The Age of Uncertainty

how the greatest minds in physics changed the way we see the world
Tobias Hürter (trans. David Shaw)

‘Remarkable … Hürter treats his subjects like the cast in a nail-bitingly enthralling drama … A stark reminder that epic thrillers aren’t always found in the fiction section.’

Jane Graham, Big Issue

‘Highlights the work of Marie Curie, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and others did together to shake up physics and introduce quantum mechanics, arguing that the field’s discovery was a collaborative effort.’

Publishers Weekly

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‘Intriguing and well-written … The Age of Uncertainty cleverly interweaves the stories of the leading early 20th-century physicists with the political and personal events that shaped their lives … Hürter’s formidable grasp of the great period of quantum discovery represents a new, exciting approach to the literature about this momentous era.’

The Wall Street Journal

The epic, page-turning history of how a group of physicists toppled the Newtonian universe in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Marie Curie, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and Albert Einstein didn’t only revolutionise physics; they redefined our world and the reality we live in. In The Age of Uncertainty, Tobias Hürter brings to life the golden age of physics and its dazzling, flawed, and unforgettable heroes and heroines. He immerses us in a half century of global turmoil against which some of humankind’s greatest and strangest scientific discoveries unfolded, expertly guiding us through the brilliant and mind-bending ideas that turned the world on its head.

The work of the twentieth century’s most important physicists produced scientific breakthroughs that led to an entirely new view of physics — and a view of the universe that is still not fully understood today, even as evidence for its accuracy is all around us. The men and women who made these discoveries were intellectual adventurers, renegades, dandies, and nerds, some bound together by deep friendship; others, by bitter enmity. But the age of relativity theory and quantum mechanics was also the age of wars and revolutions. The discovery of radioactivity transformed science, but also led to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Throughout The Age of Uncertainty, Hürter reminds us about the entanglement of science and world events, for we cannot observe the world without changing it.

‘Remarkable … Hürter treats his subjects like the cast in a nail-bitingly enthralling drama … A stark reminder that epic thrillers aren’t always found in the fiction section.’

Jane Graham, Big Issue

Publishers Weekly

View all reviews

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:368pp

ISBN (13):9781922585509

RRP:$35.00

Pub date:30 Aug 2022

Rights Held: UK & Commonwealth

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2023 HWA Non-Fiction Crown - Long-listed

CATEGORIES / tags

History of science SCIENCE / History Popular science Physics Biography: science, technology & medicine SCIENCE / Physics / General SCIENCE / General BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Science & Technology

AUTHOR

Tobias Hürter

Tobias Hürter, born in 1972, studied mathematics and philosophy in Munich and Berkeley, and holds a PhD in mathematics. He has been writing about science, technology, and philosophy for magazines and newspapers since 2000. He worked as an editor at the MIT Technology Review and was deputy editor at Hohe Luft, a philosophy magazine that he co-founded. Now he is a permanent freelance editor at DIE ZEIT Magazin Wissen. Hürter is the author of several nonfiction books.

TRANSLATOR

David Shaw

David Shaw works as a journalist for Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, as well as translating from several languages, including German, Dutch, Russian, and French. He lives in Berlin.

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