A brilliant theoretical physicist, Werner Heisenberg invented Quantum Mechanics when he was just 25 years old, completely revolutionizing our concept of nature with his “uncertainty principle,” which was a contribution to science rivaling that of Isaac Newton 200 years before him. But his theories were so abstract that they were reviled as “Jewish science” by the Nazis, which led to considerable problems for Heisenberg when the Hitler came to power. Nevertheless, when nuclear fission was discovered in 1939, he became the de facto leader of the German effort to construct an atomic bomb. Unfortunately, his brilliance in theory didn’t extend to experiments, or to leadership, for that matter, and his program to build an atomic bomb—or even a nuclear reactor—was a failure. Arrogant in their belief that if the Germans couldn’t do it, the Allies certainly couldn’t, Heisenberg and his team were unconcerned…until while they were in captivity after the war in Europe had ended, Heisenberg and his team were shocked and disbelieving to learn that the Allies had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.