A resonant life

John Rigden’s biography of Isidor Rabi, the American physicist and Nobel
prizewinner—for the development of nuclear magnetic resonance—and
eventually “statesman” of science, has been reissued in paperback. Rabi’s life
was remarkable, full of incident, vision and action, including war, hot and
cold. The biography is a masterpiece, rich in anecdote and never losing the
narrative drive. Published by Harvard University Press, £13.95, ISBN
0674004353.