Inquiry: Graham Farmelo: THE STRANGEST MAN: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF PAUL DIRAC, MYSTIC OF THE ATOM

Mathematician and quantum physicist Paul Dirac was one of the great scientific theoreticians of the 20th century. His complex work ironed out many of the sticky problems of quantum theory.  His ideas predicted the existence of antimatter.  The “Dirac Equation” described electrons in such a way as to be consistent with both the principles of quantum mechanics and the theory of special relativity. This equation is a marvel of brevity and beauty and is the only equation found in Westminster Abbey. Yet this Nobel prize winning scientist was an eccentric in the extreme and the victim of a brutal childhood that affected his adult life. Tonight on Inquiry we speak with GRAHAM FARMELO, Senior Research Fellow at the Science Musuem, London and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University. His latest book is a fascianting in-depth and entertaining biography of this very mysterious  scientist: THE STRANGEST MAN: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF PAUL DIRAC, MYSTIC OF THE ATOM. To access Professor Farmelo’s entertaining Facebook page on this book, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Strangest-Man/105128831946?ref=ts