これまで英訳されていない文献を踏まえ、20世紀を代表する理論物理学者のニールス・ボーア（1885-1962年）の功績に改めて光を当てます。若いうちから研究所の設立に奔走し、自由で世界に開かれた研究の場をつくりあげることで前期量子論を切り開き、その展開を先導したボーア。指導者として卓越した先見性と行動力を支えたボーアの人柄や人間中心主義的思想、20世紀初頭の科学を取り巻く状況について、多角的な考察を試みます。
　　

• Covers the life and work of one of the most creative physicists of the 20th century, Niels Bohr, who pioneered the quantum theory of the atom
• Considers how Bohr's work was influenced by his philosophy and humanist concerns
• Alongside Bohr as a scientist, discusses his role as a statesman, institution builder, and Danish cultural icon
• Offers the first overview in English that draws on all the available sources, which the author has had a hand in uncovering

              
Niels Bohr, who pioneered the quantum theory of the atom, had a broad conception of his obligations as a physicist. They included not only a responsibility for the consequences of his work for the wider society, but also a compulsion to apply the philosophy he deduced from his physics to improving ordinary people's understanding of the moral universe they inhabit. In some of these concerns Bohr resembled Einstein, although Einstein could not accept what he called the "tranquilizing philosophy" with which Bohr tried to resolve such ancient conundrums as the nature (or possibility) of free will.
                    
In this Very Short Introduction John Heilbron draws on sources never before presented in English to cover the life and work of one of the most creative physicists of the 20th century. In addition to his role as a scientist, Heilbron considers Bohr as a statesman and Danish cultural icon, who built scientific institutions and pushed for the extension of international cooperation in science to all nation states. As a humanist he was concerned with the cultivation of all sides of the individual, and with the complementary contributions of all peoples to the sum of human culture. Throughout, Heilbron considers how all of these aspects of Bohr's personality influenced his work, as well as the science that made him, in the words of Sir Henry Dale, President of the Royal Society of London, probably the first among all the men of all countries who are now active in any department of science.