Of course, one great book or paper can inspire a scientist's life and career (8 April, p 50), but some can even determine the course of scientific thinking in one or more centuries. Most readers will think of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Freud, and some will add Marx.
I have been wondering which great thinker set off the explosion in theoretical physics in Germany and its environs during the early part of the 20th centurythe epoch of Konrad Lorenz, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Niels Bohr and so on. Was it Immanuel Kant? In his
Both books became best-sellers in Germany, and those countries whose science was German-oriented, ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.