He has met and spoken with people who knew Dirac including the surviving members of his family. It would have been easy to simply fill the biography with Dirac stories of which there is a cornucopia, many of which are actually true. Robert Oppenheimer, and James Gleick's Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman.' American Journal of Physics ' very moving biography. Sherwin's American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. This would be a strong addition to a bibliography of magnificent 20th-century physicist biographies, including Walter Issacson's Einstein, Kai Bird and Martin J. and in that respect, the author proposes some novel insights into what shaped the man. Library Journal 'Farmelo did not pick the easiest biography to write - its subject lived a largely solitary life in deep thought. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. A compelling human story, The Strangest Man also depicts a spectacularly exciting era in scientific history.

Based on previously undiscovered archives, The Strangest Man reveals the many facets of Diracs brilliantly original mind.

His tastes in the arts ranged from Beethoven to Cher, from Rembrandt to Mickey Mouse. Yet he was a family man and was intensely loyal to his friends. He was an extraordinarily reserved loner, relentlessly literal-minded and appeared to have no empathy with most people. One of Einsteins most admired colleagues, Dirac was in 1933 the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in physics. His prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics.

One of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century, his contributions had a unique insight, eloquence, clarity, and mathematical power. Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age.

Graham farmelo the strangest man