German physicist Max Planck was one of the most famous and
well-respected scientists of his day. His work formed the
foundation of quantum mechanics and is still relevant to physics
today. He lived through both world wars, and these resulted in tragedy for his family.
Planck is a brief biography of the man by another physicist, Brandon R. Brown. Brown focuses his book on the last
years of World War II, but from there reaches far back to
his subject’s birth in 1858 and forward a little to his death in 1947. It is interesting that Brown did not
choose to take a chronological approach given that entropy and the irreversibility of time were subjects of great interest to Planck. Perhaps he wants to
readers to be somewhat unsettled, no doubt the way Planck must have been
unsettled by events of his lifetime and the conclusions younger scientists drew
from his own theories.
Brown presents Planck and as a
flexible thinker who contributed to physics and accepted new theories at an age
when most of his contemporaries were ready to shut the books on what could be
learned. Apparently what most of us like to think of as middle-aged (at worst)
is ancient for a physicist. His own work on thermal radiation established
fundamental concepts of quantum theory, though he didn’t use the term “quanta.”
When a young Albert Einstein proposed his special theory of
relativity, Planck quick promote and build on it. He was slower to come around
to general relativity (as wild as it is to us, it was insane to many in that
time), and both men suffered philosophical heartburn from the quantum mechanics
served up by the generation that came up under them.
Planck was very loyal to his country.
His brother Hermann died in the Franco-Prussian War, and the family became intensely
patriotic. At the start of World War I, he was hopeful that the war might
strengthen and unify Germany. His oldest son, Karl, died at Verdun, and Germany fell on
hard times.
Things were more complex when the Nazis took power. At times, his reputation as the nation’s most
prominent scientist gave him leeway to resist anti-Semitic policies. At other
times he acquiesced, hoping that the excesses of Nazi policies would be
smoothed out or even reversed by the necessities of governing and the needs of
the nation. He was so hopeful he even encouraged Jewish colleagues to stay. The Nazis saw no
need for moderation, so Planck’s influence quickly waned. His son, Erwin, became involved in a resistance
movement that hoped to topple the Nazis. He was implicated in a plot to
assassinate Adolf Hitler. Though the Planck family appealed to
every ear in and around the Nazi regime that might have sympathy, Erwin was
convicted and eventually hanged. (Planck survived his first wife and four of
his five children).
Brown doesn’t judge Planck too
harshly, though some might. He had no love for the Nazis, but perhaps too much
love for Germany, its scientific achievement, and its international standing,
may have made him reluctant to boldly oppose them. This led to a break in his
relationship with Einstein, though the younger eminence spoke very kindly of
Planck even many years later. Because of he refused to embrace the Nazis, and
he was well-liked by many foreign scientists, the Allies gave him a place in
rebuilding the German scientific establishment after the war. The British, French, and Americans reorganized scientific institutes
into the Max Planck Society, which is still active in supporting all manner of
scientific endeavor.
I think the book is approachable for
most adult readers who may have an interest in Planck or his times. Brown does
not get so deep so deep into the science that he loses readers; he tries to
explain it in a way that will make sense to a general audience. The structure
of the book may make it difficult for a young reader to follow.
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