating the fascinating interactions between the two. Halpern has a rare
talent for bringing both the physics and the human stories to life.” Kenneth W. Ford, former director of the American Institute of Physics and author of 101 Quantum Questions
“Sean Runnette is an excellent narrator for this double biography of two great physicists…The author has a knack for explaining scientific concepts in comprehensible terms, no easy thing, and Runnette is up to the task, too. His command of technical terms and place names in English and German is almost flawless….He manages the almost impossible by consistently distinguishing the names of Max Born and Niels Bohr. (Halpern uses only last names.) This work is a significant addition to the intellectual history of twentieth-century physics.” AudioFile