Scientific Biographies: Dirac, Poincare, Pauli - Suggestions?

[jjustinn]

I recently stumbled upon Kragh's Dirac: A Scientific Biography, and got a lot out of it. Usually, biographies of famous scientists are geared toward a general audience, and are hence light on details...but the "scientific biography" is a survey of the subject's scientific work, with little or no attemtion to personal details.

So, I've been looking for more similar scientific biographies. Amazon was good enough to recommend the recent Poincare sci-bio by Gray, which also fits the mold perfectly...but aside from those two, I've only found one other: Enz's "No Time to be Brief", about Pauli.

Am I just using the wrong search term? The fact that these books all use the term "scientific biography" led me to believe it was an established genre, but I cannot find any other exemplars using that label.

So, any suggestions? They don't have to be career-spanning (the "Einstein's Miraculous Year", with its intro by Penrose, would fit my definition), or even limited to a single scientist (the frame-setting essays in Hawking math & QM collections, Miller's Early QED, and Van Der Waerden's Sources of QM are all good too).

 

[SteamKing]

You might try this volume on Richard Feynman:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198539487/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Has more equations in it than most biographies.

 

[jjustinn]

You might try this volume on Richard Feynman:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198539487/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Has more equations in it than most biographies.

Ah, nice: this is the same author of that zillion-volume history of QM that someone else recommended in another thread(but which seems to be only partially available, and even then only at "collector's" prices). I'll have to check this out. Thanks.

 

[SteamKing]

I don't know if those volumes on QM flew off the shelves when the books were initially published. These non-mass interest books typically have low print runs and once they sell out, that's it. I don't think you need to wait for them to come out in paperback. I would check a local university library to see if they might be in the physics collection.

 

[rezeew]

It's great to hear that you have found these scientific biographies to be helpful in your studies. I agree that there seems to be a lack of books specifically labeled as "scientific biographies," but there are certainly many other biographies of scientists that focus heavily on their scientific work. Some suggestions for further reading could be:

1. "Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman" by James Gleick - This biography delves deeply into Feynman's scientific achievements, including his work on quantum mechanics and his contributions to the Manhattan Project.

2. "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom" by Graham Farmelo - This biography explores Dirac's life and work, including his groundbreaking contributions to quantum mechanics and his interactions with other famous physicists such as Einstein and Bohr.

3. "The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality" by Paul Halpern - This book focuses on the scientific partnership and friendship between Feynman and Wheeler, and how they worked together to shape our understanding of quantum mechanics.

4. "The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments" by Jim Baggott - Although not a traditional biography, this book tells the story of quantum mechanics through the lives and work of its key figures, including Dirac, Pauli, and Poincare.

I hope these suggestions are helpful and provide more insight into the lives and scientific achievements of these influential scientists. Happy reading!