The great debate that launched a revolution in physics
In 1900 the existence of the atom was a matter of great scientific debate, but by 1905 the atom was an accepted fact and the work of Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Marie Curie launched the atomic century. The center of this dramatic story, told against the rich backdrop of Vienna, is Ludwig Boltzmann, the forgotten genius who set the atomic revolution in motion.
Boltzmann, an Austrian physicist, was an unabashed believer in the atomic hypothesis, and his enthusiasm and progress were constantly thwarted by his nemesis, Ernst Mach, a respected scientist who didn't see the point of explaining what could not be seen and who developed a philosophy to bolster his conviction that science ought to stick to what it can measure directly. He ensnared Boltzmann in an all-consuming philosophical debate on the subject, and although Boltzmann almost single-handedly invented twentieth-century theoretical physics, he died a broken man, unaware that his vision would eventually lead to the greatest chain of scientific discoveries ever made.
David Lindley combines expert storytelling with his deep understanding of physics to shed light on an enthralling period of intellectual ferment and discovery.
