"How does the physics we know today-- a highly professionalized enterprise, inextricably linked to government and industry-- link back to its origins as a liberal art in ancient Greece? What is the path that leads from the old philosophy of nature and its concern with humankind's place in the universe to modern massive international projects that hunt down fundamental particles and industrial laboratories that manufacture marvels? John Heilbron's...

This book introduces the life and work of one of the most creative physicists of the 20th century. Niels Bohr, the pioneer of quantum theory, ranking with Einstein in importance for the development of modern physics, also had deep interests in philosophy, literature, and humanism. John Heilbron explores how these influenced his groundbreaking work.