More Than One Mystery

Mark P. Silverman is an American physicist, author, and educator whose career spans experimental and theoretical research across atomic physics, quantum mechanics, optics, astrophysics, and applied statistics. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University, fulfilling a lifelong ambition inspired in childhood by the writings of James Jeans, Arthur Eddington, and George Gamow. From an early age, Silverman was fascinated by the fundamental laws governing nature, a curiosity that shaped a long and unusually wide-ranging scientific career.

Silverman began his research in atomic physics, developing innovative experimental methods to study short-lived excited quantum states in neutral atoms. His early work on hydrogen—the simplest atom—contributed to precision tests of quantum electrodynamics (QED), one of the most accurate theories in all of science. Alongside his experimental work, he pursued ambitious theoretical research, including a significant generalization of the theory of separated oscillatory fields for finite-lived excited states, building on the Nobel Prize–winning work of Norman Ramsey. These investigations were later synthesized in his book Probing the Atom (Princeton University Press, 2000).

Quantum physics became a central theme of Silverman’s career. He explored quantum interference, superposition, and coherence using diverse techniques such as electron interferometry, spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. While serving as Visiting Chief Researcher at the Hitachi Advanced Research Laboratory in Japan, he proposed a landmark experiment demonstrating the buildup of an electron interference pattern one electron at a time—later voted the “most beautiful experiment in physics” by Physics World. His insights into quantum mechanics are presented in More Than One Mystery (1995) and Quantum Superposition (2008).

In optics, Silverman made notable contributions to the study of polarized light, chirality, and lensless diffractive imaging, with applications in biology, medicine, and materials science. He documented this work in Waves and Grains (1998). From the 2000s onward, his research expanded into astrophysics and nuclear physics, addressing dark matter, dark energy, stellar collapse, and radioactive decay.

Later in his career, Silverman developed a deep interest in statistics and randomness, applying stochastic methods to physics and real-world systems. This culminated in his seventh book, A Certain Uncertainty: Nature’s Random Ways (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Known for his intellectual independence and interdisciplinary curiosity, Mark P. Silverman remains a compelling voice in modern physics, emphasizing that the universe is governed by comprehensible natural laws rather than superstition or myth.