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This authoritative biography addresses the life and work of the quantum physicist David Bohm. Although quantum physics is considered the soundest physical theory, its strange and paradoxical features have challenged - and continue to challenge - even the brightest thinkers. David Bohm dedicated his entire life to enhancing our understanding of quantum mysteries, in particular quantum nonlocality. His work took place at the height of the cultural/political upheaval in the 1950's, which led him to become the most notable American scientist to seek exile in the last century. The story of his life is as fascinating as his ideas on the quantum world are appealing.
List of contents
Introduction: Living through Cold War Storms, Attempting to Understand the Quantum.- From Wilke-Barres to a Physics PhD at Berkeley (1917-1945).- Teaching and doing research at Princeton, caught up in the Cold War storms (1947-1951).- The long campaign for the causal interpretation (1952-1960). Brazil, Israel, and the U.K..- From the Causal Interpretation to the Wholeness and Order - The First Stage of the London Years (1960-1979).- The Quest for Compatibility between the Causal Interpretation and the Wholeness Approach (1979-1992).- Epilogue.- The legacy of David Bohm in physics - An essay in scientometry.
About the author
Olival Freire Jr. is Professor of Physics and History of Physics at the Universidade Federal da Bahia. In Brazil, he earned a Ph.D. in History (USP) and is fellow at the CNPq. He was researcher at MIT, Harvard, Université de Paris VII, the University of Maryland, and the American Institute of Physics. He is also author of "The Quantum Dissidents - Rebuilding the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics 1950-1990", Springer, 2015.
Report
"Freire' book is not only enriching those already interested in David Bohm and the history of quantum mechanics. It also shows what a scientific biography can do for the historical understanding of physics. The book is highly recommended." (Christian Forstner, Physics in Perspective, Vol. 22, 2020)
