Sign-In
Cart
Physicists on Wall Street and Other Essays on Science and Society
Hardcover
Sports GeneralGeneral SociologyHistory & Philosophy of Science
Publisher Price: $29.99
ISBN13: 9780387765051
Publisher: Springer
Published: Aug 19 2008
Pages: 182
Weight: 0.90
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
Over the years, Jeremy Bernstein has been in contact with many of the world's most renowned physicists and other scientists, many of whom were involved in politics, literature, and language. In this diverse collection of essays, he reflects on their work, their personal relationships, their motives, and their contributions. Even for those people he writes about that he did not know personally, he provides important insights into their lives and work, and questions their character, their decisions, and the lives they led.
In the first three essays, Professor Bernstein looks at economic theory and how some physicists who developed interesting economic models based on derivatives and hedge funds almost led to the country into bankruptcy. In later essays, he discusses a suspect visit to Poland by the great Heisenberg during the Nazi era, a visit that there is almost nothing written about.
Included also are essays on ancient languages and a nuclear weapons program in South Africa that was supposedly dismantled. In one particularly humorous essay, he describes how an ill-conceived manned spaceship to be powered by an atomic bomb was being developed by some of the country's most powerful intellects. The project never got off the ground.
Dipping into these pages is like rummaging around in the mind of a genius who has a potpourri of interests and an abundance of fascinating experiences. Bernstein has not only rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked and played with them. He has sometimes mourned with them and laughed at them. His sharp wit and even sharper analysis make for a fascinating read.
Also in
History & Philosophy of Science
The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures
Gutfreund, Hanoch
Renn, Jürgen
Hardcover
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
Kaku, Michio
Hardcover
The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life
Eklöf, Johan
Hardcover
The Mystery of Life Energy: Biofield Healing, Phantom Limbs, Group Energetics, and Gaia Consciousness
Leskowitz, Eric
Paperback
The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans--And Other Possible Phenomena
Pearl, Mike
Paperback
The Self-Actualizing Cosmos: The Akasha Revolution in Science and Human Consciousness
Laszlo, Ervin
Paperback
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda
Hardcover
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Kaplan, Matt
Hardcover
The Agi Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence
Roose, Kevin
Hardcover
Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
Martins, Dino
Hardcover
The Earth Said Remember Me: How to Revive Our Memories and Restore the Planet
Mark, Jason Dove
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI
Veliz, Carissa
Hardcover
Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe
Meyer, Stephen C.
Paperback
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Hardcover
Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand
Lombrozo, Tania
Hardcover
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
Sands, Matthew
Feynman, Richard P.
Leighton, Robert B.
Paperback
Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness
Harden, Kathryn Paige
Hardcover
What Sheep Think about the Weather: How to Listen to What Animals Are Trying to Say
Thomas, Amelia
Paperback
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Munroe, Randall
Hardcover
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda
Paperback
2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future
Lennox, John C.
Paperback
Do Aliens Speak Physics?: And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality
Whiteson, Daniel
Warner, Andy
Hardcover
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
Feynman, Richard P.
Paperback
Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being
Theise, Neil
Paperback
Everything All at Once: How to Think Like a Science Guy, Solve Any Problem, and Make a Better World
Nye, Bill
Paperback
Magnifica Humanitas: Encyclical on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence
Prevost, Robert
Paperback
Technology and Barbarism: Or: How Billionaires Will Save Us from the End of the World
Nieva, Michel
Paperback
Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America
Kieffer, Kira Ganga
Hardcover
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.
Hardcover
Aristotle's Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science
Feser, Edward
Paperback
The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience
Gleiser, Marcelo
Thompson, Evan
Frank, Adam
Paperback
A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)
Oakley, Barbara
Paperback
Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
Scientific Facts in the Bible: 100 Reasons to Believe the Bible is Supernatural in Origin
Comfort, Ray
Paperback
Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do about It
Facciani, Matthew
Paperback
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--And Its Implications
Deutsch, David
Paperback
Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution
Miller, Kenneth R.
Paperback
There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World
Rovelli, Carlo
Paperback
Everyday Extraordinary: A Scientist Ponders a Lifetime of Magical, Bizarre, and Paranormal Experiences
Markovsky, Barry
Hardcover
The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self
Wayland-Smith, Ellen
Paperback
Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe
Meyer, Stephen C.
Hardcover
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Sagan, Sasha
Paperback
The Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science
Schneider, Michael S.
Paperback
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God
Strobel, Lee
Paperback
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Paperback
The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life
Eklöf, Johan
Paperback
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake
Novella, Steven
Paperback
Ignorance: What We Do Not Know, Cannot Know, Must Not Know, and Refuse to Know
Szpiro, George G.
Hardcover
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change
Conway, Erik M.
Oreskes, Naomi
Paperback
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Smil, Vaclav
Paperback
War on Ivermectin: The Medicine That Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic
Kory, Pierre
McCarthy, Jenna
Hardcover
The Passing of the Great Race: The Racial Basis of European History (With Original 1916 Illustrations in Full Color)
Grant, Madison
Hardcover
The Random Universe: How Models and Probability Help Us Make Sense of the Cosmos
Jaffe, Andrew H.
Hardcover
Moral AI: And How We Get There
Conitzer, Vincent
Borg, Jana Schaich
Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter
Paperback
Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
Greene, Brian
Paperback
Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World
Metzl, Jamie
Paperback
Forgotten Landscapes: How Native Americans Created Pre-Columbian North America and What We Can Learn from It
Rice, Stanley A.
Hardcover
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
Farahany, Nita A.
Paperback
(Super) Natural Science: The Real Science of Superheroes, Mythic Creatures, and the (Sci-Fi) Universe
Liu, Charles
Paperback
Beyond the Quantum: A Quest for the Origin and Hidden Meaning of Quantum Mechanics
Valentini, Antony
Hardcover
Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning
Barad, Karen
Paperback
This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking
Brockman, John
Paperback
Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Second Edition
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains, and Health
Sheldrake, Rupert
Paperback