Comments on "Ordinary Geniuses - Max Delbruck, George Gamow, and the Origins of Genomics and Big Bang Cosmology" by Gino Segre' and "E=mc{squared}" - A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis
In spite of the communist regime in the Soviet Union, George Gamow had become a well known young physicist by 24 years of age who had been sometimes allowed to study in Germany and England in the 1920s. However, in 1933 he took advantage of being allowed to attend a science conference in Brussels, Belgium, and he and his wife, who had been allowed to go with him, did not return to their country. They both came to America in 1934.
George Gamow had many interests besides physics, including cosmology and genetics. The author, Gino Segre', says that, although Gamow's many scientific ideas were usually wrong, they very often importantly contributed to the developement of more correct concepts. George Gamow also wrote many popular science books.
Max Delbruck, in Weimar Germany, also became a promising physicist before he was 30 years of age. Germay was a country that seems to have produced many, if not most, of the world's prominent physicists for several decades up to that time. However, Nazi Germany drastically affected German science, and scientists, and Max Delbruck, who was not Jewish, came to America in 1937. By this time Max Delbruck was more involved with biology, more specifically genetics, and he became one of the principal founders of the new science of molecular biology.
This second book is by a very capable mathematician and science writer, David Bodanis. It was a "best seller" popular science book, and it has very much more in it than science.
David Bodanis describes the life and work of Albert Einstein, and many other people besides. A few of these people are seemingly "saintly", such as Albert, but some others are apparently more "wicked".
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Experimental Blog #103
A summary of "The House of Wisdom - How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance" by Jim Al-Khalili
The Abbasid Caliphate begins in Baghdad around 762 CE. During this time the translation of Greek texts of philosophy, mathematics, and science was promoted on a large scale. This movement went on for about 200 years, until it seemed there was nothing more to be translated. Texts, or contributions, from India were also translated.
With very impressive and persuasive thoroughness, Jim Al-Khalili writes about the many scholars, and some of their 1000s of works that they produced, begining around 800 CE and continuing into the 10th century and beyond, and, later, in other places of the Islamic conquest. Not all of the translators and contributors were Arabs or Moslems. Among them were often Christians, Jews, and Persians, but most of them wrote in Arabic.
These scholars and proto-scientists produced 1000s of works in chemistry, medicine, algebra and trigonometry, physics, and astronomy and cosmology. Perhaps other fields as well. Some of these works eventually reached Europe and were translated into Latin by the 15th and 16th centuries. And some of these books became standard texts or reference books that were used for centuries.
The Abbasid Caliphate begins in Baghdad around 762 CE. During this time the translation of Greek texts of philosophy, mathematics, and science was promoted on a large scale. This movement went on for about 200 years, until it seemed there was nothing more to be translated. Texts, or contributions, from India were also translated.
With very impressive and persuasive thoroughness, Jim Al-Khalili writes about the many scholars, and some of their 1000s of works that they produced, begining around 800 CE and continuing into the 10th century and beyond, and, later, in other places of the Islamic conquest. Not all of the translators and contributors were Arabs or Moslems. Among them were often Christians, Jews, and Persians, but most of them wrote in Arabic.
These scholars and proto-scientists produced 1000s of works in chemistry, medicine, algebra and trigonometry, physics, and astronomy and cosmology. Perhaps other fields as well. Some of these works eventually reached Europe and were translated into Latin by the 15th and 16th centuries. And some of these books became standard texts or reference books that were used for centuries.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Experimental Blog #102
Comments on "Electric Universe" - The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis and "The Constants of Nature - From Alpha to Omega - The Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe" by John D. Barrow
The author, David Bodanis, writes, using no mathematics, in his very narrative style a popular history of the developement and utilization of electricity. He writes about the discovery of the relationship between magnetism and electricity, the movement and flow of electrons, electromagnetic fields and waves, conductors and semiconductors, and computers and the major earlier inventions as well. Even all of life and especially our brains and nervous systems are run by electricity.
The second book is all about mathematics and numbers. Besides Isaac Newton's gravitational constant G, there is Plank's constant, h, which is the "smallest amount by which energy can change", or the quantum; e, the electron charge; and, c, the speed of light. These last 3 constants put together create the "fine structure constant", which is fundamental to the existence of the universe, with the creation of stars, the elements, and the possibility of life.
Especially at the end of the book John Barrow becomes so involved with the infinite possibilities of, and in, the universe that there seems to be little or no difference between genuine science and science fiction.
John Barrow indirectly touches on the subject of chaos and its opposite, determinism; that is, between those things that can be accurately predicted because they are determined, and those things that can not be predicted because they are too chaotic and may not even be determined.
The author, David Bodanis, writes, using no mathematics, in his very narrative style a popular history of the developement and utilization of electricity. He writes about the discovery of the relationship between magnetism and electricity, the movement and flow of electrons, electromagnetic fields and waves, conductors and semiconductors, and computers and the major earlier inventions as well. Even all of life and especially our brains and nervous systems are run by electricity.
The second book is all about mathematics and numbers. Besides Isaac Newton's gravitational constant G, there is Plank's constant, h, which is the "smallest amount by which energy can change", or the quantum; e, the electron charge; and, c, the speed of light. These last 3 constants put together create the "fine structure constant", which is fundamental to the existence of the universe, with the creation of stars, the elements, and the possibility of life.
Especially at the end of the book John Barrow becomes so involved with the infinite possibilities of, and in, the universe that there seems to be little or no difference between genuine science and science fiction.
John Barrow indirectly touches on the subject of chaos and its opposite, determinism; that is, between those things that can be accurately predicted because they are determined, and those things that can not be predicted because they are too chaotic and may not even be determined.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Experimental Blog # 101
Comments on "For the Love of Physics - From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics" by Walter Lewin with Warren Goldstein and "The Quantum Story" - A History in 40 Moments by Jim Baggott
The first book, by Walter Lewin, is a popular and extremely informative survey of the entire science of physics; as the subtitle describes it to be. It is also autobiographical, and it includes several pages of the history of the author's childhood in Nazi occupied Holland. Walter Lewin had Jewish grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on his father's side of the family.
The second book, a history of quantum theory{not capitalized}, begins in 1900 with the German physicist Max Planck. From the theoretical point of view the first 3 decades of the 20th century seem to have been the most productive and revolutionary. World War II and the developement of the atom bomb interrupted the study and developement of quantum theory somewhat, but eventually came 2 or more decades of discoveries of many sub-atomic particles.
Jim Baggott says there are now 61, not all yet observed, sub-atomic particles of matter or energy, counting the particles of anti-matter.
The extraordinary accuracy of prediction and measurement based on quantum theory cause it sometimes to be called "the most successful theory in the history of science" or similar statements, in spite of being so bizarre and controversial in some ways.
The first book, by Walter Lewin, is a popular and extremely informative survey of the entire science of physics; as the subtitle describes it to be. It is also autobiographical, and it includes several pages of the history of the author's childhood in Nazi occupied Holland. Walter Lewin had Jewish grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on his father's side of the family.
The second book, a history of quantum theory{not capitalized}, begins in 1900 with the German physicist Max Planck. From the theoretical point of view the first 3 decades of the 20th century seem to have been the most productive and revolutionary. World War II and the developement of the atom bomb interrupted the study and developement of quantum theory somewhat, but eventually came 2 or more decades of discoveries of many sub-atomic particles.
Jim Baggott says there are now 61, not all yet observed, sub-atomic particles of matter or energy, counting the particles of anti-matter.
The extraordinary accuracy of prediction and measurement based on quantum theory cause it sometimes to be called "the most successful theory in the history of science" or similar statements, in spite of being so bizarre and controversial in some ways.
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