How the Hippies Saved Physics, By David Kaiser

If it strikes you that quantum physics has a hint of psychedelic weirdness, you're right if a bit late.

This perception was anticipated four decades ago by the Fundamental Fysiks Group, a bunch of brainy hippies, from where else but Berkeley, California? The author, an MIT professor born too late for the psychedelic era, is intrigued by the "mismatch between their soaring intellectual aspirations and their modest professional platform", which seems to continue to this day.

How the Hippies Saved Physics By David Kaiser Norton, £12.99