Brief Review: Werner Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg:

This is a brief review of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb by David C. Cassidy. Despite the long title, Beyond Uncertainty is the excellent biography of famed German Nobel scientist, Werner Heisenberg. Beyond Uncertainty is not simply an excellent biography, although you will see it's that too. The science presented ( written for the general reader) affects our lives daily. One example: The computer you read this review on works on scientific principles, which Heisenberg, along with others, discovered and explained, during the first half of the 20th. centuray. You will find Beyond Uncertainty's pages contain important insights into German history, which leads you to better understand the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Beyond Uncertainty informs you about Heisenberg and the role of science in this historic time. Equally important is the latest information and insights on the German Atomic Bomb program in Nazi Germany, which has remained a topic of debate long after the war. To a lesser degree, you will also view the role Heisenberg played in rebuilding post war German science. All these historical elements intertwine, and are deftly weaved back together, to give us a living presentation of Heisenberg, in all his complexity, along with his complicated times.

David C. Cassidy did not get to personally interview Werner Heisenberg before "Wcrner Karl Heisenberg died peacefully at home in Munich on Sunday, February 1, 1976." (page 408) That's the only way Professor Cassidy could have made Beyond Uncertainty better.

Beyond Uncertainty is available at your favorite bookstore or at your favorite online book website. Beyond Uncertainty was published in 2009 by Bellevue Literary Press. Including index, it is 480 pages.


The Author:

David C. Cassidy--no kin to the singing David Cassidy of Partridge Family fame, for those old enough to ask---is the author of J. Robert Oppenheimer and The American Century; Einstein and Our World; and Uncertainty (another excellent look into Heisenberg and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle). David C. Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra University.

Note:

I feel obligated and honored to mention, I have contacted David C. Cassidy, in the past, in reference to his earlier work, Uncertainty. I bought and read, Uncertainty, and Beyond Uncertainty. I find Professor David C. Cassidy to be a friendly, generous author. Professor Cassidy shared insights and information with me, when I e-mailed him with questions related to his earlier work, Uncertainty. Professor Cassidy thoroughly documents his subject. In fact, Professor David C. Cassidy is the leading authority on Werner Heisenberg.