Book Description
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger was one of the most distinguished scientists and philosophers of the twentieth century, and his lectures are legendary. Here the texts of two of Schrödinger's most famous lecture series are made available again. In the first, entitled "Nature and the Greeks," Schrödinger offers a historical account of the scientific world picture. In the second, called "Science and Humanism," he addresses fundamental questions about the link between scientific and spiritual matters. As Roger Penrose confirms, these are the profound thoughts of a great mind, and as relevant today as when they were first published in the 1950s.Download Description
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger was one of the most distinguished scientists and philosophers of the twentieth century, and his lectures are legendary. Here the texts of two of Schrödinger's most famous lecture series are made available again. In the first, entitled "Nature and the Greeks," Schrödinger offers a historical account of the scientific world picture. In the second, called "Science and Humanism," he addresses fundamental questions about the link between scientific and spiritual matters. As Roger Penrose confirms, these are the profound thoughts of a great mind, and as relevant today as when they were first published in the 1950s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Schroedinger's thought
I had come across a bit of Schroedinger's philosophy while reading The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell.I found the paragraph to be very spiritual and very beautiful.At the time, it was a surprise to me to find that the author of the piece was one of fathers of modern quantum theory.It took me a couple years, but I finally found it; and I was very impressed.While those who mainly want to know about wave mechanics may not be interested in a work of philosophy, I find the works very mystic and spiritual.In all, this is a very good book for those who like philosophy, and/or are interested in the philosophy of one who was in forefront of what is known about reality today. ... Read more

Book Description
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl Popper hailed it as a 'beautiful and important book' by 'a great man to whom I owe a personal debt for many exciting discussions'. It appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Schrodinger asks what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, published and translated here for the first time. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable additon to the shelves of scientist and layman alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

An Absolute Classic from a Great Thinker
In "What is Life?" monograph, Schrodinger brilliantly enlightens us withthe true concept of life science. He proposes what himself calls "a naive physicist's ideas about organisms." Years before the discovery of double helix structure of DNA, Schrodinger beautifully details how the huge volume of information is related to the structure of what he calls "aperiodic crystal" (what we currently call it "protein structure."

The ideas are still fresh and everybody who really wants to start the REAL and TRUE molecular biology must read this classic. It is astonishing to see how this great thinker and physicist had elaborated, very correctly and properly, to use the statistical tools in physics (statistical physics) to explain the fundamentals of life.

It is an absolute classic from a great legend. Please read and enjoy it.

Stimulating Reading
Schroedinger, one of the great physicists of the 20th Century, applied the knowledge he gained in his own discipline to analyze human life. Based upon lectures that he gave in the 1940s, this brief book contains Schroedinger's fascinating speculations on the nature of life, several of which have proven prophetic (including the discovery of DNA). The reader comes away with the joy of having shared in the workings of a great mind.

Perhaps the most impressive achievement of the book is that it can be readily understood by persons relatively untrained in science or mathematics.

A physicist's essay on a topic he cannot know as a scientist, only as a human being
I'm wondering why scientists are allowed to give their opinion as scientists about topics they know nothing about as scientists. The beginning of the title ("What is Life") sounds like if Schrodinger can claim anything about the difference between mind and matter as a pure consequence of physics. Too bad, as the rest of the title might make you think that there will be some discussion about why and whether there might be a difference between mind and matter. What remains of mind when you stick to the physics? That would be a very nice question to think about, if only this was the topic of the book...but it's not what is done here.

A Classic
What is Life? is an absolute classic. Schrodinger felt that life must be explainable by physics and chemistry, yet seemed to violate the normal behavior of entropy-- and he understood further that this was a remarkable wedge point to explore. He figured out the explanation: life is the result of evolution of genetic information, which selects for complex processes that by ordinary considerations would be very unlikely. He predicted that there must be a molecule capable of carrying the genetic information (incorrectly thinking it would be a protein.) His beautifully-written book was influential and timely. Within 4 years, Von Neumann elucidated the mechanisms involved in self-reproducing automata (illustrating his abstract discussion with a picture looking remarkably like DNA to the eyes of readers today); and within a decade, Watson and Crick grasped the structure of DNA. You should not read Schrodinger's book today as one of your first sources to understand life-- there has been remarkable progress in the 50 years since Watson and Crick-- but you should read it to gain appreciation for how science can be advanced when the time is ready and a wedge point, an apparent conflict between fundamental ideas, is analyzed.

The volume also includes another lecture by Schrodinger, Mind and Matter, which is historically interesting in another way. In Schrodinger's day, the state of understanding had not advanced to the point where it was possible to make as useful conjectures about the structure of mind as of life, and he accordingly felt "[mind] may well be beyond human understanding."

Readers interested in Schrodinger's book will also enjoy What is Thought?, published 2004. What is Thought? argues that mind must be explainable by computer science, that the fundamental issues are computational, and that there is again a wedge point: the question of how the workings of a computer, which are always purely syntactical, can correspond to meaning and understanding. The situation is parallel to the one that faced Schrodinger with respect to life in two respects: first, mind is the outcome of evolution, which has built thought processes that seem inconsistent with our standard science, and second, scientific research has advanced to the point where, if we focus on the wedge point, significant understanding is obtainable. What is Thought? brings to bear on the problem of mind core ideas from computational learning theory, complexity theory, and evolutionary computing, as well as molecular and evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and other areas. The result is a principled and concrete explanation, consistent with the vast array of available data, of how meaning, understanding, language, consciousness, and all the various aspects of mind arise from execution of an evolved computer program.

It's all there, before the elucidation of DNA via x-rays
This beautiful little book was based on a sequence of popular lectures given in Dublin during WWII, and in turn on an earlier paper given in Vienna. In the book Schrödinger coins the idea of a genetic code carried by linear molecules with his phrase 'code-script'. He asks how, in the absence of validity of a large n limit required by statistical physics for the validity of any macroscopic biological laws, can the chromsome molecules that carry the code-script yield stable genetic rules. Then, he gives the answer: chemical bonding as predicted by quantum theory ala Heitler-London (Schrödinger identifies quantum jumps in the chrosomes as the origin of mutations, which are also discrete). Herefers to the chromosome fibers as linear 'aperiodic crystals' (to emphase their stability in the face of thermal fluctuations) and encourages physicists to study them: he boldly asserts that both the instructions and mechanism for generating organisms via molecular replication are contained in the chromosome molecules (and there is where the "complexity" lies). This book encouraged physicists to study problems of complexity long before the term complexity had become the catchword that it is today. Indeed, our first ideas of 'complexity' were developed parallel in the same era by Turing and von Neumann.

Schrödinger is buried in Alpbach (Tirol), where he lectured and enjoyed the Alps frequently after WWII in a school organized by one of two brothers who, according to a very well-informed source, formed nearly the only Resistance in Austria during the war. On his grave is a pretty little plaque bearing the Schrödinger equation.

This review refers to the 1969 edition of 'What is Life'. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent guide in statistical thermodynamics
This book is an excellent guide in statistical thermodynamics. It's started with the theoretical justification of phenomenological thermodynamics and its system of concepts. In principle the methods ofstatistical mechanics are applicable to non-equilibrium states as well asto equilibrium properties. The author (Nobel prize,1933) treats only thetheory of equilibrium properties for which the destination"Statistical Thermodynamics" has been adopted.As aconsequence of the structure of phenomenological thermodynamic, statisticalthermodynamics developed in this book separates into two principal parts:the derivation of thermodynamic principles and the calculation ofthermodynamic functions for concrete systems. This text seemsespecially good for teaching basic thermodynamics and statisticalmechanics. I recommend this book especially for students, because it'shighest quality is the clarity of the exposed physical ideas. ... Read more

Book Description
Erwin Schrödinger is one of the greatest figures oftheoretical physics, but there is another side to the man: not onlydid his work revolutionize physics, it also radiacally changed thefoundations of our modern worldview, modern biology, philosophy ofscience, philosophy of the mind, and epistemology.
This book explores the lesser-known aspects of Schrödinger'sthought, revealing the physicist as a philosopher and polymath whosehighly original ideas anticipated the current merging of the naturaland the social sciences and the humanities.
Thirteen renowned scientists and philosophers have contributed to thevolume. Part I reveals the philosophical importance ofSchrödinger's work as a physicist. Part II examines his theory oflife and of the self-organization of matter. Part III shows howSchrödinger's ideas have influenced contemporary philosophy ofnature and our modern view of the world, drawing a fascinating pictureof the ongoing synthesis of nature and culture: one of the mostinteresting developments of modern thought.
The volume also contains the most comprehensive bibliography ofSchrödinger's scientific work, making it at the same time a bookof acute contemporary relevance and a major work of reference.
... Read more

Book Description
Reprint of a classical book first published in 1950. This lucid and profound exposition of Einstein's 1915 theory of gravitation is essential reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

an excellent companion
I've turned to this thin book far too many times to count. It was also a life-saver when I was learning General Relativity because of its clear and careful exposition. Schrodinger was doing this back when nobody was quite sure what the deal was with, e.g., index notation, and he took pains to lay out the benefits -- but also the limits -- of that system. See, for example, his discussion of the derivative operator, something that is almost always glossed over.

I'm in the middle of my dissertation now, and every now and then I hit on a subtlety in GR that my advisor has missed but I caught from reading this book.

Don't get thinking that this is Schrodinger's book on the unified field. It is more like the lecture notes of a very intelligent man figuring out what on Earth this truly new version of gravity is all about.

In the end of course this book is too slim to live on its own as a GR text. You will need to carry around a bigger, more comprehensive tome to get through your studies. As a handguide and emergency sense-maker, however, it has few equals.

A good text with unique information
I am an advanced undergraduate physics student who has started to go through Space-Time Structure. It seems to be a very good book, but the section introducing tensors was not as lucid as it could be. If you already know tensors or have a good book like Shaum's Outline of Tensor Calculus, then it can be a very useful introduction to the affine viewpoint of relativity that Schrodinger promotes. The discussion of nonsymmetric unified field theories is introductory and it would be necessary to look up the references it cites to get a more in depth understanding of them.

unified field theory
This book presents the results of Schroedinger's work in Ireland in which he explored the manifold of possibilities for unified field theories along the general lines pursued by Einstein. The main accomplishment was in constructing such a theory from just the connection, with metric derived as a consequence, using no ad hoc assumptions.I extended this work in my 1977 Master's thesis.While this kind of theory has gone out of style, it is still an exciting pursuit and Schroedinger's writing is clear and compelling.

Time Structure
I'm twelve right about now, and I have my own theory of time.Time (the fourth dimension) is arranged on separate lines, like thefirst dimension.The fifth dimension is arranged in time planes and the sixth in time cubes.The fourth dimension, however, is simpler than those.Imagine infinite lines in space, each stacked one on another. These we will call "time lines".From these infinite lines spread more infinite lines.We'll call these "destiny lines". Then there are more and more destiny lines branching from those destiny lines, and so on and so forth.They get very complicated.Time lines are the original paths of time.Destiny lines are the lines of time determined by what happens along the time lines.Sounds confusing?Well, anything you do creates a new destiny line.As I write this, I am creating a new destiny line.The future may be different if I didn't write this at all.Time planes are the collection of one timeline and all destiny lines spreading from it. Time cubes are the colletion of all time planes.It's kinda weird ;) ... Read more

Book Description
Erwin Schrödinger was a brilliant and charming Austrian, and one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. This abridgement of Walter Moore's magisterial Schrödinger: Life and Thought offers a highly readable account, interweaving Schrödinger's scientific work with his intense personal friendships, his interest in mysticism, and the turbulent background of political events in Europe. Hailed as a "breathtaking accomplishment," Walter Moore's colorful account is destined to become a classic of scientific biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A fascinting biography of a great scientific genius
I bought the hardbound edition (1989) of this book in a 2nd hand bookshop in Tokyo. As soon as I started reading it my interest forthe life of this great scientist of the 20th century increased dramatically and I couldn't stop my reading. Two points are worth telling you about Schroedinger's life. The first is about the hardships that he had to face during most of his life. He joined the Austrian-Hungarian army during WW1, survived the war and continued his research. The second is about his relationships with women that catalysed his genius. This is not so surprising and is a characteristic often seen in those creative individuals who contribute very greatly to the advance of human knowledge (in this case we are talking about quantum mechanics and the meaning of life - see his book "What is Life"). Moore's book reports also the contents of many letters that Schroedinger exchanged with his great collegues (Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Born, etc.). From these letters we can grasp some of the feelings that Schroedinger felt during his original scientific work. I did not read yet other biographies about Schroedinger and, hence, I cannot compare this book to others on the same subject. All I can say is that this book conveyed to me the information necessary to better comprehend the life of this famous scientist.

It is unbelievable
Yes it is unbelievable, not the book itself but the life of Schrodinger. This book is the abridged version of the original from same publisher at three times of the cost of this book. What you are missing is the theoretical part of his physics. Book basically covers his personal life with touch and go to Physical concepts. You do not get the ideas, how he developed the wave mechanics and other new concepts. What is striking is his life story, his running after fourteen years old teenagers, sleeping with his best friends wife or his wife sleeping with his best friends son, what a life, I could not believe. This was a schoking book for me, I, with my naivete perhaps did not expect such a behavior from a nobel lauriete and all the famous physisict of his time who knew about it and accepted him as he was. If he lived now he would have been in jail for child malestation. book is basically about his personal life from one love story to another which by the way at the conclusion of each love story he discovers something. if you want to read more about his life together with his physics, this is not the book, you need to read the original. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Part history book and part remedial physics text for those who lost interest when the equations started getting unintuitive, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat explains quantum physics in a way that's not only clear, but also enjoyable.

Gribbin opens with the subjects that most physics professors have just started to examine at the end of the semester: The mysterious character of light, the valence concept in Nils Bohr's atomic model, radioactive decay, and the physics of life-defining DNA all get clear, comprehensive, and witty coverage. This book reveals the beauty and mystery that underlies everything in the universe.

Does this book claim to explain quantum physics without math? No. Math is too central to physics to be bypassed. But if you can do basic algebra, you can understand the equations in In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. Gribbin is the physics teacher everyone should have in high school or college: kind without being a pushover, knowledgeable without being condescending, and clearly expressive without being boring. Gribbin's book belongs on the shelf of every pre-calculus student. It also deserves a place in the library of everyone who was scared away from advanced physics prematurely. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

Engaging, very clear introduction to quantum physics, but at times painfully opinionated
Gribbin's style of writing is pleasant to read. The first half of the book is an ideal introduction to any lay person wishing to delve into quantum physics. Engaging with his biographical details, while in my opinion still being concise and clearly communicates the essential scientific foundations of quantum theory.

Cons: some info presented is outdated. In the "many worlds" chapter, to support his argument that the many worlds interpretation only allows a finite set of possibilities, he claims that "there is no observational justification for rejecting...that the universe is closed and finite," but the latest results from WMAP satellite conclusively suggests that the universe is infinite.

As another reviewer pointed out concerning Gribbin's attempt to convince the reader that "nothing is real", the book seems heavily opinionated. Gribbin dedicated a whole chapter discusing why the many worlds interpretation (MWI) is superior to the Copenhagen interpretation, and I found it disappointing that he fails to discuss a significant weakness of MWI - it only vaguely specifies what triggers the splitting of reality into different branches. It is suggested that an observer's measurement triggers the split, but if that's the case, the observer's capacity to "split reality" is, in my opinion, just as equally paradoxical as the observer's capacity to collapse the wavefunction in the Copenhagen interpretation. Even if Gribbin thinks otherwise, like any good writers he ought to always present both sides of the debate and let the reader choose.

Otherwise, even if one may disagree with Gribbin at times, it is guaranteed that the book will be found thought provoking. He is easy to understand, negligible mathematics used while still managing to present the essence of quantum theory, and his passion for the subject is contagious.

Through the rabbit hole with John Gribbin.
I wrote this review before reading the sequel to this book (Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality).After reading the sequel I have an additional comment, which is included at the end of the review.

This book rests somewhere between being a history book and a popular science physics text that focuses on the underlying implications of quantum theory.It introduces the history of the development of quantum mechanics and develops this physics in a general, non-mathematical, manner.In my opinion, Gribbin does a fine job in both areas.The book is very readable and very informative.It begins with the particle/wave nature of light and how attempts to explain this paradox formed the basis of modern scientific thought.From this, Gribbin introduces the notion that matter (initially electrons) also exhibit wave as well as particle characteristics.This is then used to describe Bohr's initial attempts at describing the nature of the atom.Gribbin shows how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle grew naturally out of attempts to explain the nature of an atom, as depicted by the splitting of spectral lines.The uncertainty principle is often incorrectly depicted as just an adjunct to quantum theory, not as its central idea. Gribbin shows that it is intimately tied up with the particle/wave paradox and that it is not (as it is often portrayed) just an experimental limitation.(He also shows that Heisenberg himself is responsible for this misconception because he used this analogy to try to explain the concept.)

The hardcover version of this book was published in 1984, so one could justly question reading a book that is over 20 years old.This is, however, not a reason skip this book, as the first half is concerned with the development of quantum theory up to the late 1920's.By this time, many of the basic ideas had been developed into a cohesive theory and since this is a history of this development, the fact that the book is over 20 years old is not a problem.Gribbin does a good job of introducing the many strange paradoxes and irrational (at least in terms of classical physics and human expectations) experimental results upon which the theory is based.Gribbin is, however, on much less firm ground in the second half of the book, which is concerned with the strange concepts of reality (or really un-reality) that the theory implies. As strange as they are (especially to elimination of causality at a quantum level and its replacement with probabilities) they are based upon experimental facts, not philosophical ramblings.Much of the theories presented in this part of the book were in their formative stages at the time the book was written and much has changed since 1983, but from a historical perspective this portion of the book is also useful.Likewise, the interpretations of quantum mechanics developed in the 1920's should be viewed from a historical context, having been modified before and after 1984.

Most importantly, this book delves into the strange implications of quantum theory.Strange is not an adequate word to explain these implications. When Alice went down the rabbit hole she encountered a world that was ordinary and rational compared to the shocking world depicted (and verified by experimental observations) by quantum theory.In the last part of the book Gribbin delves into a universe of ghost particles, collapsing quantum wave functions, "spooky action at a distance" (Einstein's criticism of where quantum theory was leading) and multi-universe interpretations.These theories question our very notion of reality.

Gribbin has given me a feel for how much I never dreamt of when I was studying quantum mechanics (or at least the simplified version that was taught to engineers like myself).I now see that I was never very shocked by quantum mechanics because I never understood its true ramifications.I was taught what Gribbin calls quantum cooking, in other words how to follow a recipe in order solve an exam problem and hopefully, eventually, make something useful, without knowing the true implications of quantum theory.This book aims to remedy this in a general, non-mathematical manner.

I highly recommend this book not only to anyone studying quantum mechanics (especially if they read it before they start the course), but also to those who are better versed in this field.It should help a little bit to turn one from a quantum cook, into a quantum chef (i.e. one who knows more than just how to follow a recipe).At least it should get the reader thinking about the strange universe described by quantum theory.

This book relies heavily on the "Copenhagen" interpretation of quantum theory developed by Niels Bohr in the 1920's.While other interpretations are discussed, this book gives the impression that this is still a favored interpretation of the meaning behind quantum theory.It certainly was a very popular view at the time that the book was written, in spite of the fact that it implies that nothing actually exists until a higher intelligence looks at it.Einstein never accepted this and while this view is questioned in this book, these questions are not given center stage.In contrast, the sequel to this book (Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality) spends more time focusing on these other interpretations.That these other interpretations are only made more prominent in the sequel is a bit surprising since most were well formulated before this initial book was written.I believe that it is thus necessary to also read the sequel in order to get a better feeling for the strange implications of quantum theory.Another book which sheds more light on this subject is Feynman's QED, which provides general information about the path integral method, which avoids the paradoxes because it avoids assuming that light (and electrons) are waves as well as particles.The lack of any significant discussion of these other interpretations made me reduce the rating to 4 stars.

The cat, the box, and the forest
Reality is a stranger, more bewildering thing than we human beings realised before the advent of the late 19th century and the determined peeking we did into things very much smaller than visible matter. And the 20th and 21st centuries have uncovered even worse (or better, depending upon your perspective). Not only that, but our explanations for what we see have become increasingly bizarre...

One of the things physicists, or those who are interested in physics, come to understand very quickly is that we understand very little. We use terms to describe events, qualities, values, objects, disturbances, energies, forces and physical tendencies that DO NOT DESCRIBE ANYTHING AT ALL. I do not mean to say that the events do not occur or the particles/waves/energies do not exist - although there's considerable debate about what events occur when and how, not to mention the sticky questions of matter and form and movement. I DO, however, mean to say that we hardly understand any of it.

Gribbin is in many respects an excellent writer. He does extremely well in presenting a nice simplified overview of the quantum world and those whose work has contributed towards its... well, let's call it "understanding". But he (naturally enough) skips most of the detail, which is frustrating to anyone who's studied reasonably advanced physics, but reassuring to those who haven't.

The truth is, some of the paths taken in physics today are fantastical, the theories proposed not only being unproven but being intrinsically unprovable. John Gribbin touched lightly upon a couple of them, but for the most part, the book dealt with more accessible issues - and quite delightfully so. I felt that the book lost its focus in the last third or so, but it was almost inevitable it would do so, given Gribbin's clear glee at shoving into the famous Schroedinger box not only a contentious cat, but also long-distance particles dependent upon each other (that vexed question - no clear answer yet), an occasional falling tree, ghostly worlds, and much much more.

Any discussion of matter, reality and the fabric or fabrics that might be its determinants is going to be fascinating unless it ends up in the hands of a very turgid writer. Gribbin is far from turgid - the only real complaint I have is that he drifted into somewhat aerial form without signifying how tenuous it is. And let's be frank: the quantum world is weird enough without postulating some of the bizarrities that have indeed been postulated.

The book does a nice job of presenting some of the truly odd behaviour of matter when it gets beyond a certain size. The very small has always fascinated me, and clearly it fascinates Gribbin as well. That certainly is conveyed in this book.

In summary, I can recommend the book as light reading for those interested in the weird things that happen to matter when it becomes very, very small, although I add a caveat: advanced students won't find anything new here, and there's still an insistence on the "many worlds" or "ghostly quantum possibilities" theory that I find intellectually unsatisfying, however appealing it is to the imagination.

an interesting read
In this book John Gribbin sets out to demystify the world of quantum physics. He starts with the nature of light and the start of atomic structure, and then moves deeper into the makeup of the atom and into quantum theory. Gribbin gives brief histories of each scientist involved in the development of quantum physics. This is both a good and a bad thing. It helps give the progress made in quantum phsics a historical context and shows how it affected previous schools of thought, but at the same time it is distracting and almost gives too much information. Gribbin explores the strangeness of quantum physics without overwhelming the reader. He doesn't push the math or the concepts in your face but builds it all up, bit by bit. He tries to explain the experiments conducted to prove the theories presented in the book in a way that someone who doesn't have a complete grasp of physics or math can understand.
This book is an interesting read that really makes you think as you read. It's really hard to fully understand what this book is about unless you are an active reader. Sometimes the concepts are a little hard to grasp, but this is a great introduction to quantum physics explained in an easy language.

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
A great introduction to the bizarre world of quantum mechanics. The first two sections provide a bit of history and framework preparing the reader to be kicked off the deep end in the remainder of the book. The long bibliography at the end provides an excellent source of further reading material. Read this book before reading Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality. ... Read more

Book Description
In the first comprehensive biography of Erwin Schrödinger--a brilliant and charming Austrian, a great scientist, and a man with a passionate interest in people and ideas--the author draws upon recollections of Schrödinger's friends, family and colleagues, and on contemporary records, letters and diaries. Schrödinger led a very intense life, both in his research and in the personal realm.This book portrays his life against the backdrop of Europe at a time of change and unrest.His best known scientific work was the discovery of wave mechanics, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933. In Dublin, he wrote his most famous and influential book What is Life?, which attracted some of the brightest minds of his generation into molecular biology. This highly readable biography of a fascinating and complex man will appeal to anyone interested in the history of our times, and in the life and thought of one of the great men of twentieth-century science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

All aspects of Schrödinger covered
Walter Moore captures the life of Erwin Schrödinger, one of the most important theoretical physicists of the 20th century, covering his career, science, philosophy and personal life.

In this ambitious book Moore tries to shed light on all aspects ofSchrödinger's life, and tries to connect them, but no coherent picture evolves. I had the impression, however, thatthis is not Moore's fault, but that the pieces that made up Erwin Schrödinger did not fit into a coherent whole.

A gifted student from an early age on, he took on physics. After initially dwelling in different sub-fields, he developed wave mechanics at the (for creative work in theoretical physics) late age of 38. His almost unparalelled mathematical skills made this advance possible. Schrödinger never saw mathematics only as a tool, but he greatly appreciated it's beauty. Moore does an excellent job in describing the intellectual journey towards this discovery, as well as the giants on who's shoulders Schrödinger was standing. For this work Schrödinger received the Nobel prize in 1933.

In his later years, he dedicated a substantial part of his efforts to the search for a unified (quantum mechanics - relativity) theory of physics. Just like Einstein, with whom he had an extensive correspondence about the mater, he failed. Schrödinger's scientific work is explained in quite a bit of detail. Despite being quite familiar with differential equations, but without a background in theoretical physics, I must admit that I had a hard time following Schrödinger's insights as presented by Moore.

From his student days on, Erwin Schrödinger was a believer in the Indian teachings of Vedanta, proclaiming a one-ness of all minds, which make up reality. It is hard to see how a rational 20th century scientist could adhere so uncritically to an ancient religion. However, these beliefs seemingly did not influence his science much and neither did they influence his personal life.

His personal life was, nevertheless, unusual. He was a lover of interesting women, and he had many (I am all for that!), but many of his loves were still teenagers, while he was in his 30s and 40s (very weired!). For a man of such high intellectual capacity, this shows very poor moral judgment. He was not solely interested in sex, but sincerely in love with many of them and wrote them love poems.

Schrödinger also showed somewhat poor moral judgment in terms of politics, although the turmoils of the 20th century greatly affected him (he was removed from his professorship in Graz by the Nazis). He was not an opportunist, like so many of his fellow Austrian and German physicists. Although he leaned to the left, he basically was not interested in politics at all. An irresponsible neglect during the rise of fascism in Europe!

Moore brings together all these aspects of Erwin Schrödinger, and he does so with lots of knowledge of the local culture and history of the places Schrödinger visited and lived at (Vienna, Graz, Dublin, Cambridge). This is a well researched book in all aspects and one with lots of sympathy for "Erwin".

Scientific and sexual fireworks.
This is a masterful biography, but one need to have a profound knowledge of higher mathematics and a basic one in physics to fully understand it.

Walter Moore shows that Schrödinger's life and thought was at least controversial.

Life
Schrödinger's personal itinerary is exemplary for the 20th century. He was born in a comfortable upper-middle class, but his parents lost their savings in the German inflation after WW I. The result was famine and diseases. It marked the rest of his life. As a young man he was confronted with unemployment and nearly left physics for financial reasons!
He found a decent job only at the age of 34. Even after winning the Nobel Prize he was still confronted with 'pension' problems.

Science
Walter Moore gives us a magisterial and detailed analysis of the scientific discoveries of ES, from his humble beginnings to the elaboration of the quantum wave function and after.
It shows that ES was above all a mathematical genius and a not so brilliant experimenter.
ES remained all his life opposed to the complemantary (particle/wave) interpretation of quantum mechanics (the 'Kopenhagen oracle' for ES). For him, there were only waves!

Sex
Beside science, sex was the principal occupation of his life, with all combinations imaginable. He lived a ménage à trois and sometimes à quatre, but still fell in love with other women, also with very young ones for he had a Lolita complex. He could without doubt have been accused of paedophilia.
But his intense love affairs stimulated highly his scientific creativity.
One can only wonder if his 'wild' behaviour and negative view of bourgeois marriage were not fundamentally influenced by the fact that he couldn't marry his first true love, because her family found that he was too poor!

Politics
He had a deep contempt for the governing classes (politicians, clergy) who 'enslave men by violence and use the religious desire of many people to promote superstition to rule over the dispossessed'. He also distrusted democracy!

Philosophical world view
This is certainly one of the strangest aspects of his thoughts.
He was convinced that physics provided absolutely no answers to philosophical questions (e. g. free will). All his life he remained, like Einstein, an adept of determinism.
His philosophical views and ethical principles were completely dissociated from his real life!
As an adept of the Vedanta, he believed the Buddhist wisdom that a thing could be both A and non-A (horribile dictu)!
He was also heavily influenced by the philosophy of Schopenhauer.

This work gives excellent explanations of the Vedanta, and the philosophy of Mach and Schopenhauer.
It contains a very painful paragraph on Heidegger.

I see only one minus point: the author doesn't give Bohr's pertinent response to the EPR-article against the Copenhagen interpretation of qm.

This is a brilliant book and certainly the definitive biography of Schrödinger. It is by no means a hagiography and doesn't dodge some 'weird' aspects of Schrödinger's life.
Not to be missed.

....WOW
This book, is amazing.I came across it because I was forced to do a project for chemistry on Erwin Schrödinger, and I'm glad I did.It's a 512 page biography of him, and I think that says it all.It covers and extensive amount of ground, and is very useful for anyone doing any researh on the man.It gives a lot of background information about what was going on in his life, and the events in the world around him.Whenever he went to a new college, there was always some information on the college itself.If Schrödinger did research on a topic, there would be a small history on the scientist that came before him and how they affected him. The book is virtually packed with quotes form other people, letters, and speeches.One of the other things I liked was that it contained details of Schrödinger's personal life, such as his extramarital affairs and details on his marriage, and his family history.Want to see some pictures?There's that too.Bet you didn't know that Schrödinger wrote poetry.Well he did, and all of it is here too, in both German and an English translation.Another thing that makes the book stand out it that it is bery readable.Walter Moore did an excellent job writing the book, and it shows.I can say that you only need to read one book about Schrödinger: this one.

I tawt I taw a putty tat!
The 20th century has boasted a greater number of top-notch physicists than any prior epoch in history.The 21st century, and any future century beyond it, will be hard-pressed to match the level of scientific genius presented by the 20th.Names such as John Archibald Wheeler, Eugene Wigner, Paul Dirac, Max Planck, Louis deBroglie, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, John von Neumann, Richard Feynman, Roger Penrose, Freeman Dyson and Stephen Hawking have set the standard for scientific and intellectual excellence.

Another name which belongs in this esteemed list is that of Erwin Schroedinger.Schroedinger influenced the field of quantum mechanics perhaps more than any other single scientific contributor of modern times. Here, Walter Moore has compiled his unique story so that all may have access to the life and times of this extraordinary man.

Moore's writing style is easily up to the task of keeping the interest of the reader.He does an excellent job of tracing Schroedinger's academic career as he obtained posts at the university of Jena, university of Zurich, university of Berlin [he was the hand-picked successor of none other than Max Planck], university of Oxford, university of Graz (Austria), the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the university of Vienna.Schroedinger was also offered professorships at 2 US universities as well (university of Wisconsin, Madison and Princeton university), but declined both.Moore does an exquisite job in his disinterment of all the facts, personal factors and politics behind S'decisions to transfer (or not to transfer) from post to post.Moore's elucidation of S' relationship with the Nazis (who called him "Politically unreliable") is exemplery, as is his coverage of the friendships and correspondence that S shared with his peers.

What makes Moore's biography superb is that he equally concentrates on S' personal life as well as his intellectual endeavors.Moore gives an authentic and upfront treatment of S' rather bizarre love arrangements.Like the composer Richard Wagner, S had many affairs with the wives of his friends (a few of which resulted in children), as well as myriad young woman just reaching adulthood.Moore offers a credible psycho-analysis of the motivations for his sexual conquests, andcomparisons to the behavior of the persona in Nabokov's "Lolita" which Moore alludes to are certainly warranted.

Like all good modern biographies, the book is filled with plenty of pictures of the personages and locales which were integrated within S' life [including the immortal assemblage of the 1927 (5th) Solvay conference].Also, for the mathematically inclined amongst us, the work is filled with a good many of the equations that S developed and worked on during his lifetime.The good news, for those of us not so mathematically inclined, is that an understanding of them is not essential to a generic comprehension of what S accomplished.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for all fans of and admirers of this great individual.People who have an interest in the history of science, physics in the 20th century, the philosophy of science and the psychology of the genius will also gain a great deal by reading this biographical treatise.Einstein once wrote S that "...you are my closest brother and your brain runs so similarly to mine" (p 426).This is a splendid illustration of just how pivotal he was to the history of science.In this biography, Moore set out to tell his story.HE DID!!HE DID!! ... Read more

Book Description
Erwin Schrödinger era un austríaco brillante y encantador, uno de los mayores científicos del siglo XX y un hombre que poseía un interés apasionado por las personas y las ideas. Su mayor reconocimiento procedía del descubrimiento de la mecánica ondulatoria, merecedor del Premio Nobel de Física;sin embargo, su libro transcendental ¿Qué es la vida? sirvió para atraer a algunos de sus contemporáneos científicos más brillantes hacia el campo de la biología molecular. El libro de Walter Moore ofrece una exposición de muy grata lectura que entreteje el trabajo científico de Schrödinger con sus amistades intensas, su interés por el misticismo y el trasfondo turbulento de los acontecimientos políticos en Alemania y Austria de donde apenas pudo escaparse de los Nazis vengativos. 'El mejor libro disponible sobre la vida y obra de Schrödinger'. The Times Higher Education Supplement ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A major disappointment
Few physicists influenced their subject, both operationally and philosophically, as did Erwin Schrodinger. It was with great anticipation, then, that I began this book. Indeed, having read previously the outstanding accounts of Bohr (by Pais) and Heisenberg (by Cassidy), I hoped to be 'wowed' for a third time. Unfortunatley, Moore's book is a supreme disappointment and, aside from the fact that it deals with a towering figure of 20th century physics, has nothing in common with the other two. Moore is unable, or unwilling, to separate the relevant from the ridiculous in his narrative. Equal space (? even more) is given to the soporific details of Schrodinger's travels (yet another vapid description of a yet another love affair) as is devoted to an analysis of his work or even to the influences on his life and intellect.

Of all biographies, the scientific kind may be the most challenging type to write well. To be sucessful the author of a scientific biography must under! stand the science, the person and the world in which the person lived. Moore seems to knows the details and he must surely understand the prerequisites. It is a shame that he was unable to meld these details together with more skill and unable to convey his insights to the reader. Schrodinger deserved better. ... Read more

Book Description

Chemistry: Foundations and Application is an accessible four-volume set that covers chemistrys laws, processes, applications and sub-disciplines, reviews the history of the field, including modern research and practical applications, and includes biographies of scientists past and present. Varied topics that examine and explain chemistry's many branches, including inorganic, industrial, atmospheric and computational chemistry, and biotechnology allow students and general-interest readers alike to explore the myriad ways in which chemistry plays an important role in daily life.

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on July 22, 1999. The length of the article is 2683 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El Gato de Schrödinger.(Erwin Schrödinger, científico; crítica)(TT: Schrödinger's cat.)(TA: Erwin Schrödinger, scientist; criticism)
Author: Jorge Volpi
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: July 22, 1999
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 46Issue: 2405Page: 62

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Recent developments show that probability methods have become a very powerful tool in such different areas as statistical physics, dynamical systems, Riemannian geometry, group theory, harmonic analysis, graph theory and computer science.

This volume is an outcome of the special semester 2001 - Random Walks held at the Schrödinger Institute in Vienna, Austria. It contains original research articles with non-trivial new approaches based on applications of random walks and similar processes to Lie groups, geometric flows, physical models on infinite graphs, random number generators, Lyapunov exponents, geometric group theory, spectral theory of graphs and potential theory. Highlights are the first survey of the theory of the stochastic Loewner evolution and its applications to percolation theory (a new rapidly developing and very promising subject at the crossroads of probability, statistical physics and harmonic analysis), surveys on expander graphs, random matrices and quantum chaos, cellular automata and symbolic dynamical systems, and others.

The contributors to the volume are the leading experts in the area. The book will provide a valuable source both for active researchers and graduate students in the respective fields. ... Read more