Third thoughts / Steven Weinberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weinberg, Steven, 1933-2021, author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science.

Genre:

Essays.

Physical Description:

viii, 223 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018.

Summary:

This is the third in a series of volumes of essays by Steven Weinberg, the previous two having also been published by HUP (Facing Up in 2001, and Lake Views in 2010). Weinberg, recipient of the Nobel Prize (1979) with Abdus Shalam and Sheldon Glashow for their contributions to the electroweak unification theory, is well known not only for his groundbreaking work in physics, but also for his efforts in popularizing science and the history of science, and for his stances on various matters in politics, public policy, and religion. This volume, like the previous two, runs a wide gamut, from the cosmological to the personal. Specific topics include particle physics, quantum mechanics, astronomy, big science, the history of science, space flight, science funding, the limits of current knowledge, and several other subjects ranging from the art of discovery to being wrong. Nearly all of the work included here, again as with the previous two volumes, has been previously published. The author has added introductions to the volume as a whole and to each essay, putting the material in context and adding further explanation where necessary. He has also added a number of explanatory notes.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I. Science history: The uses of astronomy

The art of discovery

From Rutherford to the LHC

Educators and academics, underground in Texas

The rise of the standard models

Long times and short times

Keeping an eye on the present: Whig history of science

The Whig history of science: an exchange

II. Physics and cosmology: What is an elementary particle?

The universe we still don't know

Varieties of symmetry

The Higgs, and beyond

Why the Higgs?

The trouble with quantum mechanics

III. Public matters: Obama gets space funding right

The crisis of big science

Liberal disappointment

Keep loopholes open

Against manned space flight

Skeptics and scientists

IV. Personal matters: Change course

Writing about science

On being wrong

The craft of science, and the craft of art

New York to Austin, and return.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674975323

0674975324

OCLC:

1019833836