The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the
Atom by Graham Farmelo Basic Books, 539 pp., $29.95 Why should
anyone who is not a physicist be interested in Paul Dirac? Dirac
is interesting for the same reasons that Einstein is
interesting. Both made profound discoveries that changed our way
of thinking. And both were unique human beings with strong
opinions and strong passions. Besides these two major
similarities, many details of their lives were curiously alike.
Both won the Nobel Prize for physics, Einstein in 1921 and Dirac
in 1933. Both had two children of their own and two stepchildren
from a wife’s previous marriage. Both were intensely involved in
the community of professional scientists in Europe when they
were young. Both of them emigrated to the United States and
became isolated from the American scientific community when they
were old. The main difference between them is the fact that
Einstein was one of the most famous people in the world while
Dirac remained obscure. There are