The Quantum World by Kenneth Ford, Harvard University Press, 拢16.95/$24.95, ISBN 0674013425 Reviewed by Marcus Chown
DESPITE the repeated claims of publishers, including this one, the book on 鈥渜uantum physics for everyone鈥� has yet to be written. That isn鈥檛 to say this contribution by Kenneth Ford, a former director of the American Institute of Physics, is a disappointment. Absolutely not. The Quantum World is an excellent book 鈥� one of the best popular accounts of quantum theory I have read. Ford has a deep understanding of his demanding subject and he leavens his account with colour and anecdote. At what age would a physicist become famous? It will be 26, physicist Carl Anderson once told Ford at a party. 鈥淚 looked up Anderson in a reference book,鈥� Ford says. 鈥淪ure enough, he was 26 when he discovered the positron.鈥�