June 23, 2007
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In the Details, continued...
Faust in Copenhagen:
A Struggle for
the Soul of PhysicsBy Gino Segrè
Illustrated. 310 pp.
Viking. $25.95.
"As though their knowledge of the quantum secrets came with the power of
prophecy, some three dozen of Europe's best physicists ended their 1932
meeting in Copenhagen with a parody of Goethe’s 'Faust.'....It was only in retrospect that the silliness became profound. The
players were becoming possessors of 'a truth with implicit powers of
good and evil,' Gino Segrè writes in 'Faust in Copenhagen,' his
inventive new book about the era. And 'the devil... was in the
details.'" --George JohnsonRelated material:This week's entries
on Pauli and Faust,
the entries of
June 3 through June 6,
and the five entries
ending on April 7, 2005,
with "In the Details"
