A (very late) book review: The Cold Wars

On a recommendation, I just finished reading The Cold Wars:  A History of Superconductivity, by Jean Matricon and Georges Waysand.  This book was originally published in French in 1994, and then translated in English in 2003.  Unfortunately, the book appears to be out of print, and I was fortunate enough to pick up a used hardcover copy.

Beginning with the race to achieve very low temperatures through liquefaction of helium, this work tells a pretty compelling story of the discovery and understanding of superconductivity and superfluidity, ending in the comparatively early days of the high Tc cuprates.  Along the way, the authors introduce a cast of varyingly compelling characters and some fascinating stories that aren't all well-known.  I knew that Landau had been sent to a gulag for a time; I did not know that Kapitsa wrote personally to Stalin to try to argue that this had to be a mistake and was probably a consequence of Landau being very abrasive to the wrong people more than any actual counterrevolutionary beliefs.  (Spoiler:  Landau was abrasive, but he did also sign onto a letter that slammed Stalin hard.)  I did not know that Bardeen and Schrieffer were most concerned about Feynman possibly scooping them thanks to the latter's brilliance and expertise in both superfluidity and diagrammatic methods.  The story is also in there about the initial papers on YBCO and how the chemical formula was "accidentally" wrong in the submitted manuscript, corrected only once the paper was in proofs.

The authors also do a good job of conveying the ebb and flow of science - from the sudden onset of a fashionable topic, to the transition toward more detail and a greater focus on applications.  The social dimensions come through as well, with the coming and going of particular great centers of excellence in the research, and approaches to "big" science.    

The style is accessible, and throughout there are indented sidebars meant to provide scientific context for those readers who are probably not from a physics background.  If you track down a copy, I definitely recommend reading it if you're interested in the topic and the history of this part of condensed matter physics.