Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb

A fascinating, well-documented biography.” New York Times Book Review

A monumental effort.” New York Review of Books

An excellent piece of science writing. . . . Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read.” Los Angeles Times

Cassidy has written the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist.” Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prizewinning The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Werner Heisenberg’s role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist’s personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.

David C. Cassidy is the author of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb; A Short History of Physics in the American Century; J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century; and Einstein and Our World. He is the recipient of the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society, the Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society, and an honorary doctorate from Purdue University. Dr. Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra University and resides in Bay Shore, New York.