Haphazard reality: Half a century of science (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation series)

Casimir, Himself A Famous Physician, Studied And Worked With Three Great Physicists Of The Twentieth Century: Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli And Paul Ehrenfest. In His Autobiography, The Brilliant Theoretician Lets The Reader Witness The Revolution That Led To Quantum Physics, Whose Influence On Modern Society Turned Out To Be Many Times Larger Than The First Atomic Physicists Could Have Imagined. Through His Involvement In The Technical-scientific And The Business Aspects Of Physics, Through Management Positions At Philips Research Laboratory And As A Member Of The Board Of Directors Of Philips, Professor Casimir Is The Ideal Person To Place Half A Century Of Developments In Physics Within The Context Of Important Events In The World. Family Background And Schooldays -- Development Of Physics -- Early Years At Leiden -- Copenhagen -- Berlin, Zürich, And Back To Leiden -- Low Temperatures -- War Times -- Holst And The Philips Research Laboratory -- Industry And Science After The Second World War -- The Science-technology Spiral. Hendrik Casimir. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Title ......Page 3 Copyright ......Page 4 Contents ......Page 9 Preface to the Series ......Page 13 Author's Preface ......Page 15 Introduction ......Page 17 Family Background ......Page 20 The Origin of Our Family Name ......Page 33 Schooldays ......Page 34 Hendrik Antoon Lorentz ......Page 38 Introduction ......Page 42 Nineteenth-Century Physics ......Page 43 Atomic Physics Before 1900 ......Page 49 The Reality of Atoms ......Page 55 Inadequacy of Classical Theory ......Page 62 Quantum Mechanics ......Page 67 3. Early Years at Leiden ......Page 73 Ehrenfest and Pauli ......Page 98 Niels Bohr ......Page 104 Bohr and Genetics ......Page 115 Landau ......Page 120 Gamow ......Page 132 Physics and Play ......Page 141 Berlin ......Page 143 Zurich ......Page 152 Back to Leiden ......Page 163 Kamerlingh Onnes ......Page 174 De Haas and Keesom ......Page 183 Gorter ......Page 191 Low-Temperature Physics, Personal Aspects ......Page 193 John D. Cockcroft, Ernest Rutherford, and J.J. Thomson ......Page 199 Prelude ......Page 207 Occupation ......Page 217 Liberation and the First Years After ......Page 226 The Philips Company ......Page 240 Gilles Holst ......Page 246 Why I Stayed with Philips ......Page 254 Goodbye to Physics ......Page 260 My Later Years at Philips ......Page 263 My Later Years Outside Philips ......Page 268 9. Industry and Science After the Second World War ......Page 271 Generalities ......Page 272 Case Histories ......Page 285 10. The Science-Technology Spiral ......Page 310 A. The Discussions Between Bohr and Einstein on the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics ......Page 331 B. Physics Around 1930 ......Page 335 C. Low-temperature Physics in the Thirties ......Page 345 Bibliographical Notes ......Page 359 Index ......Page 365 Casimir, himself a famous physician, studied and worked with three great physicists of the twentieth Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli and Paul Ehrenfest. In his autobiography, the brilliant theoretician lets the reader witness the revolution that led to quantum physics, whose influence on modern society turned out to be many times larger than the first atomic physicists could have imagined. Through his involvement in the technical-scientific and the business aspects of physics, through management positions at Philips Research Laboratory and as a member of the Board of Directors of Philips, Professor Casimir is the ideal person to place half a century of developments in physics within the context of important events in the world. With a Forward by Frans. W. Saris. (http://www.FransWSaris.nl) www.FransWSaris.nl