Wednesday, January 21, 2009

More Review of Dirac's Biography

I mentioned earlier about the first review that I've read on the new biography of Dirac. Scotland's Sunday Herald ("Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper") has a glowing review of Graham Farmelo's book.

Farmelo's splendid biography has enough scientific exposition for the biggest science fan and enough human interest for the rest of us. It creates a picture of a man who was a great theoretical scientist but also an awkward but oddly endearing human being. In Farmelo's view Dirac may have stood somewhere on the spectrum we now know as autism.

This is a fine book: a fitting tribute to a significant and intriguing scientific figure.


It's definitely something I plan on getting soon.

Zz.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a far better review, and an illuminating piece in itself. I also like the way the reviewer describes the credentials of the author early on.

One thing I find odd about both reviews is that there is no byline for the reviewrer - I'm always curious to know whether the review is written by a scientist or not...