This book of essays in four parts, was written over a decade and full of surprises for the breadth and variety of its subject matter. The first part is about the foundations of the quantum theory which reflects the author's many conversations with the late John Bell who persuaded him that there is still no satisfactory interpretation of the theory. The second part deals with nuclear weapons. One of the essays concerns the creation of the modern gas centrifuge which was done by German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. The proliferation of these centrifuges was one of the issues in the spread of nuclear weapons. The third section deals with financial engineering with a profile of Louis Bachelier, the French mathematician who created it at the beginning of the 20th century. The final section deals with the Higgs boson and how it is used for generating mass. It includes a detailed article of how this mechanism works.

Preface v

Introduction ix

Part I. Quantum Theory 1

1. AChorusofBells 1

2. AQuantumPast 17

3. ADoubleSlit 29

4. Dirac,SomeStrangenessintheProportion 45

5. AnotherDirac 69

6. MoreAboutBohm’sQuantum 85

7. MaxBornandtheQuantumTheory 103

8. TheQuantumMeasurementProblem 129

Part II. Nuclear Weapons 143

9. Oppenheinmer 143

10. UnintendedConsequences 159

11. AnUnlikelyCollaboration 167

12. ANuclearSupermarket 185

13. Who’sNext? 197

14. A Memorandum that Changed the World 207

Part III. Mathematics and Finance 227

15. Bachelier 227

16. A Primer of Things You Need to Know

toFollowtheFinancialNews 239

Part IV. The Higgs Boson 251

17. AQuestionofMass 251

18. AnUpperBound 269

19. A Higgs Memorandum 271

FinalAcknowledgements 275

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