The book began with an almost shocking chemical detail related to human agriculture, as well as the drug addictions of prominent figures in Nazi Germany. After this chemical introduction, the book moves on to well-known physicists such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and de Broglie. As great as these individuals’ achievements were as pioneers of quantum mechanics, as people they were somewhat obsessive in their research. The ideas and achievements of the World War era, which revolutionized our understanding of the world and the universe, can even give rise to tormenting moral dilemmas that may lead to extreme acts. The line between genius and madness becomes blurred.
I was also struck by the eccentric Japanese mathematician Mochizuki, who is still alive and who may or may not have solved the ABC Conjecture—that is, A+B=C —in such a novel way that only a handful of people in the world understand it. And that 500-page solution has not yet been verified.
At times text's descriptions were so unsettling that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the author’s other book The MANIAC. But it certainly got me thinking.