Bird of Passage: Recollections of a Physicist

Rudolf Peierls

Published by Princeton University Press 1985

Bird of Passage

Recollections of a Physicist

Rudolf Peierls

Volume 55 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400854615

Overview
Contents

About this book

Here is the intensely personal and often humorous autobiography of one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of his generation, Sir Rudolf Peierls. Born in Germany in 1907, Peierls was indeed a bird of passage," whose career of fifty-five years took him to leading centers of physics--including Munich, Leipzig, Zurich, Copenhagen, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford, and J. Robert Oppenheimer's Los Alamos. Peierls was a major participant in the revolutionary development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and 1930s, working with some of the pioneers and, as he puts it, "some of the great characters" in this field.

Originally published in 1985.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Reviews

He knew everyone in the small pre-war physics world, and stories of his many friends are told delightfully.---Sir Nevill Mott, Physics Bulletin

This is an excellent book with far more in it than I can mention here, which I wholeheartedly recommend.---David Hall, Scope

[This] fascinating autobiography not only attests to [Peierls's] having been in on the most important scientific developments since the mid-1920s--in brief, the quantum revolution--but his lively account of the events of this period, and of its main actors, their contributions, and--with respect and sympathy--their quirks, provides a significant contribution to the scientific history of our time.---Bernard T. Feld, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Anybody with some interest in the way scientists live, feel and think, should read this book. They will be richly rewarded and entertained.---Victor Weisskopf, London Times Higher Education Supplement

Topics

General Interest

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. Origin and Background Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Student Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
3. Assistant to Pauli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
4. Rockefeller Fellow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
5. Growing Roots in England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
6. A Provincial Chair Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
7. War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
8. Manhattan District Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
9. Settled in Birmingham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
10. Teaching Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
11. Travelling and Other Sidelines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
12. Problems of Nuclear Weapons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	282
13. Oxford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
14. "Security" Troubles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
15. Retirement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	340
Brief Chronology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	342
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343

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