Download or read book Memories of a Theoretical Physicist written by Joseph Polchinski and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking theoretical physicist traces his career, reflecting on the successes and failures, triumphs and insecurities of a life cut short by cancer. The groundbreaking theoretical physicist Joseph Polchinski explained the genesis of his memoir this way: “Having only two bodies of knowledge, myself and physics, I decided to write an autobiography about my development as a theoretical physicist.” In this posthumously published account of his life and work, Polchinski (1954–2018) describes successes and failures, triumphs and insecurities, and the sheer persistence that led to his greatest discoveries. Writing engagingly and accessibly, with the wry humor for which he was known, Polchinski gives theoretical physics a very human face. Polchinski, famous for his contributions to string theory, may have changed the course of modern theoretical physics, but he was a late bloomer—doing most of his important work after the age of forty. His death from brain cancer at sixty-three cut short a career at its peak. Working on the memoir after his diagnosis, using a text-to-speech algorithm because he could no longer read words on a page, he was able to recapitulate his entire career, down to the details of problems he had worked on. For Polchinski, physics went deeper than words. This edition includes photographs from Polchinski’s professional and family life, as well as physics explainer boxes, other technical edits, and bibliographic notes by his former student Ahmad Almheiri, a foreword by Andrew Strominger, and an afterword by his wife Dorothy Chun and sons Steven and Daniel.
Download or read book Landau The Physicist the Man written by J B J B Sykes and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The name of Lev Davidovich Landau is widely known as that of one of the greatest twentieth-century physicists. A brilliant teacher to those pupils he carefully chose, notoriously controversial in his outlook and opinions, the combination of his outstanding intellect and striking personality brought him almost legendary fame. This volume contains letters, papers and recollections by friends and pupils, describing Landau's views of science, culture and life, and provides the reader with a vivid portrait of a remarkable man.
Download or read book The Order of Time written by Carlo Rovelli and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of TIME’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade "Meet the new Stephen Hawking . . . The Order of Time is a dazzling book." --The Sunday Times From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems, Helgoland, and Anaximander comes a concise, elegant exploration of time. Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.
Download or read book Asymptotic Realms of Physics written by Francis Eugene Low and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1983 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first few months of the universe, the MIT bag model, and grand unified theories are among the chief concerns of these essays and articles honoring MIT theoretical physicist Francis Low. The book opens with a cluster of dedicatory pieces by Murray Gell-Mann, Marvin L. Goldberger, Jeremy Bernstein, and Val L. Fitch. The remainder of the book consists of twenty technical essays by a small galaxy of distinguished scientists: Steven Weinberg; Kenneth A. Johnson; Sidney Drell; Geoffrey F. Chew; Mitchell J. Feigenbaum; Victor F. Weisskopf; Herman Feshbach; Carleton DeTar; John F. Donoghue; D. Danckaert, P. DeCausmaecker, R. Gastmans, W. Troost, and Tai Tsun Wu, writing jointly; Roman Jackiw; William I. Weisberger; Adrian Patrascioiu; Gino Segre; So-Young Î Asim Yildiz; Jogesh C. Pati, Abdus Salam, and J. Strathdee, in another collaborative contribution; and the three editors. Among the other topics are &"Why the Renormalization Group Is a Good Thing&" - the physics of asymptotic freedom - the topological bootstrap &"The Fixed Point of Classical Dynamical Evolution and Chaos&" - compound bags and hadron-hadron interactions - &"Gauge Invariance and Mass&" - Gribov ambiguities - &"The Simple Facts about the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe&" - preons and supersymmetry - some speculations on the origin of the matter, energy, and entropy of the universe - the Chew-Low theory and the quark model - &"From Gell-Mann-Low to Unification.&" The editors are all affiliated with the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT.
Download or read book Surely You re Joking Mr Feynman Adventures of a Curious Character written by Richard P. Feynman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most famous science books of our time, the phenomenal national bestseller that "buzzes with energy, anecdote and life. It almost makes you want to become a physicist" (Science Digest). Richard P. Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. In this lively work that “can shatter the stereotype of the stuffy scientist” (Detroit Free Press), Feynman recounts his experiences trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets—and much more of an eyebrow-raising nature. In his stories, Feynman’s life shines through in all its eccentric glory—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah. Included for this edition is a new introduction by Bill Gates.
Download or read book Statistical Thermodynamics written by Erwin Schrödinger and published by . This book was released on 1944 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Under the Spell of Landau written by M. Shifman and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable collection of memoirs and reviews on scientific activities of the most prominent theoretical physicists belonging to the Landau School OCo Landau, Anselm, Gribov, Zeldovich, Kirzhnits, Migdal, Ter-Martirosyan and Larkin OCo are being published in English for the first time.The main goal is to acquaint readers with the life and work of outstanding Soviet physicists who, to a large extent, shaped theoretical physics in the 1950sOCo70s. Many intriguing details have remained unknown beyond the OC Iron CurtainOCO which was dismantled only with the fall of the USSR.
Download or read book Julian Schwinger The Physicist The Teacher And The Man written by Jack Ng Yee and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1996-01-27 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the post-quantum-mechanics era, few physicists, if any, have matched Julian Schwinger in contributions to and influence on the development of physics. A deep and provocative thinker, Schwinger left his indelible mark on all areas of theoretical physics; an eloquent lecturer and immensely successful mentor, he was gentle, intensely private, and known for being “modest about everything except his physics”. This book is a collection of talks in memory of him by some of his contemporaries and his former students: A Klein, F Dyson, B DeWitt, W Kohn, D Saxon, P C Martin, K Johnson, S Deser, R Finkelstein, Y J Ng, H Feshbach, L Brown, S Glashow, K A Milton, and C N Yang. From it, one can get a glimpse of Julian Schwinger, the physicist, the teacher, and the man. Altogether, this book is a must for all physicists, physics students, and others who are interested in great legends.
Download or read book Does Santa Exist written by Eric Kaplan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A humorous philosophical investigation into the existence of Santa from a co–executive producer of The Big Bang Theory—the perfect stocking stuffer for the deep thinker on everyone’s list. Emmy award–winning comedy writer and philosophy scholar Eric Kaplan brilliantly turns a search for the truth about Santa into a laugh-out-loud metaphysical romp. Surveying everything from the analytic philosophy of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein to Buddhism, Taoism, and Kabbalah, Kaplan alights on comedy—including The Big Bang Theory and Monty Python—as the best way to resolve life’s most profound paradoxes, including the existence of perfect moments, Santa, and even God.
Download or read book The Future of the Mind written by Michio Kaku and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michio Kaku, the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain. The Future of the Mind brings a topic that once belonged solely to the province of science fiction into a startling new reality. This scientific tour de force unveils the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics—including recent experiments in telepathy, mind control, avatars, telekinesis, and recording memories and dreams. The Future of the Mind is an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience. Dr. Kaku looks toward the day when we may achieve the ability to upload the human brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; project thoughts and emotions around the world on a brain-net; take a “smart pill” to enhance cognition; send our consciousness across the universe; and push the very limits of immortality.
Download or read book D Branes written by Clifford V. Johnson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-contained and pedagogical introduction to key string theory ideas and techniques needed to understand D-branes.
Download or read book The Memory of Whiteness written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published by Orb Books. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An early novel from Science Fiction legend Kim Stanley Robinson, The Memory of Whiteness is now available for the first time in decades. In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra. Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin's Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Download or read book About Time written by P. C. W. Davies and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996-04-09 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the ramifications of Einstein's relativity theory, exploring the mysteries of time and considering black holes, time travel, the existence of God, and the nature of the universe.
Download or read book Memories of a Theoretical Physicist written by Joseph Gerard Polchinski and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Breakthrough Prize recipient Joseph Polchinksi (now deceased) reveals details of his upbringing, his collaborations with major figures in physics, and his significant contributions to string theory and cosmology"--
Download or read book Moonwalking with Einstein written by Joshua Foer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory “Highly entertaining.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” —The Boston Globe An instant bestseller that has now become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
Download or read book The Physics of Immortality written by Frank J. Tipler and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1997-09-18 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a higher power in the universe? What happens to us when we die? Leading physicist Frank J. Tipler tackles these questions and more in an astonishing and profoundly important book that scientifically proves the existence of God and the physical resurrection of the dead.
