Good Books on Physicists: Biographies of Famous Scientists

[nmsurobert]

One of my instructors likes to talk about little aspects of the lives of famous physicists and it has made me really interested in these people.
Does anyone have any recommendations on any books that give a good little run down of of the life and times of famous physicists? I'm sure there are full biographies available for guys like Plank and Dirac but I'm looking for a book that talks about more of them.

 

[Dr Transport]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198506147/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[nmsurobert]

that looks like a good one. thanks!

any other suggestions?

 

[Dr Transport]

just a butt load of biographies, amazon has them all

 

[DrClaude]

A very good one is The Strangest Man: A Biography of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo.

 

[Dr Transport]

Just a portion of my book shelf...

American Prometheus: Oppenheimer

Uncertainty: Werner Heisenberg

Beat of a Different Drum: Feynman

True Genius: Bardeen

Rosalyn Franklin: the Dark Lady of DNA

The End of the Certain World: Max Born

Great Solid State Physicists of the 20th Century

 

[jtbell]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/048624895X/?tag=pfamazon01-20, by George Gamow

Includes a wonderful parody of Goethe's Faust that was performed at Bohr's institute in Copenhagen, in which Mephistopheles (Wolfgang Pauli) tries to "sell" Faust (Paul Ehrenfest) the idea of the neutrino (Gretchen). There's a scene in Mrs. Ann Arbor's Speakeasy (Auerbach Keller).

 

[Kevin McHugh]

Hawking, "On the Shoulders of Giants"

 

[nmsurobert]

awesome. thanks guys. my birthday is coming up and this will give me something to bug my gf about haha