It is a Small World After All

Faust in Copenhagen is about the physicists who changed how we view the most basic structure of all things, the atom. This was one of the finalists for The Times Book Prize this year. Because I have an interest and no talent in physics, I love this type of book that will explain the most difficult topics in a clear, layman's vocabulary. This does get a little tough at times, but it generally made sense to me.

More than the physics is the men who theoretically broke down the atom. They were very collaborative and met in many places throughout their lives. One of those places was at Niels Bohr's place near Copenhagen. Each year, young physicists would put on a skit at the end of the visit. One year, they adapted Goethe's Faust to represent the best known of the current scientists. These are a few very clever men. And one woman. Pshew.

Karen and I got to meet the author of the book, Gino Segre. I told him I was reading the book then, at the end of April. It is now the end of May and I finally finished this book. Not because it was difficult, but because it was on paper and not digital. I have brought it to the wedding to finish. Eric saw it and saw the name Segre. Eric got his PhD from Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering. One of his professors was Emilio Segre. Emilio was Gino's uncle and is mentioned in the book.

See. It is a small world after all. And now Eric will get the book to read and it should only take him a couple of days. First, he understands all this stuff much better than I do, and he prefers paper.