Most Popular Books by Graham Farmelo

One of Einstein's most admired colleagues, Paul Dirac helped discover quantum mechanics, and his prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics. "The Strangest Man" uses previously undiscovered archives to reveal the many facets of Dirac's brilliantly original mind.

Perhaps no scientific development has shaped the course of modern history as much as the harnessing of nuclear energy. Yet the twentieth century might have turned out differently had greater influence over this technology been exercised by Great Britain, whose scientists were at the forefront of research into nuclear weapons at the beginning of World War II. As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill’s Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country’s lead and was slow to realize the Bomb’s strategic implications. This was odd—he prided himself on recognizing the military potential of new science and, in the 1920s and 1930s, had repeatedly pointed out that nuclear weapons would likely be developed soon. In developing the Bomb, however, he marginalized some of his country’s most brilliant scientists, choosing to rely mainly on the counsel of his friend Frederick Lindemann, an Oxford physicist with often wayward judgment. Churchill also failed to capitalize on Franklin Roosevelt’s generous offer to work jointly on the Bomb, and ultimately ceded Britain’s initiative to the Americans, whose successful development and deployment of the Bomb placed the United States in a position of supreme power at the dawn of the nuclear age. After the war, President Truman and his administration refused to acknowledge a secret cooperation agreement forged by Churchill and Roosevelt and froze Britain out of nuclear development, leaving Britain to make its own way. Dismayed, Churchill worked to restore the relationship. Churchill came to be terrified by the possibility of thermonuclear war, and emerged as a pioneer of détente in the early stages of the Cold War. Contrasting Churchill’s often inattentive leadership with Franklin Roosevelt’s decisiveness, Churchill’s Bomb reveals the secret history of the weapon that transformed modern geopolitics.

How math helps us solve the universe's deepest mysteriesOne of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most basic particles and the forces between them. For centuries, we have searched for these laws by studying the results of experiments. Since the 1970s, however, experiments at the world's most powerful atom-smashers have offered few new clues. So some of the world's leading physicists have looked to a different source of insight: modern mathematics. These physicists are sometimes accused of doing 'fairy-tale physics', unrelated to the real world. But in The Universe Speaks in Numbers, award-winning science writer and biographer Farmelo argues that the physics they are doing is based squarely on the well-established principles of quantum theory and relativity, and part of a tradition dating back to Isaac Newton. With unprecedented access to some of the world's greatest scientific minds, Farmelo offers a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of the blossoming relationship between mathematics and physics and the research that could revolutionize our understanding of reality.A masterful account of the some of the most groundbreaking ideas in physics in the past four decades. The Universe Speaks in Numbers is essential reading for anyone interested in the quest to discover the fundamental laws of nature.

Der seltsamste Mensch ist der mit dem Costa-Buchpreis ausgezeichnete Bericht über Paul Dirac, den berühmten Physiker, der manchmal als der englische Einstein bezeichnet wird. Er war einer der führenden Pioniere der großen Revolution in der Wissenschaft des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts: der Quantenmechanik. Und er war 1933 der jüngste Theoretiker, der den Nobelpreis für Physik erhalten hatte. Dirac war seltsam wortkarg, nahm alles wörtlich und seine gehemmte Art zu kommunizieren und seine mangelnde Empathiefähigkeit wurden legendär. Während seiner erfolgreichsten Schaffensperiode bestanden seine Postkarten ins Elternhaus nur aus Berichten über das Wetter. Auf der Basis zuvor nicht entdeckter Unterlagen aus dem Familienarchiv verbindet Graham Farmelo eine kenntnisreiche Schilderung der wissenschaftlichen Leistungen mit einem einfühlsamen Portrait des Individuums Paul Dirac. Er zeigt einen Menschen, der trotz extremer sozialer Gehemmtheit fähig ist zur Liebe und zu treuer Freundschaft.Der seltsamste Mensch ist eine außerordentliche menschlich berührende Story ebenso wie ein fesselnder Bericht über eine der aufregendsten Zeiten der Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

,,Farmelo povesteste cu deosebita pricepere istoria dansului dinamic dintre matematica si fizica teoretica, de la Newton la Einstein la teoria corzilor si nu numai. Timp de multi ani, aceasta carte va fi o lectura obligatorie pentru oricine este interesat fie de istoria acestui subiect, fie de ceea ce se intampla in prezent." (Jacob Bourjaily, conferentiar universitar de fizica la Academia Internationala ,,Niels Bohr" din cadrul Universitatii din Copenhaga) ,,O lucrare scrisa taios, antrenanta si extraordinar de bine documentata. Cele mai populare si mai elegante teorii despre ceea ce face sa functioneze cosmosul devin mai greu - chiar imposibil - de testat in mod direct, dar Farmelo argumenteaza in acest tur de forta ca ele ne conduc inca spre adancul inimii matematice a realitatii." (Roger Highfield, director al Afacerilor Externe din cadrul Muzeului de Stiinte din Londra) ,,Aceasta carte fascinanta, splendid de usor de citit, intensiv cercetata si remarcabil de actualizata ii aduce pe cititori din zilele lui Newton in prima linie a fizicii teoretice moderne si le arata modul in care cercetarile actuale au reorganizat domeniile fizicii si matematicii catre imbogatirea ambelor." (Jeremy Gray, profesor emerit la Open University si profesor onorific la Institutul de Matematica al Universitatii din Warwick)

An upcoming book to be published by Penguin Random House.

Philip Larkin-ek aipatu zuen poema on bat tipula baten modukoa dela. Kanpotik begiratuta, biak dira erakargarriro leun eta kitzikagarri, eta gero eta leunago eta kitzikagarriago bihurtzen dira ondoz ondoko esanahi-geruzak erantzi ahala. Zientziaren poesia, nolabait, haren ekuazio bikainetan gorderik dago, eta, liburu honetako saiakerek frogatzen dutenez, ekuazio horiek ere tipulak bezala zuritu daitezke. Ekuazioen edertasuna, jakina, poemena ez bezalakoa da, baina hura ere barrendu daiteke geruzaz geruza. Ekuazio bikainak, hala, poesia bezain pizgarri dira irudimen prestatu batentzat, eta badute beste ezaugarri bat ere: haien edertasunaren baliagarritasuna. Esperimentu adierazgarri guztien emaitzekin bat etorri behar dute, eta, are gehiago, iragarpen batzuk egin, ordura arte inork egin ez dituenak. Dirac-ek esana: Ni baino azkarragoa da nire ekuazioa.