This book is discussion of the development of quantum mechanics from Planck’s awkward introduction of quantisation to solve the black-body problem, through the notorious Einstein-Bohr debates on the interpretation of quantum mechanics in the 20s-50s, to Bell’s theorem and its experimental validation that proves how quantum mechanics is incompatible with theories that require “local realism” (i.e. with some or all aspects of our intuitive take on how the world is).

I found this book very difficult to score: on the one hand it has re-ignited my interest in quantum mechanics and all its mad consequences and counter-intuitive statements. On the other, I found that where my interest was most piqued, the book drew up short and just didn’t give me everything I wanted in terms of the nitty gritty of the physics, leaving me feeling like I wasn’t quite getting the full picture.

For a bit of background, I’m a lapsed physicist (I did a degree in mathematical physics but it’s been a long time since I’ve used it). This is the first pop-science book I’ve read since before my degree - and I absolutely loved coming at the subject not from a technical, quantitative point of view (as then), but from a conceptual and historical angle. I feel like I’ve developed a better conceptual take on quantum mechanics than during my whole degree (illustrative of the technicians education I got in all manner of horrifically challenging maths without enough emphasis on experiment and background to what we were doing).

The downside, I think, of my background is that, though undoubtedly helping me understand the book better, I also craved more detail in places than the book offered. More worryingly, I felt the book glossed over complex, important issues too briefly - perhaps bespeaking the authors journalism background. As a concrete example, the rebuke Bohr gave to Einstein’s light-box experiment is anything but sound - and only my own knowledge and intuition for the subject revealed that to me. That, in turn, led me down a rabbit hole of reading about Einstein’s though experiments - which has been fun - but I feel I should’ve got that out of the book I just read and not outside reading.


Paradoxically, I’ve ended up concluding that this is both too basic and too complex. The range of topics covered is huge and, though well written, I feel would be really challenging for the un-initiated. For me (as the initiated) by contrast, I feel there wasn’t enough detail - leaving me feeling a bit unsatisfied and searching around for more comprehensive (but still historical / conceptual) books on the subject.

In short good, but ultimately a little unsure of its audience and the worse off for it.