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


I am not sure if others would find it dry -- or rather as exciting as I did. Dirac is a strange character, absolutely. The ultra logical but emotionally flat physicist is obviously a mathematical genius. If you have never studied the derivation of the Dirac equation, you should, and if you do not find yourself in awe of his intuition, then perhaps you are the better physicist than I. This book, though, does not go into any of that but perhaps it will provoke your interest; rather it is a telling of a physicist who has no doubt suffered emotional pains that led him to retreat from the world of feelings towards that of theoretical physics. A somewhat sad tale at times, Dirac's life is one of its very own, unique meaning, captured and told well by Graham Farmelo in “The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom.”

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