At the end of the nineteenth century, the perception prevails that physics is almost finished. Physics professor Philipp von Jolly tries to talk Max Planck, who will be at the cradle of quantum theory, out of a study of physics, because it “will soon have reached its final form”. Nothing turns out to be less true. Physics is about to go through a revolution with the discovery of radioactivity, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Tobias Hürter follows the scientists behind these major developments in The Age of Uncertainty.
He brings their stories to life with anecdotes and outlines their idiosyncrasies, love lives, careers, political views and quarrels. For example, the book begins with a summer evening in 1903 in Paris, where Marie Curie is celebrating her PhD, with her husband Pierre and other big names in physics, such as Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand physicist who is currently on honeymoon. Later that year, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of radioactivity, but was unable to attend the award due to a nervous breakdown.
Thanks to historical sources such as letters, Hürter can take on the role of the protagonists. He even invents dialogues between, for example, Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg and Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. The book reads like a historical novel.
Hürter describes the extinct laboratories during the First World War. Other work is more important. For example, Curie and her daughter Irene are developing mobile X-ray equipment to care for war wounded people. In the Second World War, many protagonists focus on the development of the atomic bomb. Einstein and Bohr, among others, were involved in the American Manhattan project that would lead to the first atomic bomb. Heisenberg worked on the less successful German atomic bomb.
Hürter shows how a diversity of characters – some more the stereotypical genius than others – have shaken physics to its foundations. It is a pity that he sometimes shuns the physical explanation, or limits it to a few sentences. But he captivatingly describes how new physics and wars turned the work and lives of scientists upside down.
Tobias Hurter: The Age of Uncertainty. dThe Golden and Dark Years of Physics 1895-1945. Translator: Conny Sykora, 352 p. €32.99
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A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 1, 2022