Quantum Profiles

Quantum Profiles ✜ This page intentionally left blank Quantum Profiles ✜ JEREMY BERNSTEIN PRIN CET ON U NIVE RSIT Y PRESS PRIN CET ON, NE W JE RSEY Copyright  1991 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford All Rights Reserved ‘‘Besso’’ originally appeared in the New Yorker, in slightly different form, as A CRITIC AT LARGE. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bernstein, Jeremy, 1929– Quantum profiles / Jeremy Bernstein p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-08725-3 (alk. paper) 1. Quantum Theory. 2. Physicists—Interviews. 3. Physicists—Biography. I. Title. QC174.12.B464 1991 530.1′2′0922—dc20 90-40843 This book has been composed in Adobe Laser Janson Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 ✜ Contents Preface John Stewart Bell: Quantum Engineer Epilogue John Wheeler: Retarded Learner Epilogue ✜ vii 3 90 93 135 Besso 143 Select Bibliography 167 Index 169 This page intentionally left blank S ✜ Preface ✜ O M E Y E A R S A G O I had a number of conversations with the late I. I. Rabi about his life and work. Toward the end of our talks, Rabi expressed his unhappiness at the fact that the revolution in physics—above all, the quantum revolution—appeared to be having such a small impact on our general cultural life. As he put it, ‘‘It’s a great pity that the general public has very little inkling of the tremendous excitement—intellectual and emotional excitement—that goes on in the advanced fields of physics.’’ Neither Rabi nor I had any idea how rapidly this would change. We are now awash in public excitement about the ‘‘advanced fields of physics’’ and, above all, about quantum mechanics. One sometimes has the feeling that much of the general public, ranging from New Age gurus to playwrights, from literary critics to futuristic economists, and on and on, have decided, as the phrase goes, that quantum mechanics is much too serious to be left to the physicists. As a physicist, I look at this curious development with a mixture of enthusiasm, amusement, and dismay. The dismay comes about because the theory is being asked questions that neither it, nor any other scientific theory, is designed to answer. Quantum theory is not New Age mysticism, it is hard science. Bell’s theorem is not a mantra, it is a theorem. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment is not done in ashrams, it is done in physics laboratories. When, as a writer, my level of dismay is high enough I do something about it. I write. But how? For me, the most congenial way of communicating science has been through the medium of the profile. When I wanted to learn something, both for my own sake and for that of a potential reader, I would pick out one or more individuals who were identified with that field of work and go and talk to them—sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, and sometimes for weeks. Or I would read about them in such detail that, by the end, I was almost talking to them. That is what this book is meant to feel like—a series of conversations carried on, on the readers’ behalf and my own, about the deep vii PREFACE issues of quantum mechanics. Hence the odd title Quantum Profiles. After reading this book I hope that the reader will have a real sense of what these issues are and also what they