Physics, they say, goes much deeper than any other science into the riddle of existence. The laws of physics – gravity, energy, motion, time – underpin those of chemistry, astrophysics and meteorology combined. In Hitler’s Germany, nevertheless, a handful of physicists shuddered at the mere mention of quantum theory and Einsteinian physics. The troubling uncertainties of relativity and other physical exotica were viewed as a “Jewish science” inimical to German nationhood and the glory that was Deutsche Physik – “Aryan physics”.If “Aryan physics” (a pseudoscience of cosy certainties) failed to make inroads in 1930s Germany, says Philip Ball, it was due largely to the wrong-headedness of its champions. To eminent German physicists