[jo_in_europe]

I've read a handful of biographies of 20th century physicists recently, which I enjoyed for the same reasons. Ulam was a Los Alamos mathematician (and a great friend of Von Neumann). Anderson discovered the meson, which Yukawa had predicted. Fritzsche named nuclear fission (after doing important work on it). Elasser was a wandering scientist, who (to me) seemed to be "on the outside of the inside"; he gives accounts of his dealings with most of the atomic era players.

- Adventures of a Mathematician (Ulam)

- What Little I Remember (Frisch)

- Memoirs of a Physicist in the Atomic Age (Elasser)

- The Traveller (Yukawa)

- Discovery of Anti-Matter (Carl Anderson)

Also Freeman Dyson's and Feynman's stuff. I'm ever open to recommendations from readers who enjoy the same stuff.

[brummm]

If you are a physicist, Abraham Pais' "Subtle is the Lord" about Einstein's accomplishments in physics is an absolutely unique and amazing book. However, I didn't ask if you are a physicist for no reason. It talks mainly about the science and not about Einstein's personal life and you will need a physics education to follow along.

[jangstrom]

Thanks for the pointers. I'll check them out.

I recently read

- The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

- The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (Paul Erdős)

The Dirac book is by a physicist, as opposed to a professional biographer. I very much enjoyed it. Dirac crossed paths and interacted with all of the great quantum physicists in the 20th century. He and his work never captured the public imagination in the same way Einstein did, nor did his personality and propensity for teaching resonate like Feynman or Sagan. (Feynman was, of course, an exceedingly brilliant physicist, but I think he was known more by the public for his personality than his QED). But he had a lot of ideas that were ahead of his time, and he was driven by the notion of mathematical beauty. Hell, the Dirac equation was a work of inspired genius that seemed to come from the annals of his mind alone.

Similar to Einstein, his work got away from him, and later in life he was resistant to the beast he helped create (quantum field theory).

Erdős was a prolific, unparalleled genius in number theory, as well as a wandering academic. He was quite inept at self-care, and found shelter based on the hospitality of his friends and colleagues. He never held a permanent position, spending his time trotting the globe to collaborate with interesting folks. I came away from the book feeling quite melancholy about the man and his life. But he seemed to have followed his passion in a way few do. On the other hand, he would likely pity me, the mathematician-turned-physicist-turned-industrial-researcher.

[gww]

If you haven't read it The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is in the same vein and excellent. It doesn't focus on a single physicist but covers a lot of the physics and chemistry that led to the construction of the atomic bomb.

[edge17]

Thanks for the recommendations, I do read a lot of biographies and find the overlap of the stories of these important people to be particularly interesting. Some good ones I have read:

- American Prometheus - About J. Robert Oppenheimer's life. Lots of stories of lots of scientists and politicians, bureaucrats, etc throughout his life.

- Benjamin Franklin's autobiography - Wasn't a great book, but towards the end made mention that he wanted to meet Issac Newton when he went to England on some government business. Until reading it, I hadn't realized they were contemporaries.

- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - Lots of stories with people well known inside the technology industry.

[fgh]

If you are also a little bit interested in philosophy, Heisenberg's "Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations" is a wonderful recommendation.

[fgh]

Forgot to mention another book: Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science.

A really beautiful book with lots of photographies of all members of the Vienna circle and what happened to them. Some parts, of course, are also about Gödel.

[Trex_Egg]

Thanks for the details