The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

By Peter M. Hoffmann

Book Overview

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

The definitive biography of Paul Dirac, the brilliant--and enigmatic--physicist whose foundational work in quantum mechanics revolutionized modern science.

"This biography is a gift.... A thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations, and the relations between the two." --New York Times Book Review

Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. An admired colleague of Albert Einstein and one of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century, Dirac also predicted the existence of antimatter--widely regarded as a triumph of twentieth-century physics--and was the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in physics.

Like Dirac's achievements, his personality is legendary. An extraordinarily reserved loner, relentlessly literal-minded and seemingly devoid of empathy, Dirac was nevertheless an intensely loyal family man, with tastes in the arts that ranged from Beethoven to Cher, from Rembrandt to Mickey Mouse.

Based on previously undiscovered archives, The Strangest Man reveals the many facets of Dirac's brilliantly original mind, while also charting one of the most spectacularly exciting eras in scientific history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465022103
• ISBN13: 9780465022106
• Release Date: June 2011
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary