Nancy Forbes (1) (1952–2021)

An engaging and involved biography of two of the most influential physicists of the modern age. One a seat-of-his-pants experimentalist, the other a careful mathematical prodigy, together they laid the foundation for all of modern physics. I especially appreciated that the book did not end with Maxwell's death, but rather continued the thread of how his ideas about electromagnetism were curated and expanded upon by others, leading ultimately to the Nobel-prizewinning work on the photoelectric effect by Einstein.… (meer)

I really enjoyed this book. I got my PhD in optics, and have always joked that if I get a tattoo, it'll be of Maxwell's equations, in vector calc form. I appreciated reading about where the theories came from, and what "established" science was overturned to get there. I also liked how detailed the information was about the experiments, at least in the early part of the book.

I felt the last third of the book, the people who came after Faraday and Maxwell, to be quite rushed. I would have liked more details about how we went from Maxwell's death to today. I mean, it was there, it was just quite hollow in relation to the rest of the book. Even the information about the Michaelson-Morley experiment was just a couple sentences long, and I don't think quite emphasized how important it was, or exactly why (although I know the reason) it disproved the luminiferous aether theory.

Final thing, the e-book format was disappointing. I thought I had 30% of the book left, and then it ended. The rest of the book was pictures and end notes. At least in a paper book you can tell when the book is about to end. I was just gearing up when the book was over.… (meer)