Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations

Physics and Beyond is a book by Werner Heisenberg, the German physicist who discovered the uncertainty principle. It tells, from his point of view, the history of exploring atomic science and quantum mechanics in the first half of the 20th century.

The subtitle is "Encounters and Conversations", and the core of the book takes the form of discussions between himself and other scientists. Heisenberg said: "I wanted to show that science is done by people, and the most wonderful ideas come from dialog".

The book provides a first-hand account about how science is done and how quantum physics, especially the Copenhagen interpretation, emerged. "Nobody can reproduce these conversations verbatim, but I believe that the spirit of what the people said, and how they did, is conserved," Heisenberg said in the preface.