How the Hippies Saved Physics Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival [Paperback]

Its rare to find quantum physics mentioned in the same breath with sex, drugs and rock n roll&I heartily enjoyedIt is hard to write a book about quantum mechanics that is at once intellectually serious and a page-turner. But David Kaiser succeeds&Illuminating.[Kaiser] does an admirable job of making the very concepts of quantum mechanics palpable.An entertaining tale.This book takes us deep into the kaleidoscopic culture of the 1970s with its pop-metaphysicians, dabblers in Eastern mysticism, and counterculture gurus some of whom, it turns out, were also physicists seeking to challenge the foundations of their discipline. In David Kaisers hands, the story of how they succeeded albeit in ways they never intended makes a tremendously fun and eye-opening tale.At first it sounds impossible, then like the opening line of a joke: What do the CIA, Werner Erhards EST, Bay Area hippie explorations, and the legacy of Einstein, Heisenberg, and Schroedinger have in common? It turns out, as David Kaiser shows, quite a lot. Here is a book that is immensely fun to read, gives insight into deep and increasingly consequential questions of physics, and transports the reader back into the heart of North Beach zaniness in the long 1960s. Put down your calculators and pick up this book!David Kaisers masterly ability to explain the most subtle and counterintuitive quantum effects, together with his ability to spin a ripping good yarn, make him the perfect guide to this far-off and far-out era of scientific wackiness. Meticulously researched and unapologetically romantic,