Books

I read this about five weeks after The MANIAC, which is unusual for me. I normally space authors out. In this case I wanted to know whether the first book was a one-off or whether Labatut actually works this way, and it turns out he does. It covers different ground, though. The MANIAC is about building a machine. This one is about the point where understanding runs out. What it is It’s a set of linked pieces about Fritz Haber, Karl Schwarzschild, Alexander Grothendieck, and then Heisenberg and Schrödinger. The proportion of invention goes up as the book goes on, which I didn’t notice until afterwards and thought was a nice trick. ...

I have been interested in the history of technology for a long time, and more specifically in what new technology does to the society that produces it. That is what led me to Labatut. He writes about scientists and engineers, but he does it the way an anthropologist would, which is not how these stories normally get told. This was the first of his books I read, and I liked it enough that I picked up another one five weeks later. ...