What a wonderful book! Engaging and accessible to the general public, with enough gritty details to appeal to the reader with more than a passing interest in quantum mechanics. Halpern successfully explains QM’s basic concepts, synthesizes the history of quantum thought, before exploring the the frontiers of quantum discovery as the field stands today. A wonderful refresher having been away from this cul-de-sac of popular astrophysics writing for a few years.
Take a break from life by delving deep into the fabric of the universe with Paul Halpern’s .THE QUANTUM LABYRINTH and you won’t be disappointed.

This is somewhat a strange book, hovering between a biography and physics book, through the lives of Richard Feynman and John Wheeler, and it seems to me it has both the good sides and shortcomings of both. Shortcomings, as in, it can’t go really in depth in the lives of the two scientists, and at the same time, the physics aspect is sometimes too complex, and sometimes too simple, which makes for an unbalanced read. But good sides, too, for linking the characters and their work, and giving an insight into said work, and overall making me want to read more about, well, everything in there. Probably in favour of Wheeler, since I already know quite a few things about Feynman (although I don’t seem to tire of him anyway).

I wouldn’t recommend it as a complete introduction to quantum and particle physics, though, since some of its contents are just too painful to follow without some basic knowledge of the topic.

I do recommend it for a global coverage of what Feynman and Wheeler worked on in their lifetime, to get pointers about specific topics worth researching more in depth later.

Style-wise, the book reads well enough in general, but more than once, some analogies were weird and fell flat for me.

The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality is a history book masquerading as a physics book, and I like that. I’m just as interested in the history of science as I am in science itself. As the title implies, Paul Halpern focuses on the lives of Feynman and Wheeler, protégés who individually and collectively had their fingers on the pulse of physics for much of the twentieth century. Halpern provides valuable insights into the lives of these two physicists and puts their contributions into the context of their lives and history. That being said, I do feel like this book is incredibly uneven. I received this eARC for free from NetGalley and Perseus Books in exchange for a review … apparently it has been out for a while now though….

Let’s talk some critiques first.

The Quantum Labyrinth doesn’t seem to know who its target audience is. Most physics books start from very basic principles and slowly develop more complicated principles of quantum mechanics on top of that. Halpern doesn’t; he goes hard. Halpern gets very technical in some respects, technical enough that a lay audience not as steeped in physics books as I am would be left wondering about a lot of things. At some points I was wondering if I had skipped an explanation. Just when I was convinced this book is aimed more at an undergrad physics student than anyone else, he’ll hit us with more elementary definitions of a force or a particle or a property—stuff a general audience might know—and I’ll wonder … why.

My related, and main criticism, is that this book is poorly organized and unfocused. The subtitle makes a grand claim, yet Halpern doesn’t pursue this idea of “revolutionizing time and reality” with any kind of direct arguments. He mentions how Feynman and Wheeler bandied about the idea of positrons being electrons travelling back in time (and perhaps all the same electron), yes; he mentions how Wheeler gradually comes around to studying relativity and in fact becomes a leading expert in that field, sure. But these are small details amidst a soup of other small details. Halpern chronicles the physics careers of these individuals, but not in a unified way. If Halpern were sitting in my English class working on an essay I’d remind him that everything needs to explicitly relate back to his thesis….

But there is good here too! Halpern really does include a lot of excellent detail about the lives of these two physicists. I learned so much about these two, who until now were names or the progenitors of concepts I’ve learned about. I learned more about Feynman as a character and a personality, the way he enjoyed the drums, got into stage-acting later in his life, etc. I love hearing these details about historical figures, humanizing them, putting them into the context of their times. Scientists are only, ultimately human, after all, and it’s really important we remember that.

Similarly, this book really made me think about how the theoretical part of science is related to social networking. So much of Feynman and Wheeler’s ideas are the fruit of discussions with each other or other physicists at conferences, impromptu meetings, or chats at one another’s homes. Whether it was a university position or working together on the Manhattan Project, these physicists always influenced each other’s ideas. Whether or not Bohr or another juggernaut liked your idea had a big influence on how many others took it up. A passing comment from Einstein or someone else might give you your next epiphany. Although science has changed a lot over the past century, I think it’s still true that social networks play a role in scientific discoveries and opportunities.

The Quantum Labyrinth is genuinely interesting. If you want to learn more about Feynman or Wheeler, you certainly will do that here. I just think that it won’t be as smooth or straightforward a read as I wanted it to be, reading it during a long work week.

A great biography about these two geniuses as well as a ride-along narrative fiction (coupled with interesting tidbits about everything that makes science awesome), The Quantum Labyrinth is a book I would personally add to my own collection, along with others by Michio Kaku and Neil Degrasse Tyson.

If you're a fan of the Stephen Hawking biopic then this accounting of days past will serve you well.

I found this book to be really good. I love reading about science and the history of the subject, so this book was right up my alley. Halpern is a great author, and wrote a very good book. His analogies are good, though I do wish there would have been more diagrams. I enjoyed all of the historical tidbits, particularly the one's about John Wheeler. Some of the stories about Feynman were already covered in other books (like his own autobiography/antics book), but I think Halpern did well to only sample some of them.

Overall, if you love science and physics, this book is an interesting read.

"Everything you can imagine is real."

Picasso’s words seem to have been uttered specifically for these two unique personalities. John Wheeler and Richard Feynman gave new meaning to creativity and contribution in physics.

"According to Thorne, Feynman turned to him and offered some sage advice about Wheeler: “This guy sounds crazy. What people of your generation don’t know is that he has always sounded crazy. But when I was his student I discovered that if you take one of his crazy ideas and you unwrap the layers of craziness from it one after another like lifting the layers off an onion, at the heart of the idea you will often find a powerful kernel of truth.”"

This is my first Paul Halpern book and I must say it exceeded all my expectations. Such fluent and smooth writing, even poetic at times, the perfect blend between scientific facts, anecdotes and bits and pieces from physicists’ lives made it a superb reading.

"From “everything is scattering” to “everything is electrons” and onward to “one electron is everything,” Wheeler’s active mind flitted like a butterfly from the nectar of one tantalizing idea to another. Taking a nurturing sip, it would drink its fill and move on to other delicious notions."

Quantum mechanics field is a baffling and difficult one, especially for a layman such as I. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ve come across before on such clear explanations as in this book. Even if you don’t have a clue on it, I’m certain that everyone will be able to at least catch a glimpse on this mesmerizing and bizarre domain, because, as Feynman said, “nobody understands quantum mechanics”.

The references on these two titans' lives and many others - Bohr, Dyson, Einstein, Everett, Pauli, just to mention a few – are enthralling, to say the least. I simply devoured it; there isn’t a single boring page in the whole book. Some of the topics in it were familiar to me, other were completely new.

The author also made some references to science fiction authors and works, perfectly integrated in here. The parallel between the alternate worlds in quantum theory and those in different SF works were right up my alley. Wheeler coined up the term ‘wormhole’ and was also the promoter for 'black hole' one.

There are a lot of topics developed, from electrons to blackholes and to many-worlds interpretations (in quantum physics), each more interesting than the other. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to all SF and physics aficionados and even to those who are not, because it will enrich your knowledge and understanding (if such a word is realistic) of our universe.

"Now, we’ve reached the conclusion of the conclusion—the end of our winding journey through space and time. Our hunt for the ghosts of the past took many twists and turns […] The number of “crazy ideas” we’ve seen boggles the mind. All the while we’ve kept our sanity through a comforting, guiding principle: as sum over histories tells us, no matter how strange our path through spacetime, there exist many others that are even more bizarre."

There are two natural divisions in quantum mechanics. The first focused in Europe, from Planck through Einstein to Heisenberg. The second was in the United States, with European refugees working around the likes of Richard Feynman and John Wheeler in the runup to the second world war. The Quantum Labyrinth is about this second era, from the late thirties onward. It is as much biography as science. Paul Halpern has pulled together the lives of numerous protagonists, giving them humanity and human foibles amidst the admittedly difficult and bizarre world of quantum mechanics. Feynman himself famously declared that no one understands quantum mechanics. And he was in the eye of the storm.

John Wheeler and Richard Feynman form the spine of the story. They encounter and work with literally everyone who mattered in the discipline. That they met is remarkable. Feymnan transferred to Princeton specifically to become a teaching assistant to Eugene Wigner. Instead, he was assigned to Wheeler. Wheeler turned out to be just seven years older than Feynman, and had a very similar sense of himself and science. The two of them hit it off immediately, and spent endless hours laughing at everything and nothing together. Eventually Wheeler became Feynman’s Phd advisor, and they worked together basically the rest of their lives. Their discoveries fill book shelves.

Nothing in quantum mechanics was too wild for Wheeler. He dreamed in Technicolor. Feynman, no slouch in the imagination department either, took Wheeler’s ideas and provided mathematical proof and justification (where possible), not a year later, but in hours. Not to put too fine a point on it, Feynman obtained his doctorate in three years. Together they assaulted the boundaries and pushed them off in new directions.

The book is at its best when Halpern tells stories showing the physicists’ human side. When Feynman gave his first public lecture at Princeton, “a collection of monster minds” attended. Names like Von Neumann, Wigner, Pauli and Einstein. Before it began, Einstein interrupted Feynman at the blackboard and asked where the tea was. Feynman said he was relieved to be able to answer at least one of Einstein’s questions.

Wheeler invented the wormhole, named Feynman’s method sum over histories, and promoted the term black hole in popular science. When the universe was not enough, he tackled information – the world of bits instead of subatomic particles. It was a Wheeler brainstorm that led to the theory there was just one electron, racing around the universe showing itself.

What weakness there is in The Quantum Labyrinth is in Halpern’s discussions of quantum mechanics. It’s his profession, and he doesn’t make it easy for readers. What usually happens is Wheeler or Feynman has made some huge discovery, and Halpern asks us to step back to understand the mechanics of it., right down to the fundamentals. There is no math, but it is still dense.

It turns out physicists are real people, with quirks as well as quarks. Bohr mumbled incoherently. Dirac was painfully introverted. Feynman was always up for adventure. He played bongos into the wee hours (it was cited in his divorce), acted in plays at Caltech and was the most entertaining lecturer anyone had ever experienced: “a magician of the highest caliber.”

The story has not ended, of course. There continue to be more questions than answers, and it gets worse with every discovery and every new theory. The labyrinth is of their own making. That no one can find the way out is a clear indication that much of what is claimed is simply wrong. The value of The Quantum Labyrinth is the real, human side of this voyage of discovery.

David Wineberg