Let it not be said that I don't venture out of my reading comfort zone to bring you news of noteworthy books of one kind or another!
Regular readers will know that I am not a scientist by any means. At school, biology was sort of all right because it had to do with plants. Chemistry was fine at times because it was a bit like cooking, and copper sulphate made things a pretty shade of blue. Physics was another matter: wires, hard edges, currents, equations; no, the physics lab was never going to be my natural habitat - it lacked the Laura Ashley touch....
However, I now have a book about an aspect of physics (not that old mis-named textbook Physics is Fun) which sets out to "demystify a complex subject for general readers", so it should be within my grasp. It is Manjit Kumar's Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
It is "a dramatic and superbly-written history of the fundamental scientific revolution and the divisive debate at its core".
It looks at the nebulous-sounding "uncertainty principle" and the "dead-and alive cat", (whatever that poor thing might be) and it follows the great men of the field, and I must say that a few pages of the Prologue alone have me quite gripped!
The mixture of history and accessible science appeals to me - as does the idea of filling a large gap in my general knowledge - but so far the writing is very fresh, clear and exciting and though the book has to take its place in my queue, I expect to pick it up with enthusiasm when its time comes.
