The Delight of Thinking

Nyhet

The Life of Tatiana Afanassjewa and Paul Ehrenfest

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

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Paul Ehrenfest grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna. Tatiana Afanassjewa came from a wealthy family in St Petersburg. Their love of science brought them together at the beginning of the twentieth century and led them to Leiden in the Netherlands. There, the ebullient Ehrenfest built up an enormous international network of mostly physicists. Afanassjewa worked -- inevitably -- mainly at home, among the children, on the theory of heat, and thought about the didactics of geometry and how to 'teach children to think'. And as Europe grew darker and darker, the 'bright' Russian house that Afanassjewa had designed blossomed into an oasis for thinkers from all over the world. The list of signatures on the wall of the guest room includes the names of sixteen Nobel Prize winners, including Niels Bohr and, of course, Albert Einstein, Ehrenfest's best friend. Over the past few years, Margriet van der Heijden has delved into the archives to tell the story of Ehrenfest and Afanassjewa and their microcosm, which fell apart when Hitler came to power in 1933. While on the run in England, Einstein heard that Ehrenfest had taken his own life. Afanassjewa had to survive without her professor, who, while "dancing in front of the blackboard", had made physics enchanting. Van der Heijden tells their story using many new documents from the Ehrenfest Family Archive and highlighting not only Ehrenfest's contributions to physics, but especially also those of Afanassjewa whose work on thermodynamics, dimensional analysis and the didactics of geometry has previously gotten less attention.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-04-02
Mått156 x 24 x 234 mm
Vikt790 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor408
FörlagOUP OXFORD
ISBN9780198927099
ÖversättareBrendan Monaghan

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Margriet van der Heijden is Professor of Science Communication in Physics at the Department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. She has a background in particle physics. She completed her PhD on the quark structure of protons and deuterons at Cern, and has many years of experience as a science journalist and writer. In addition to her position in Eindhoven, she is a columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC and the author of several well-received and award-winning Dutch non-fiction books.

Part 1 1: You shall see the ocean later: Growing up with older brothers 2: Not moonlight but rather sunlight: Well brought up in St Petersburg 3: Boltzmann and Columbus: Voyages of discovery in physics 4: Sailing the Sahara: Raised and constrained in St Petersburg 5: Between gods and humans: The Mecca of science 6: Don't ever smoke: A shared passion kindles love 7: Gleaning knowledge: Leiden canals, Russian novels and Göttingen mathematics 8: Aversion and love: Seeking a sense of self 9: Ill at ease in Vienna: Study, discussions and strolling with a pram 10: First publications: Unemployed but working 11: Happy in Göttingen: Travelling, thinking, writing 12: Dangerous experiments: A Russian beard and feeling at home 13: A sombre honorary secretary: Arduous success in Russia 14: Rest, cleanliness and regularity: A daughter and a spa 15: It could have been so wonderful here: Inaccessible German-speaking universities 16: A big, dear boy: Meeting Einstein 17: Coincidence and new opportunities: Farewell to St Petersburg Part 2 18: The man in the empty sphere: A flying start in Leiden 19: Water to the left, water to the right and water in between: Cosmopolitans in a provincial town 20: War and friends: Leiden 1914 21: Oasis in an ugly world: Work, war and Witte Rozenstraat 22: The red professor and the Russian princess: Happiness in wartime 23: Ups and downs: Bankruptcy, peace and another son 24: Physics curator: Bohr as Rembrandt and Einstein as Holbein 25: Physics at the highest level: Just not for women 26: Einstein, Wassik and Russians: Concerns far and wide 27: Second rate and second class: Capitalism and socialism, men and women 28: Two worlds: American girls and 'male logic' 29: Warm people and thermodynamics: Paul's network and Tanya's science 30: Physics curator 2.0: Passionately interested in people's fate Part 3 31: Falling behind: Mathematics in Moscow and mathematics as a blight 32: Escapism: Radios and travelling 33: Love is no longer enough: Nelly, Russia and the Nazis 34: Broken: A hopeless deed in a hopeless world Part 4 35: Loss after loss: If only we could just be eyes 36: Finding joy in less: Writing and thinking to the end Epilogue

This is a joint biography of two significant scientists of the early 20th century whose lives and work and marriage are explored fully within that difficult period of rapid scientific advance, cultural hurdles, and political and social upheaval. Unlike many others, it gives full personal and scientific attention to both partners in this marriage. It provides a very informative and at times heartbreaking account of the hurdles, struggles and triumphs experienced by each, and especially by Tatiana Afanassjewa as a female student and scientist in that era.