217 “What’s the point of the second metal layer”: “Volatile and NonVolatile Memories in Silicon with Nano-Crystal Storage,” S. Tiwari, F. Rana, K. Chan, H. Hanafi, W. Chan, and D. Buchanan, IEDM Technical Digest (1995), p. 521.
219 Amazing Stories (Teck Publications, December 1936).
219-220 “Wrist phones that are capable of video transmission”: “Bell Labs Reports Progress on ‘Dick Tracy’ Watch,” APS News 8, 6 (June 1999); “Yesterday’s Dreams and Today’s Reality in Telecommunications,” Robert W. Lucky, Technology in Society 26 (2004), p. 223.
CHAPTER 18
221 “devices characterized as ‘spintronic’”: “Spintronics,” David D. Awschalom, Michael E. Flatte, and Nitin Samarth, Scientific American (June 2002).
222 “‘giant magnetoresistance’”: “Giant Magnetoresistance of (001)Fe/ (001)Cr Magnetic Superlattices,” M. N. Baibich , J. M. Broto, A. Fert, F. Nguyen Van Dau, F. Petroff, P. Eitenne, G. Creuzet, A. Friederich, and J. Chazelas, Physical Review Letters 61 (1988), p. 2472; “Enhanced Magnetoresistance in Layered Magnetic Structures with Antiferromagnetic Interlayer Exchange,” G. Binasch, P. Grünberg, F. Saurenbach, and W. Zinn, Physical Review B 39 (1989), p. 4828.
223 “In any real metal wire there will be defects”: Introduction to Solid State Physics, 7th edition, Charles Kittel (John Wiley and Sons, 1995).
223-224 “Imagine a flow of electrons perpendicular”: “Spintronics,” David D. Awschalom, Michael E. Flatte, and Nitin Samarth, Scientific American (June 2002).
225 “magnetic sensors on hard drives that employ another quantum mechanical phenomenon—tunneling”: “Frontiers in spin-polarized tunneling,” Jagadeesh S. Moodera, Guo-Xing Miao, and Tiffany S. Santos, Physics Today (April 2010).
226 “the first (expensive) transistor radio”: The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution, T. R. Reid (Random House, 2001).
CHAPTER 19
227 X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, written by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell and directed by Roger Corman (Alta Vista Productions, 1963).
228 “Associated with the spin is a small intrinsic magnetic field”: Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles, Robert Eisberg and Robert Resnick (John Wiley and Sons, 1974).
230 “The idea begins to form”: How Does MRI Work? An Introduction to the Physics and Function of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Dominik Weishaupt, Victor D. Koechli, and Borut Marincek (Springer, 2008).
230 “spatial resolution throughout a cross section”: Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century, Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles (Rutgers University Press, 1997).
233 “functional magnetic resonance imaging”: Introduction to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles and Techniques, Richard B. Buxton (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
234 The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester (Shasta Publishers, 1953).
234 More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953).
234 The Cosmic Rape, Theodore Sturgeon (Pocket Books, 1958).
234 Village of the Damned, written by Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla, and Ronald Kinnoch and directed by Wolf Rilla (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1960).
235 “to directly discern a person’s thoughts and intentions”: “The Brain on the Stand: How Neuroscience Is Transforming the Legal System,” Jeffrey Rosen, The New York Times Magazine (March 11, 2007); “Duped,” Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker (July 2, 2007); “Head Case,” Virginia Hughes, Nature 464, 340 (March 18, 2010).
CHAPTER 20
239 “In this way the ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’”: The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution, T. R. Reid (Random House, 2001).
240 “analog-to-digital converter”: How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary, Louis A. Bloomfield (John Wiley and Sons, 2008).
240 “the newest multitouch versions”: “Hands-On Computing,” Stuart F. Brown, Scientific American (July 2008).
241 “‘semiconductor spintronic’ devices”: “Spintronics,” David D. Awschalom, Michael E. Flatte, and Nitin Samarth, Scientific American (June 2002).
242 “resulting temperature rise . . . can limit the integrated circuit’s performance”: Electronics: Circuits and Devices, 2nd edition, Ralph J. Smith (John Wiley and Sons, 1980).
242 “A ‘quantum computer’ is a different beast entirely”: A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, George Johnson (Vintage Books, 2003).
244 “A small-scale prototype quantum computer��: “Algorithms for Quantum Computation: Discrete Logarithms and Factoring,” Peter Shor, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, p. 124 (IEEE Computer Society Press, 1994); an accessible summary of Shor’s algorithm can be found in Chapter 5 of A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, George Johnson (Vintage Books, 2003).
244 Transformers, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and directed by Michael Bay (Dreamworks, 2007).
244 “the reason that the quantum ribbon can represent all four possible outcomes simultaneously”: Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, David Darling (John Wiley and Sons, 2005).
245 “Einstein smelled a rat in this scenario”: Ibid.; The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon, Brian Clegg (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006).
246 “‘spooky action at a distance’”: Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (Simon and Schuster, 2007).
246 “Books have been written over the question”: And I’m not kidding! See, for example, The Physics of Quantum Information: Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Teleportation, Quantum Computation, edited by D. Bouwmeester, A. K. Ekert, and A. Zeilinger (Springer-Verlag, 2000); Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics, Amir D. Aczel (John Wiley and Sons, 2002); A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, George Johnson (Vintage Books, 2003); Quantum Computing, 2nd edition, Mika Hirvensalo (Springer-Verlag, 2004); Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, David Darling (John Wiley and Sons, 2005); The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon, Brian Clegg (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006); The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn, Louisa Gilder (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).
246 “the two electrons’ wave functions must remain ‘entangled’”: A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, George Johnson (Vintage Books, 2003).
247 “recent experiments in ‘teleportation’”: Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, David Darling (John Wiley and Sons, 2005).
247 “experiments . . . concerning two entangled quantum entities”: “Experimental Entanglement Swapping: Entangling Photons That Never Interacted,” Jian-Wei Pan, Dik Bouwmeester, Harald Weinfurter, and Anton Zeilinger, Physical Review Letters 80, 3891 (1998), “Experiment and the Foundations of Quantum Physics,” Anton Zeilinger, Reviews of Modern Physics 71 (1999), p. S288.
248 “from a 1998 issue of the adventures of the Justice League of America”: JLA # 19, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Howard Porter (DC Comics, 1998).
CHAPTER 21
249 “‘cavorite’”: Discovered by Dr. Cavor as described in The First Men in the Moon, H. G. Wells (George Newnes, 1901).
249 “how much energy it takes to lift”: Conceptual Physics, Paul G. Hewitt (Prentice Hall, 2002).
249 “every chemical reaction . . . on the order of an electron Volt”: Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles, Robert Eisberg and Robert Resnick (John Wiley and Sons, 1974).
250 “prototype jet packs have been able to keep test pilots aloft”: Jet-pack Dreams: One Man’s Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was, Mac Montandon (Da Capo Press, 2008).
250 Iron Man, written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway and directed by Jon Favreau (Marvel Studios, 2008).
251 “According to the World Health Organization”: “How Hard Is It to Convert Seawater to Fresh Drinking Water?” Ethan Trex, Mental Floss (Au
gust 2009).
251 “Global consumption of energy, which in 2005”: Energy, Vaclav Smil (Oneworld Publications, 2006).
252 “The surface of the Earth receives”: Ibid.
252 “present production capacity”: “High Growth Reported for the Global Photovoltaic Industry,” Reuters (Mar. 3, 2009); “A Solar Grand Plan,” Ken Zweibel, James Mason, and Vasilis Fthenakis, Scientific American (Jan. 2008).
253 “two scientists, Johannes Bednorz and Karl Müller”: The Path of No Resistance: The Story of the Revolution in Superconductivity, Bruce Schechter (Simon and Schuster, 1989).
256 “‘thermoelectrics’”: Thermoelectrics Handbook: Macro to Nano, edited by D. M. Rowe (CRC, 2005).
257 “extract electrical power from random vibrations involves nanogenerators”: “Self-Powered Nanotech,” Zhong Lin Wang, Scientific American (January 2008); “Nanogenerators Tap Waste Energy to Power Ultrasmall Electronics,” Robert F. Service, Science 328, 304 (2010).
258 “In a battery, making use of essentially a reverse electrolysis process”: Batteries in a Portable World: A Handbook on Rechargeable Batteries for Non-Engineers, 2nd Edition, Isidor Buchmann (Cadex Electronics, 2001); The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution, Henry Schlesinger (Smithsonian, 2010).
259 “improvements in the energy content and storage capacity of rechargeable batteries”: Batteries in a Portable World: A Handbook on Rechargeable Batteries for Non-Engineers, 2nd Edition, Isidor Buchmann (Cadex Electronics, 2001)
260 “Nanotextured electrodes”: “Nanostructured Electrodes and the Low-Temperature Performance of Li-Ion Batteries,” Charles R. Sides and Charles R. Martin, Advanced Materials, 17, 128 (2005); “High-Rate, Long-Life Ni-Sn Nanostructured Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries,” J. Hassoun, S. Panero, P. Simon, P. L. Taberna, and B. Scrosati, Advanced Materials, 19, 1632 (2007).
260 “silicon nanoscale wires”: “High-Performance Lithium Battery Anodes Using Silicon Nanowires,” C. K. Chan, H. Peng, G. Liu, K. McIlwrath, X. F. Zhang, R. A. Huggins, and Y. Cui, Nature Nanotechnology 3, 31 (2008).
260 “Nanoscale filaments woven into textiles”: “Smart Nanotextiles: A Review of Materials and Applications,” S. Coyle, Y. Wu, K.-T. Lau, D. DeRossi, G. Wallace, and D. Diamond, Materials Research Society Bulletin 32 (May 2007), p. 434.
260 “highly refined pharmaceutical delivery systems”: “Less Is More in Medicine,” A. Paul Alivisatos, Scientific American Reports 17 (2007), p. 72.
AFTERWORD
262 “Buck Rogers newspaper strips”: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Newspaper Dailies, vol. 1, 1929-1930, written by Philip Nowlan and drawn by Richard Calkins (Hermes Press, 2008).
263 “New Wiring Idea May Make the All-Electric House Come True,”: Science Illustrated (May 1949).
264 “in 1960 sales of Superman comics”: The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, David Hajdu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008).
264 Adventure Comics # 247, written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino (DC Comics, 1958); reprinted in Legion of Superheroes Archives, vol. 1 (DC Comics, reissue edition, 1991).
265 Adventure # 321, written by Edmond Hamilton and drawn by John Forte (DC Comics, June 1964); reprinted in Showcase Presents Legion of Superheroes, vol. 1 (DC Comics, 2007).
265-266 “Similarly, over at Marvel Comics”: See, for example, Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Tales to Astonish, vol. 1 (Marvel Comics, 2006) and vol. 2 (Marvel Comics, 2008); Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Tales of Suspense, vol. 1 (Marvel Comics, 2006) and vol. 2 (Marvel Comics, 2008); Amazing Fantasy Omnibus (Marvel Comics, 2007).
267 Tales to Astonish #13, “I Challenged Groot! the Monster from Planet X!” written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and drawn by Jack Kirby (Marvel Comics, Nov. 1960); reprinted in Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Tales to Astonish, vol. 2 (Marvel Comics, 2008).
268 Strange Tales # 90, “Orrgo . . . the Unconquerable,” written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and drawn by Jack Kirby (Marvel Comics, Nov. 1961).
RECOMMENDED READING
As mentioned in the introduction, one reason I have avoided an historical approach to relating the principles of quantum mechanics (aside from the not inconsequential fact that I am not an historian of science) is that there already exist many excellent histories of this period in physics. Readers interested in learning more about such questions as “what did Bohr know and when did he know it?” may enjoy Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory by George Gamow (Dover, 1985) as well as The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein (Dover, 1988) by the same author; Barbara Lovett Cline’s Men Who Made a New Physics (University of Chicago Press, 1987); Quantum Legacy: The Discovery that Changed Our Universe by Barry Parker (Prometheus Books, 2002); Reading the Mind of God: In Search of the Principles of Universality by James Treffil (Anchor, 1989); Brian Cathcart’s The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005); and Gino Segre’s Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics (Viking, 2007).
The real superheroes of science who pioneered this field of physics receive their due in several excellent biographies, such as Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume, edited by A. P. French and P. J. Kennedy (Harvard University Press, 1985); The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo (Basic Books, 2009); Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics and the Bomb, David C. Cassidy (Bellevue Literary Press, reprinted in 2010); Schrödinger: Life and Thought, Walter Moore (Cambridge University Press, 1989); Abraham Pais’s Niels Bohr’s Times: in Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Claredon Press/Oxford University Press, 1991) and Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein by (Oxford University Press, 1982); Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (Simon and Schuster, 2007); Jeremy Bernstein’s Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma (Ivan R. Dee, 2004); The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born by Nancy Thorndike Greenspan (Basic Books, 2005); Susan Quinn’s Marie Curie: A Life (Simon & Schuster, 1995); and Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics by Ruth Lewin Sime, (University of California Press, 1996). The life of Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi is described in Enrico Fermi, Physicist by Nobel Laureate Emilio Segre (University of Chicago Press, 1995); Fermi Remembered , edited by Nobel Laureate James Cronin; and Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi by his wife Laura Fermi (University of Chicago Press, 1995). I have not yet read the forthcoming The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family by Peter Byrne (Oxford University Press, 2010) but I suspect that it will be an enlightening read on at least some parallel Earths you may find yourself.
Those who would like some pictures mixed in with their words can find several excellent graphic novels that cover similar topics as those mentioned above. In particular G. T. Labs’ Suspended in Language by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis highlights the life of Niels Bohr; Fallout, by Ottaviani, Janine Johnstone, Steve Lieber, Vince Locke, Bernie Mireault and Jeff Parker discusses J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leo Szilard and the development of the atomic bomb; and Ottaviani’s and collaborators’ Two-Fisted Science covers, among others, Richard Feynman, Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, while graphic discussions of quantum theory can be found in Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide to Science’s Most Puzzling Discovery, J. P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate (Totem Books, 1996).
Many books have tackled the challenging task of explaining quantum mechanics while forgoing mathematics. I especially recommend The Atom and Its Nucleus, George Gamow (Prentice Hall, 1961); The Story of Quantum Mechanics, Victor Guillemin (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968); The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone, Kenneth W. Ford (Harvard University Press, 2004); The Strange Story of the Quantum, second edition, Banesh Hoffman (Dover, 1959); Tony Hey and Patrick Walters’ The New Quantum Universe in a revised edition (Cambridge University Press, 2003); and David Lindley’s Uncertainty: Ein
stein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science (Anchor, 2008). Discussions of quantum entanglement and its connection to attempts to construct a quantum computer include A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, George Johnson (Vintage Books, 2003); Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, David Darling (John Wiley and Sons, 2005); The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon, Brian Clegg (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006); Einstein, Bohr and the Quantum Dilemma: From Quantum Theory to Quantum Information, second edition by Andrew Whitaker (Cambridge University Press, 2006); Entanglement by Amir Aczel (Plume, 2003); and The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn by Louisa Gilder (Vintage, 2009).
Two excellent reviews of the development of solid-state physics are Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age, Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson (W.W. Norton and Co., 1997); and The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution , T. R. Reid (Random House, 2001). Lillian Hoddeson’s biography True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen and Joel N. Shurkin’s Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (Palgraave MacMillan, 2006) also provide a great deal of background on the growth of this field, from the perspective of two of its founding fathers (Shockley and Bardeen were co-developers of the transistor, and Bardeen also co-discovered a microscopic theory of superconductivity, earning him his second Nobel Prize in Physics). The technological applications of solid-state physics are described in Computer: History of the Information Machine, second edition, by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray (Westview Press, 2004); A History of Modern Computing , second edition, by Paul E. Ceruzzi (MIT Press, 2003); Computers: The Life Story of a Technology, Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007); Lasers and Holography: An Introduction to Coherent Optics, second edition, Winston E. Kock, (Dover, 1981); How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist, Charles W. Townes (Oxford University Press, 2002); and They All Laughed: From Light Bulbs to Lasers: The Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions that Have Changed Our Lives, Ira Flatow (Harper Perennial, 1992).
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