A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (Canto original series)

Rating:
Summary: A fascinting biography of a great scientific genius
Review: I bought the hardbound edition (1989) of this book in a 2nd hand bookshop in Tokyo. As soon as I started reading it my interest for the life of this great scientist of the 20th century increased dramatically and I couldn't stop my reading. Two points are worth telling you about Schroedinger's life. The first is about the hardships that he had to face during most of his life. He joined the Austrian-Hungarian army during WW1, survived the war and continued his research. The second is about his relationships with women that catalysed his genius. This is not so surprising and is a characteristic often seen in those creative individuals who contribute very greatly to the advance of human knowledge (in this case we are talking about quantum mechanics and the meaning of life - see his book "What is Life"). Moore's book reports also the contents of many letters that Schroedinger exchanged with his great collegues (Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Born, etc.). From these letters we can grasp some of the feelings that Schroedinger felt during his original scientific work. I did not read yet other biographies about Schroedinger and, hence, I cannot compare this book to others on the same subject. All I can say is that this book conveyed to me the information necessary to better comprehend the life of this famous scientist.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinting biography of a great scientific genius
Review: I bought the hardbound edition (1989) of this book in a 2nd hand bookshop in Tokyo. As soon as I started reading it my interest for the life of this great scientist of the 20th century increased dramatically and I couldn't stop my reading. Two points are worth telling you about Schroedinger's life. The first is about the hardships that he had to face during most of his life. He joined the Austrian-Hungarian army during WW1, survived the war and continued his research. The second is about his relationships with women that catalysed his genius. This is not so surprising and is a characteristic often seen in those creative individuals who contribute very greatly to the advance of human knowledge (in this case we are talking about quantum mechanics and the meaning of life - see his book "What is Life"). Moore's book reports also the contents of many letters that Schroedinger exchanged with his great collegues (Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Born, etc.). From these letters we can grasp some of the feelings that Schroedinger felt during his original scientific work. I did not read yet other biographies about Schroedinger and, hence, I cannot compare this book to others on the same subject. All I can say is that this book conveyed to me the information necessary to better comprehend the life of this famous scientist.

Rating:
Summary: It is unbelievable
Review: Yes it is unbelievable, not the book itself but the life of Schrodinger. This book is the abridged version of the original from same publisher at three times of the cost of this book. What you are missing is the theoretical part of his physics. Book basically covers his personal life with touch and go to Physical concepts. You do not get the ideas, how he developed the wave mechanics and other new concepts. What is striking is his life story, his running after fourteen years old teenagers, sleeping with his best friends wife or his wife sleeping with his best friends son, what a life, I could not believe. This was a schoking book for me, I, with my naivete perhaps did not expect such a behavior from a nobel lauriete and all the famous physisict of his time who knew about it and accepted him as he was. If he lived now he would have been in jail for child malestation. book is basically about his personal life from one love story to another which by the way at the conclusion of each love story he discovers something. if you want to read more about his life together with his physics, this is not the book, you need to read the original.