The joy of discovery: great encounters along the way

Walter Thirring is the last offspring of an Austrian family of scientists. In this moving narrative, he describes how he survived the Nazi occupation and became instrumental in reconstructing European science. Thirring is one of the last living physicists who worked on the greatest discoveries and with the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He recollects encounters with the old masters like Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Pauli and others as well as his collaborations with the present stars like Murray Gell-Mann and Elliott Lieb. The book presents the challenges faced when one of the