Word: ottaviani
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Bohr's life (1885 - 1962) is roughly divided into two halves: the years of his seminal contributions to atomic science, and his later role as scientific statesman during and after WW II. Ottaviani and Purvis take care to explain the concepts behind Bohr's multiple scientific breakthroughs, making the book a kind of illustrated primer on atomic physics. It was Bohr, for example, who proposed a model of the atom as a kind of mini solar system, with electrons orbiting around a nucleus. But this had its limits, both experimentally and "philosophically." So he moved to introduce Quantum Mechanics...
...physics exam, you will likely find much of the high math and various connections between ideas a bit heady and confusing. Fortunately, the pacing of the book is such that even if you don't totally get, say, the importance of Planck's Constant or even what it is, Ottaviani's enthusiasm still makes you excited about...
...Unlike more academically minded biographers, Ottaviani and Purvis give us as much personality as they do science. Along with the bigger events of Bohr's life the book includes the kind of trivial but telling moments that add nuance to his personality. In one sequence he pouts because, although he convinces his reluctant wife to buy the baby carriage he wants, he really wanted her to believe in the decision, rather than just acquiesce. Purvis, for his part, does a fine job of bringing Bohr and his contemporaries alive with animated caricatures. Together, Purvis and Ottaviani's portrait of Bohr...
...move that really puts "Suspended in Language" beyond rote, educational biography is the very literary manner in which Ottaviani has centered the book on a theme of the power of language. The title becomes the key. At first it seems a small joke in reference to Bohr's logorrheaic writings, whose impenetrability became legendary. But gradually Ottaviani builds on Bohr's relationship with language. Near the end, the authors take a bold leap beyond the "fourth wall," using the comic language itself as the embodiment of Bohr's ideas. In a breathtaking moment, Bohr points to the gutter between panels...
...Both educational and entertaining, Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis' "Suspended in Language" stands out as a comic that smartly uses its medium as part of its message. Generating as many philosophical questions as physics answers, it embodies the spirit of Bohr's life and ideas: It changes depending on how you look...