The epic, thrilling story of a group of physicists who, within a few decades, changed not only their science but the entire world. The early decades of the 20th century were the golden age of physics – a period that revolutionized the way we see the world.

Tobias Hurter uniquely describes this era and the distinct lives of its protagonists. Marie Curie, Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Einstein not only revolutionized physics but also reinvented the world, our very reality. Some of them were free spirits, others dandy figures, and others reclusive, absorbed in their work. Some formed great friendships, while others were separated by resentments and hostilities.

Their lives and the ways in which they intersected often rival the most captivating story. Their research triggered the incredible leaps in science that led to a completely new understanding of the world, which we still cannot fully comprehend. But the era of relativity and quantum mechanics was also a time of wars and revolutions.

The discovery of radioactivity led to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The age of uncertainty shows how intricately science was connected to the events that shook humanity in the 20th century. For we cannot observe the world without changing it.

“Imagine that one day you discover that the world you live in functions entirely differently than you believed until now. The houses, the streets, the trees, and the clouds are merely a backdrop, in which forces are activated that you cannot even imagine.” This is exactly what happened to physicists, both women and men, one hundred years ago.

They realized that behind the concepts and theories through which they viewed the world, there was a deeper reality that affected them in such unknown ways that a debate arose over whether one could still speak of “reality.”

How the physicists, both women and men, arrived at this state and how they struggled with it is the story of this book. In the end, the world will be different: physicists will approach it not only in a new way but will also change it fundamentally.