4 books like The Maxwellians

First published in 1937, this lovely book is a true classic. In two volumes Bell brings to life 30 or so mathematicians, from Archimedes to Cantor. When first reading the book many years ago I had remembered some of the names from school and college, but only as labels to theorems or equations, and I felt taken into a delightful new realm of knowledge – I could now think of Fermat, Lagrange, Gauss, and Riemann as people. And I began to want to know more about the scientists whose names I had heard in school and college. Bell’s book had sparked a lifelong interest.

My second pick is by the master himself. Richard Feynman’s little book explains quantum electrodynamics or QED to a lay audience. Not only did he receive a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in this area, but Feynman was at the pinnacle of using deep understanding of physics to give the simplest possible yet accurate description of the world as seen through physics. He steps the reader slowly and carefully through some incredible journeys of logic (without equations) to explain how light travels from one place to another and how light interacts with matter such as electrons. It’s basic stuff, but deep and a fun ride. 

Malcolm Longair’s book is like a course of very good lectures that get behind the equations to reveal the context of their discovery. For example, we learn how Planck, who hated Boltzmann’s statistical approach to the theory of heat, was obliged to adopt it in order to solve the problem of black body radiation, and how this led to the concept of the quantum. There are plenty of equations but each chapter tells a compelling story of people at work, and the presentation all the way through is beautifully clear, with superb illustrations.

Self-published on Amazon, this book is a blast of fresh air. Bold, deep, and engagingly written, it takes an axe to received wisdom in physics. In Timms’ hypothesis, the universe we perceive is one half of a duality, its partner existing deep within atoms and inaccessible to us because of the huge amounts of energy required to probe such small scales. The partners communicate at the atomic scale, where the quantum of action becomes the currency unit of exchange. Timms makes his case elegantly and plausibly, using many quotes from authoritative sources. You may not agree with some of his propositions but it is stimulating, and enjoyable, to have one’s ideas given a good shake-up.