Természettudomány

In the 1800s mathematicians introduced a formal theory of symmetry: group theory. Now a branch of abstract algebra, this subject first arose in the theory of equations. Symmetry is an immensely important concept in mathematics and throughout thesciences, and its applications range across the entire subject. Symmetry governs the structure of crystals, innumerable types of pattern formation, how systems change their state as parameters vary

This book retraces the life of the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, analyses his scientific work, and describes the evolution of his thinking. Pauli spent 30 years as a professor at the Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich, which occupies a centralplace in this biography. It would be incomplete, however, without a rendering of Pauli's sarcastic wit and, most importantly, of the world of his dreams. It is through the latter that quite a different aspect of Pauli'slife comes in, namely his association with the psychology of C.G. Jung and his school.