To mark the Year of Quantum Theory 2025: a vivid account of the origins of quantum physics and a dazzling portrait of the 1920s by Thomas de Padova.
Four researchers and a ceaseless exchange of ideas – a hundred years ago, a new science emerged that pushed the boundaries of the imagination: quantum physics. Its protagonists: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. They probed the inner workings of atoms and grappled with a seemingly simple question: What is light? – at a time when electricity was illuminating cities for the first time and cinema and photography were beginning their triumphant advance. Thomas de Padova brings the feverish search for answers to life through the researchers’ encounters. What fuelled their creativity? Which ideas led them to wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle? A captivating story about the joy of thinking, about the glamour and abysses of the 1920s, and the dance on the atom.
