Good title anyway.

I wish this book had been required reading early in my scientific career. I think it does a beautiful job of explaining some extremely complex features of atomic theory in a way that shed light on a variety of things I learned in chemistry but never quite synthesized into a complete picture of what an atom is. There is also huge value in bringing the behind the scenes machinations of science to the layman. For "established" scientific theory, it's so rare to think about the controversies associated with the adoption of new ideas or the long process of a complete picture being formed. Kumar does an exceptional job of explaining complicated concepts while also painting a compelling picture of a fascinating group of scientists.

My one major qualm is that the book gets a bit bogged down in the fight between Einstein and Bohr over the interpretation of quantum mechanics. It's also tough to wrap my mind around some of the later theories, but I think that's in part because the Copenhagen interpretation is somewhat hard to square with my own conception of the real physical world.

I'm finally starting to understand Quantum Physics a little bit, thanks to Kumar's fascinating overview of its historical and theoretical developments. Parts were hard to follow, but I think a lot of that is because it's a hard topic, not because Kumar wasn't able to break it down. The last quarter was where it really started to (kind of) make sense for me. I empathise with Einstein - it seems like madness to accept there's no reality apart from observation. But I'm starting to get Bohr's point - that there can never be an objective observer or an unaffected observation, so it makes no sense to talk about an objective reality. It's a trick we use in thinking about the world, but it's still just a trick. The interesting implication of the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is that there seems to be no way to posit a supernatural realm either. It can only be thought about as a trick, but ultimately unknowable, and irrational to seriously consider. I have more thoughts about QM, but they're still congealing. I think QM, rationality, and Relativity are all related.....

In the book Quantum, Manjit Kumar describes the epic journey of the quantum from its discovery to its present state. We glance into the lives of the scientists who laid the foundations of Quantum Physics. Illustrious names such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Schrodinger, just to name a few. The work they did is also described in some depth and the environment in which they conducted their work is also visualized.

So what did I like about the book?
The author of this book was targeting me. The average reader with zero knowledge of quantum physics but eager to learn. Manjit Kumar somewhat simplified the complexities of Quantum Physics(for it rarely contained the Mathematics), but he managed to always deliver the general idea.
I also found the background stories of the scientists quite intriguing. It was interesting to see how these men discovered the mind bending facts that they discovered and how closely they held their discoveries to heart. I really enjoyed witnessing Emotional outbursts frequently ensued when they were challenged. Schrodinger vs Heisenberg. Einstein vs Bohr. Bohr vs Heisenberg. These are the beefs worth following. I came here looking for physics, but I enjoyed these anecdotes. They served as an oasis in the Desert of Physics.

The Journey of the Quantum
-The Quantum is discovered by Max Plank as the discrete packet of energy that can be emitted or received by an electromagnetic wave.

- Einstein suggests that light exists as quantum packets. Quanta (plural of quantum) exists without the need for transmission.

-Niels Bohr associates the newly discovered quantum to the atom. He creates the Quantum Atoom with quantized states known as energy levels. Within these energy levels, electrons don't radiate away their energies.

- Einstein's theory (no. 2) is proven through the Compton effect. The wavelength of an x-ray changes when it bombards an electron.

- Louis de Broglie proposes that an electron is also a wave. A standing wave with whole number differences that predict the positions of energy levels. His theory is proven experimentally when electrons are passed through a crystal. The resultant position of the electron shifts.(They get refracted like a wave).

- Wolfgang Pauli discovers the exclusion principle. No 2 atoms can have the same 4 quantum states. Ehrenfest's students back this up by stating that the 4th quantum state was due to the spin of the electron. It can either be spin up or spin down.

- Heisenberg discovers an equation that sets the foundation for quantum mechanics. Matrix mechanics. It could calculate te displacement and momentum of an electron based on its energy.

- Schrodinger discovers a more intuitive equation that is equivalent to matrix mechanics. Schrodinger's wave equation.

- Heisenberg discovers the uncertainty principle. The more precisely you measure an electron's position, the less precisely you measure its momentum. Heisenberg thought that this was because to observe an electron, you had to interfere with it. But Niels Bohr came up with a more elegant reason. Wave packets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQKELOE9eY4

- The quantum up until this point is understood as the Copenhagen interpretation. Einstein hates fact that depending on the experiment, the electron has different properties. Niels Bohr argued 'There exists no quantum world, just an abstract quantum description'. It exits only when we the experimenters look in. Einstein disagreed. He believed that there exists a reality out there that is independent from the observer.

- Schrodinger's cat. It was invented to prove that the cat's state is definite in reality. It is in a state both dead and alive in some blend of the Schrodinger wave function. It was created to prove that the reality of the cat's state was either dead or alive and it need not depend on the observer to observe it.

- Bell proves that equations that replaced schrodinger's wave equation with hidden variables had to be non-local.

- Everett proposes the many worlds theory. The wave function of Schrodinger's equation was a game of chance and probabilities. Everett proposes that these probabilistic events actually happen, but in another universe in the multiverse.

Well-written and engaging. Clarifies and explains concepts and events in 20th-century physics in ways that enable the scientific imbecile to better comprehend what the big deal is and why it's (still) such a big deal. Also works to arm said scientific imbecile with ways to humiliate people in the humanities who just love to bullshit about stuff they understand even less than someone who read a pop-science history does.

Oh, and there's fun stuff in here about the personal lives of major figures in 20th-century physics. But that stuff is nowhere near as compelling as the overall drama at the heart of this account.

I was afraid that this would be too challenging of a read for my not-at-all math-oriented brain. I was wrong. It read like a novel and was very interesting.

Actually, I didn't finish it. It was OK but overly rambling and a bit repetitive.