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Books by and about Werner a Heisenberg Philosophical Problems of Quantum Physics. essays and lectures from 1932 N Mukunda to 1948 Ox Bow Press, 1979. The three principal creators of quantum mechanics made their landmark contri- butions to the subject in very quick succession between July 1925 and January 1926 in the Physics and Philosophy - the Revolution in Modern Science. sequence: Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac the 1956 Gifford Lectures at the and Erwin Schrodinger. They received their University of St.Andrews Nobel Prizes together in December 1933 - Harper & Row, 1958. Heisenberg for 1932, Dirac and Schrodinger for 1933. The February 1999 and August 2003 issues of Resonance were devoted Y respectively to Schrodinger and Dirac. The present one celebrates Heisenberg. Across the frontiers. essays and lectures from 1948 to 1973 The purpose of this article is to present to a Ox Bow Press, 1990. younger generation of readers (students and teachers alike) a very brief account of some of Heisenberg's general writings of a historical and philosophical nature. These are accessible f both to scientists, even in areas other than -- J I • ~ _ i physics, and to educated and interested L".....:: ...... J ..... : .... ,*so. Physics and Beyond - nonscientists. In reading this article, at Encounters and Conversations George Allen & Unwin, 1971. relevant places one may look at Virendra Singh's Article-in-a-Boxonpage 3, andJochen Heisenberg's Personal Reflections on page
90. E ,... • ...... ~ I'. I ., ... , • EIlClHlllleN "ith Un'["lu Both Heisenberg and Schrodinger, from Encounters with Einstein And Other Essays on People, Places, Germany and Austria respectively, wrote and Particles. essays and extensively on general philosophical matters lectures from 1972 to 1976 apart from their technical scientific work. In Princeton University Press, contrast, Dirac has not written much along 1983. these lines. The following books by
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Schrodinger should be mentioned: Nature As one would expect, Heisenberg has written and the Greeks; Mind and Matter; My View of frequently about the origins, historical the World; Science, Theory and Man (Science develop men t and difficul ties of in terpretation and the Human Temperament); and Science and of quantum mechanics, the major revolution Humanism. Several of these are currently in thought which he himself initiated. These availa ble either in the Canto Series of are extensively dealt with in (p) as well as in Cambridge University Press, or published by the partly autobiographical (8). His discovery Ox Bow Press. Heisenberg's major general of matrix mechanics in May-June 1925 has wri tings, more or less in chronological sequen been recounted in Virendra Singh's article. ce' are listed on page 83 and numbered u, ~, Here is Heisenberg's own description of his y, 8 and E. intense and dramatic feelings at that time, taken from (8): Schrodinger's writings have rarely been matched for their clarity, eloquence of "I had the feeling that, through the surface of expression and persuasive power. 'Heisen atomic phenomena, 1 was looking at a berg's nontechnical writings on physics have strangely beautiful interior, and felt almost always been notable for a strong sense of the giddy at the thought that 1 now had to probe historyofthesubject,andforaclearperception this wealth of mathematical structures nature of the impact of modern discoveries on time had so generously spread out before me". honored philosophical disputes'. Among his Elsewhere in (8) he describes his Youth technical books at least two deserve mention: Movement days, his introduction to physics the classic 1929 Chicago lectures on The and the atomic concept, his first meeting with Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory Niels Bohr in 1922, and the important (Dover 1949); and from much later in his life, conversation with Einstein in 1926 recalled Introduction to the Unified Field Theory of in Virendra Singh's article. (This last appears Elementary Particles (Interscience 1966). also in (E)). The chapters in (8) are extremely The definitive biography of Heisenberg is carefully reconstructed conversations with David C Cassidy's Uncertainty - The Life and many different people on a great variety of Science of Werner Heisenberg, W H Freeman scientific, philosophical and political topics 1992. Also of great interest is Inner Exile - ranging in time from 1919 u pto 1965. They Recollections of a Life with Werner Heisenberg help us see the new physical concepts gradually by his wife Elisabeth,published by Birkhauser unfolding with all the attendant suspense, in 1984. Michael Frayn's play 'Copenhagen', excitement and drama. The evolution of the Anchor Books 2000, has been briefly referred uncertainty and complementarity principles to by Virendra Singh, and is dealt with more and of the standard Copenhagen interpre extensively by Jochen Heisenberg. tation of quantum mechanics during 1926-27
------~------84 RESONANCE I August 2004 BOOK I REVIEW are all recounted in the first person singular symmetry .... This is the natural consequence what more authentic source could one ask of the fact that symmetry is rooted in nature for? All these developments are also dealt itself'. with in great depth in (P). And in (E) he suggests that we have reached Heisenberg's accounts of the growth of ideas the end of the usefulness of thinking that one over the centuries, starting from early Greek thing consists of others: speculations about the nature of matter and "Here the question has obviously been asked, natural law , are deeply revealing. In essays in 'What do protons consist of?' But it has been (a) and (y) titled 'Ideas of the Natural forgotten in the process, that the term consists Philosophy of Ancient Times in Modern of only has a half way clear meaning if we are Physics' and 'Natural Law and the Structure able to dissect the particle in question, with a of Matter' there are splendid recapitulations small expenditure ofenergy, into constituents of the ideas of Leucippus, Democritus and whose rest mass is very much greater than Platonic philosophy; and when the this energy-cost; otherwise, the term consist of comparison to modern day thinking has to be has lost its meaning. And that is the situation made he says: with protons". "It was an unbelievable achievement of the At a couple ofplaces, in (y) and in (0), there are ancient philosophers to have asked the right discussions of the relation between science questions. But, lacking all knowledge of the and religion. In the chapter titled 'Science empirical details, we could not have expected and Religion' in (0), Heisenberg reconstructs them to find answers that were correct in superbly from memory what Bohr had said to detail as well". him on this matter: Such a finely balanced and refreshingly honest " ... our attitude to religious questions cannot assessment! be separated from our attitude to society ... At more than one place in these books, in (0) religion helps to make social life more and (E) for example, Heisenberg traces the harmonious; its most important task is to changes that have taken place over time in remind us, in the language of pictures and the concept of elementary particles of matter parables, of the wider framework wi thin which out of which all matter is composed, and of our life is set". course also offers his own feelings about how things will develop in the future. In (0) he His accounts of the significance of the works says: of Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Wolfgang Pauli are contained in three separate essays in "The elementary particle, like the stationary (y). state of an atom, is determined by its
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Virendra Singh refers briefly to Heisenberg's right to reproach any body for having avoided visit to Bohr in Copenhagen in September a deadly risk. Who can stand up and say he 1941, when he failed in his attempt to 'reach' would have taken the risk in the same situation Bohr and to effect a reconciliation; and to the with the same responsibilities? Those who controversies surrounding his involvement have never been in such situations must be in the German atomic bomb project. Jochen grateful to their fate of being spared such Heisenberg's feelings on seeing Michael decisions" . Frayn's play 'Copenhagen' dealing with this And he concludes by saying that this book episode are expressed in his article in this issue. In this context only two quotations will "will help to improve the bond between those be recalled here. The first is from Elisabeth who suffer and those who have been spared". Heisenberg's book: Heisenberg's writings on many profound "But they were not communicating; they did subjects are so beautiful that they appear not understand each other. The two men who deceptively simple. One enjoys reading him had been such close friends parted deeply many times over to truly appreciate his disappointed, and there were no further thinking. Some of the books described above attempts to contact each other. Ultimately, may be rather difficult to get, but the serious the cause of this misunderstanding must be reader must make the effort to find them. She seen in both of them". will be very greatly rewarded. The second is from Victor WeisskopPs Preface to this book: N Mllkunda, Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India. "Whatever has happened, nobody has the Email:[email protected]
Heisenberg had a special, intuitive way of getting to the essential point. This, together with an incredible force of persistence and determination, made him the most prolific and successful physicist of the recent past.
- Victor Weisskopf
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