The revolutionary science and dramatic life of Niels Bohr-one of the great physicists of the 20th century

Danish physicist Niels Bohr was one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1922 for his revolutionary contribution to quantum theory.

He was engaged in a lifelong intellectual duel with Einstein - and modern experiments have vindicated his view.

During the Second World War, he debated with Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen about his former student's work on the Nazi atomic bomb.

He escaped Nazi-occupied Denmark and was welcomed by Robert Oppenheimer to the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb.

He campaigned tirelessly for international arms control during the Cold War.

He was a prime mover behind the establishment of CERN, the centre for nuclear physics in Switzerland.

The Man Who Broke Reality, by acclaimed science writer Philip Ball, is a compelling portrait of one of the twentieth century's most inventive and iconoclastic thinkers - a scientist whose insights continue to shape our understanding of the universe and our place within it.

Details

ISBN13: 9780349136578
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 480
Edition:
Publication Date: 06 Oct 2026
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Publication City, Country: United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.4(L)x3.8(W)584
Weight (gm): 584

Author Biography

Philip Ball is widely recognized as one of the UK's leading science communicators. He is a regular contributor to Nature, New Scientist, the Guardian, the Observer, Prospect, New Statesman, and other publications. He has a degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in physics from the University of Bristol. Philip was an editor at Nature for over two decades.

Reviews

The Man Who Broke Reality is comprehensive, authoritative and shrewd, and, like all of Philip Ball's books, as entertaining as it is enlightening -- John Banville * Financial Times *