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Suspended In Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, And The Century He Shaped

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Einstein looked up to him, the Nazis tried to abduct him, his institute in Copenhagen hosted just about every Nobel prize winner in physics you can name (and then some), and Winston Churchill considered him a dangerous, dangerous man. His friends and enemies agreed: Niels Bohr was more than the father of quantum mechanics - he was one of the most important figures of the 20th century. The Tony Award-winning Broadway play "Copenhagen" barely scratched the surface... Suspended in Language tells the complete story of Niels Bohr's amazing life, discoveries, and his pervasive influence on science, philosophy, and politics. Told in an engaging and accessible mixture of text and comics, it includes a full color supplement on how to teleport just like the pros do-and why you might not want to!

332 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2004

About the author

Jim Ottaviani

23 books290 followers
I've worked at news agencies and golf courses in the Chicagoland area, nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Japan, and libraries in Michigan. When I'm not staying up late writing comics about scientists, I'm spraining my ankles and flattening my feet by running on trails. Or I'm reading. I read a lot.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
Profile Image for Zanna.
676 reviews1,030 followers
May 18, 2014
Physics is apparently a field full of curious characters, like Feynman and Einstein, each probably meriting comic(al) biographies like this. So, why Bohr? What brought folks together in this celebratory endeavour to spread the word about A Danish family man who gave mumbled lectures and was allergic to brevity?

Well, maybe because Bohr's theoretical 'intuition' was legendary. Or because his politeness reached levels of comedy. Or because he hung out with Einstein, met Roosevelt and Churchill and lived in the age of the Manhattan Project fighting for 'an open world' where there would be no fatal nuclear secrets - where the spirit of friendly cooperation in the international scientific community would guide diplomacy and policy around the bomb. Bohr's work contributed to Manhattan, but his image remains free of the taint of it: he was never on any of the wrong sides.

For science peeps there is nostalgic heart-warming pleasure in reading about Bohr and his Copenhagen theoretical physics institute, which so tirelessly welcomed and supported students and guests from around the world. The working mood of the institute (from which the 'Copenhagen interpretation' of gloriously weird double-slit results emerged) was called der Kopenhagengeist, one of, Ottaviani says, 'playful intensity or intense playfulness'. I wonder if the mood at CERN could be described that way today...

One of the things Bohr liked playing with was the Tippe Top

which, when spun rapidly, stands on its small end, because physics. And while we're enjoying ourselves, can I commend this book for highlighting and giving credit where due to woman physicist Lise Meitner for linking E=mc^2 to the mass defect in nuclear fission? Thanks.

But maybe this tribute is so necessary because Bohr failed. He failed to convince Einstein to accept quantum mechanics. His Nobel-winning model of the atom is wrong. His philosophical books and papers are read little. His pleas to the president and the prime minister were dismissed, and the world missed a brief opportunity to save humans and the Earth from the insane threat of nuclear weapons. Every teacher knows that failure, if we have the heart and spirit to recover from it, is the best way to learn. In retelling the tale of Bohr's frustrated endeavours we hand on the flame of hope.
Profile Image for Dov Zeller.
Author 2 books121 followers
November 5, 2015
This book had a lot of fantastic moments, but they didn't add up to a great book. The storytelling is uneven -- at times impatient and not thorough enough, and at times going a bit overboard with detail. In my experience it doesn't ever take a solid shape (perhaps it is one of those substances that is part liquid and part solid depending on how it is being handled.) That said, I am glad I read it and appreciate the care given to drawing Bohr's social and intellectual communities and his fairness and willingness to be wrong on scientific questions while not backing down on his ethical beliefs.

Here are some bits of dialogue I enjoyed:
Schrodinger to Bohr: "Well Bohr, you surely must understand that the idea of quantum jumps leads to nonsense...After all, where is an electron while it's jumping?"
Bohr: "The Question has no meaning. You might as well ask what happens between the pictures in those 'comic strips' they print in American newspapers."

Bohr goes on to say "You see, you are not thinking, you are just being logical. It must not be forgotten that just because we cannot visualize them doesn't prove there are no quantum jumps. Our concepts which we base on direct experience do not apply."

Schrodinger: "I don't want to discuss the philosophy of forming concepts. I just want to know what happens in an atom." (p. 145)


I really appreciated this goodreads review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Profile Image for Laura.
371 reviews15 followers
June 29, 2011
This book is such a poor entrant in the "Graphic Novel as Biography" category that I'm fairly sure I won't ever be tempted to try one again. There are excellent and moving graphic novels out there and this is not one of them. It teases you will all sorts of interesting tidbits: things like his philosophical debates with Einstein about the nature of Quantum Mechanics and God, or his ideas that led to the liquid drop model of the nucleus, but gives you none of the details you'd like to know. I'm left at the end thinking I might like to read a real biography of Bohr. The best thing about this book is it's list of references that lead me to potential books that might actually tell me something about the life of Niels Bohr.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
451 reviews5 followers
April 16, 2014
They had me at the first page. With inventive and interesting layouts by, I assume, Leland Purvis, who seems to be the foremost of the many artists who worked on this graphic novel, it's an endlessly thought-provoking study of quantum physics in the twentieth century, the rise of the Nazis and their implications for European science and scientists, and of the character of Niels Bohr: a serious, funny, gentle genius.

I didn't understand the physics or the math, but I understood the humanity of it.
Profile Image for Phrodrick.
980 reviews56 followers
July 4, 2017
Jim Ottaviani and Leland Pervis have written a decent book in Suspended in Language. It is primarily the biography of Theoretical Physicist Neils Bohr and through him the development of Quantum Physics. Of Quantum Physics one of the most important concepts is that if you think you understand it, most likely you do not. Over all this is a good enough graphic text, but it is too deliberately disorganized and cross purposed. The intent seems to be to have the flow of the story somehow reflect the leaps and counter intuitive nature of the physics begin described. A brave notion that ultimately works against the goals of storytelling and explanation.

The business of teaching physics is daunting. In my High School it was the single most feared course in the curricula. Because so much of it obtuse and bounded by difficult mathematics colleges commonly have special Physics for Poets classes. Add to that the fact that the boundaries of physics have moved from the visually demonstrable, such as action and reaction to the obviously impossible action at a distance; absent both higher math and a very focused mind and a student can be reduced to merely taking the lectures on trust.

Action at a distance, which this books demonstrates as a proven fact involves actual experiments wherein two matched particles are moved very far apart and an induced change in the properties of one is reflected by a change in the properties of the other. There is nothing in conventional, non-quantum physics that can explain this result and a necessary implication is the end of cause and effect. I cannot recommend that you take this a proof that a human does not need a parachute or similar device to safely jump from an airplane flying at altitude. In fact there is a very short, mentioned one time comment that that cause and effect still seems to operate at levels above the sub atomic.

When the reader is not being directed to jump ahead to read up on something in the text or to shift back while an earlier situation is explained, Suspended in Language does several things well. A large cast of mathematicians and physicists; their scientific contributions and something of their fates is presented. A surprising amount of very difficult material is rendered comprehensible and the complete package is not boring. All these people and events occur during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II. This historic context is important to the story of these people and how they came to be involved in the development of the Atomic Bomb. This too is managed by Ottaviani and Purvis.

Very few physics teachers have the luxury of presenting the thinkers behind the theories as humans. Suspended in Language is at it best in helping the reader to understand the people as well as their science. Neils Bohr foremost but many others are presented as real people and not just producers of abstract thought. Something of the politics of academia and of international science is also likely to be new points of view for the reader.

Page for page much of the artwork is beautiful. Unfortunately it can also be cluttered and confusing. If a picture needs to be footnoted to explain that a pictured event never happened or that people drawn into a scene were not part of that discussion, then that pictures and text are unnecessary of counterproductive.

There is much to learn and much to admire about Suspended in Language. Unfortunately there is also too much that is unnecessary or misdirecting.
Profile Image for Theresa.
186 reviews42 followers
July 18, 2014
This had a lot (a LOT) of physics in it, as it should. And the author is a former nuclear engineer, as I discovered from reading the blurb in the back. Both of those things combined should have probably scared me away.

But damn it I love science comics whether I fully understand them or not (and I don't expect to understand Quantum Mechanics any time soon, so it's fine) and this was no exception. There are also some "endnote" comics from other artists that describe in fuller detail some of the anecdotes and such mentioned throughout, and those were just extra-sweet frosting blossoms on the Niels Bohr cake.

Although this was a bit dialogue/caption-heavy, I can't imagine it being any different. Bohr in real life was very dialogue-heavy. And he accomplished- even via failure- so much that merits recognition, that cutting chunks out would have made the biography feel incomplete or rushed; two things that do not seem to describe Bohr at all.
1,352 reviews9 followers
October 3, 2014
This graphic novel provides a lot of information on many key figures in the world of science that lived at the same time as Bohr. Also, it provides a lot of the various theories. It is not light hearted reading.
Profile Image for Michael Anderson.
430 reviews7 followers
January 27, 2018
Well done bio of Neils Bohr. It's done as a graphic novel, so it's a bit sketchier in places than I would prefer. I particularly enjoyed reading about his work and philosophy during World War II. I may go out and get a full fledged biography of the man, based on my reading this.
Profile Image for Michael.
3,209 reviews
April 2, 2018
The life and science of Niels Bohr in comics form. The science was very heavy and difficult to read, which made it a chore to get through. I usually like Ottaviani, but this one's just okay.
5,870 reviews141 followers
November 24, 2019
Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is a biographical graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Leland Purvis, which is a concise biography of Niels Bohr – a Danish physicist and Nobel Laureate.

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

As Bohr was finishing college, physics was entering a revolutionary state. Einstein and Planck had introduced relativity and the idea that measurement couldn't be exact. Building on their foundation, Bohr used his invention of quantum mechanics to improve the classical model of the atom. He became a leader in theoretical physics, with just about every Nobel Prize winner coming to his institute. Later in life, he moved into political work, helping intellectual refugees on the eve of World War II and using his celebrity to argue for arms control after development of the atomic bomb.

Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is written and constructed rather well. Purvis' distinctively thick line is well-suited for a biography, since it foregrounds the figures in a panel, drawing the reader's eye to them. The visuals and text combine in such a way that it's difficult to separate the two, unusual for a book with separate writer and artist. The narrative is rather playful with noted physicists as characters who talk to the reader when needed. This approach suits Bohr's character, as a writer who loved language and argument, and the theories he was essential in developing.

All in all, Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped is a wonderful biographical graphic novel that portrayed the life of Niels Bohr, a physicist and Nobel Laureate.
Profile Image for Oliver Hodson.
574 reviews4 followers
December 26, 2019
I think this is my favourite of the several GT labs science histories I've read. I have been exposed to the story of modern physics several times in my reading, but never gone so far into Bohr. What was of special interest was the sections on Bohr's attitude to nuclear weapons and despite helping with the a-bomb and realising it was going to happen, he worked really hard on solving the next issue of arms control. Although the threat of nuclear terror defined the next half century amongst the major superpowers, Bohr started the conversation on arms control early and i'm sure helped get people thinking about and building the political mechanisms to prevent nuclear disaster.

I also was fascinated by his idea of the nucleus of an atom as a liquid drop and that that theory came out of his doctoral thesis on surface tension- the great theorists hold so much together.
His wife was a champ and she gets a lot of due here and the relationship with einstein is fleshed out satisfyingly as well.
Great stuff.
Profile Image for Sara Ghotb.
433 reviews24 followers
July 26, 2021
This comic-strip biography written by Jim Ottaviani is a very informative biography of the father of quantum mechanics, Niels Bohr. “Suspended In Language” starts by his work through his phd and continues by his relationships with famous physicists like Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli,… Also some interesting discussions with some political figures like Winston Churchill. Half of the book is focused on his role in the Manhattan Project and nuclear war. In my opinion, Ottaviani did a great job connecting several topics of physics and illustrating the various relationships between physicists at that time. However, the storyline is not very straightforward, it's disorganized and looks like it's written deliberately complex. On some pages, the content is very dense and difficult to read, however in general, it was a good read.
Profile Image for Mangoo.
245 reviews29 followers
February 25, 2021
Bellissimo volume (tradotto dall'originale inglese "Suspended in language") che ritrae vita, carattere, scienza e filosofia di Niels Bohr, assai accurato nella riproduzione della cronologia e biografia, e quasi del tutto accurato nell'interpretazione dei fatti e della teoria, e allo stesso tempo leggiadro, stimolante e rinfrescante come forse solo un fumetto puo' essere.
Profile Image for Stefano.
197 reviews
February 25, 2018
Storia difficile e affascinante, nonché complessa, quella del personaggio. Fa perdonare la resa grafica per me non sempre impeccabile, e gli espedienti narrativi.
Profile Image for Soobie is expired.
6,730 reviews131 followers
August 29, 2017
Rispetto agli altri fumetti di Jim Ottaviani, questo ho fatto proprio fatica a finirlo. Per come ha rappresentato Bohr, credo. Il tipo era francamente insopportabile. Quando cominciava a parlare poi, urca... Poi tutto questo saltare di qua e di là, peggio delle ranocchie. E anche i fumettini brevi alla fine: a che pro?

Come al solito, vengono buttati dentro un sacco di personaggi e scienziati. Alcuni li riconosco perché sono comparsi nei fumetti che ho già letto del duo Ottaviani-Purvis. Il risultato, però, è un po' confuso.

La parte teorica? Beh, comincia ad essere fuori dalla mia portata.

Va beh, vediamo come sarà T-Minus: The Race to the Moon. Speriamo meglio di questo. Per il momento, tra tutti i volumi della collana I grandi della scienza a fumetti il mio preferito rimane quello dedicato alla costruzione della bomba atomica. Ma non ho ancora letto quello di Bernard Russell.
Profile Image for Sam Ritchie.
19 reviews29 followers
November 20, 2015
I've made contact with stories of Bohr through Feynman's stories, and more recently in The Wizard War (http://amzn.to/1YklftC), where R.V. Jones talked about Bohr's failed effort to convince Churchill that the Allied powers needed to release the details of the bomb, trust the diplomatic power of science and free sharing of ideas, and nip the "arms race" problem in the bud. Churchill seemed to think that the bomb was just a bigger bomb, not the game changer that nukes are; he also thought that Bohr was trying to force the UK and US to give their secrets to the Russians.

I love coming back to the graphic novel format. I want MORE detail, now, but this book is a beautiful overview of Bohr's life, and the dramatic changes he lived through (and caused, at the center of the development of quantum mechanics!) in science and tech.

Read this one, dig deeper with the books in the bibliography if you find you're hooked on world war II era physics, then go get Feynman (http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Jim-Ott...) by the same author.
Profile Image for Michael Smith.
1,827 reviews61 followers
May 5, 2020
To his colleagues, Niels Bohr was the “Pope of Physics.” Razor-edged minds like Dirac, Franck, Frisch, Gamow, Klein, Mott, Oppenheimer, Pauli, Planck, Schrödinger, and others -- many of whom would later become Nobel laureates themselves -- to proud to say they had studied with Bohr. He was a poor lecturer because he never knew where his thoughts would take him and would often stop in the middle of an explanation when a new idea occurred to him. Without him, there would be no modern physics, no quantum mechanics, no basic understanding of the atom. And while Bohr sometimes entertained theories that turned out to be wrong -- which he was the first to admit -- even Einstein was wrong in areas where Bohr was right. Ottaviani is a very uneven graphics chronicler of modern science and scientists, but this is a very well thought out book, as successful an attempt as I have seen to explain Bohr’s thought (as well as his humane and internationalist personal beliefs) and the basics concepts of quantum physics.
Profile Image for Indah Threez Lestari.
13.3k reviews261 followers
December 13, 2011
Komik biografi yang aneh. Dibilang berat, tapi kok rasanya ringan. Dibilang serius, tapi kok penuh humor. Ah, sudahlah... yang penting asyik dibaca.

Baca komik ini tak berarti pembaca jadi mendadak paham fisika kuantum. Minimal jadi paham dunianya Niels Bohr, lebih paham daripada baca biografi singkat terbitan yang ini:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Jadi kebayang serunya perdebatan (diskusi?) legendaris dengan Einstein di Konferensi Solvay.

Tuhan tidak bermain dadu.

Tidakkah kamu pikir perlu hati-hati ketika menggunakan bahasa sederhana untuk menggambarkan sifat Tuhan?
68 reviews6 followers
January 6, 2013
Graphic novel about Niels Bohr. I think I truly realized while reading this book that there is no such thing as objectivity or absolute truth. Truth is defined by the information we have at hand put through our best attempt at a rational calculation. However, without the right information, the method of calculation is irrelevant; the answer is only truly reasonable to ourselves, or those who have the same set of information. I realized this when the novel was describing the difficulties Bohr was having proving very simple concepts in math. It was impossible. He ended up writing thick textbooks to try and prove the most simple concepts that we take for given, and even then he failed.
Profile Image for Sweetdhee.
501 reviews115 followers
Want to read
June 26, 2011
15rb ajah di Gramedia Ambassador..

hmm, pengen kembali mengingat mengapa aku menyukai fisika waktu SMA dulu..
Slogan Fisika itu mudah yang dicetuskan alumnus SMAku, benar-benar mendoktrin dalam kepala dan membuat proses belajar fisika tidak lagi menyeramkan..

Selain itu selama tiga tahun, Pak Miftah -guru SMA ku- sangat sukses membangkitkan kecintaan pada banyak fenomena alam..
whuaaa, kangen Pak Miftaaaaaah...

tapi eh tapi.. kemana aja pelajaran-pelajaran itu ya?
kok ga ada satu pun yang tertinggal di otakku?
bwahahahahaha
Profile Image for Rizalul  Fikrie.
1 review5 followers
April 24, 2009
Komik Dunia Niels Bohr menyajikan kisah hidup dan karya Niels Bohr, Salah stu ahli fisika paling berpengarus pada abad ke 20. Bohr bukan hanya seoarang ilmuan, melaiknan juga pembimbing banyak ahli fisika muda, penolong bagi para ilmuwan yang mengungsi dari kekejaman nazi serta penganjur perlucutan senjata pemusnah massal. penelitian bohr mengungkapkan betapa fisika kuantum membuat kita "terganjal bahasa" ketika dunia yang dijelaskan olehnya tak lagi dapat terperikan oleh kata" biasa.
Profile Image for Zephyr.
13 reviews3 followers
December 28, 2009
Saya sangat tertarik untuk membacanya karena saya merupakan siswa Jurusan Fisika yang kuliah pindah ke Ekonomi. Fisika Quantum bisa dianggap ilmu tertinggi dalam ilmu Fisika dan berbicara Fisika Quantum siapa yang tidak kenal nama Niels Bohr.

Sayangnya terjemahannya (dalam bahasa Indonesia) sangat menganggu. Saya tidak bisa menangkap kalimat2 yang tertera atau kadang rasanya sedikit janggal. Kalau ada versi bahasa Inggrisnya, ingin sekali untuk membaca ulang buku ini.
Profile Image for Matt Heavner.
1,002 reviews12 followers
June 26, 2012
I'm not a regular graphic novel reader. I did enjoy this quite a bit and found it very well researched and presented. It was a pretty fast quick overview/review of Bohr's life and impact. I wonder how well this would fly for someone with no background knowledge of physics (especially 20th century physics). Well, I guess I do agree with the author's assumption that everyone should have the working knowledge! :)
303 reviews
June 6, 2013
I thought this book was awesome! I didn't understand a lot of science and mathematics but it was fascinating all the same. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments, I especially liked Einstein stealing tobacco from Bohr when they were sharing an office in Princeton! Niels Bohr led an amazing life.
Profile Image for Jack Treml.
24 reviews
August 25, 2016
Suspended in language started strong and had my interest, but simply couldn't maintain it. I wanted to like this so badly, but never found a rhythm I could get into. Most importantly, for my rating, it made Bohr seem befuddled and I eloquent to the point that you wondered whether he actually had anything worthwhile to say at all. Is this actually what Bohr was like?
Profile Image for Todd.
18 reviews2 followers
May 16, 2007
megan, remember me talking about this. did you ever read it? you have to. really really have to if you haven't. the drawing is not my favorite but it is in no ways bad. it is the story that drives this work. i love biography graphic novels, but you don't see them too much.
121 reviews3 followers
August 11, 2009
A graphic novel about niels bohr. I don't know enough physics to reall grasp everything that's going on, but it's hard to walk away from this book without feeling afection and admiration for who he was and what he did. recommended for folks who have a working knowledge of physics.
Profile Image for Matthew J Brown.
130 reviews28 followers
December 18, 2011
This is a great book on Bohr by Jim Ottaviani, for my money the best writer of science comics out there. Good as pop-sci, good as biography, good as comics. I liked it so much that I'm teaching it in my comics course next semester.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews

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