Atom and Void
Atom and Void

Author: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1400860288

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J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the outstanding physicists of his generation. He was also an immensely gifted writer and speaker, who thought deeply about the way that scientific discoveries have changed the way people live and think. Displaying his subtlety of thought and expression as do few other documents, this book of his lectures discusses the moral and cultural implications of developments in modern physics. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

God and the Atom
God and the Atom

Author: Victor J. Stenger

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2013-04-09

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1616147547

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This history of atomism, from Democritus to the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, chronicles one of the most successful scientific hypotheses ever devised. Originating separately in both ancient Greece and India, the concept of the atom persisted for centuries, despite often running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the twentieth century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it is possible to actually observe atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. In this book, physicist Victor J. Stenger makes the case that, in the final analysis, atoms and the void are all that exists. The book begins with the story of the earliest atomists - the ancient Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, and the Latin poet Lucretius. As the author notes, the idea of elementary particles as the foundation of reality had many opponents throughout history - from Aristotle to Christian theologians and even some nineteenth-century chemists and philosophers. While theists today accept that the evidence for the atomic theory of matter is overwhelming, they reject the atheistic implications of that theory. In conclusion, the author underscores the main point made throughout this work: the total absence of empirical facts and theoretical arguments to support the existence of any component to reality other than atoms and the void can be taken as proof beyond a reasonable doubt that such a component is nowhere to be found.

Uncommon Sense
Uncommon Sense

Author: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-09

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1468467352

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J. Robert Oppenheimer, a leading physicist in the Manhattan Project, recognized that scientific inquiry and discovery could no longer be separated from their effect on political decision-making, social responsibility, and human endeavor in general. He openly addressed issues of common concern and as a scientist accepted the responsibility brought about by nuclear physics and the atom bomb. In this collection of essays and speeches, Oppenheimer discusses the shift in scientific awareness and its impact on education, the question of openness in a society forced to keep secrets, the conflict between individual concerns and public and political necessity, the future of science and its effects on future politics---in short, the common and uncommon sense we find in our modern day reality.

The Father of the Atom
The Father of the Atom

Author: Katherine MacFarlane

Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780766034105

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"A biography of ancient Greek philosopher Democritus, who believed that all matter was made up of indivisible and indestructible particles called atoms moving around in a void"--Provided by publisher.

Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections
Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections

Author: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Publisher: Stanford Nuclear Age (Paperbac

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780804726207

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Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) is one of the few American scientists who have become public and controversial figures in the twentieth century. This book adds a new dimension to the Oppenheimer story by offering a look at the private man behind the public figure. It consists of letters spanning the period from his Harvard student days in 1922 to his departure from Los Alamos in 1945. The letters are supplemented by recollections of those who knew Oppenheimer and by his own recollections from an interview a few years before his death. 'A beautifully organized collection of letters and reminiscences ... The editors have interviewed those who knew and worked with him, stirred in the necessary explanatory background, and produced an account, both scholarly and highly readable, which throws fresh light on a man who will probably always remain something of an enigma. Amid devotional defense and almost rabid attack, their book is a model of objectivity.' New York Times Book RevieW 'An intimate, carefully documented, and honest book.'

The Void
The Void

Author: Frank Close

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2007-10-25

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0199225907

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What is 'the void'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - 'nothing' - exist? This little book explores the science and the history of the elusive void: from Aristotle's theories to black holes and quantum particles, and why our very latest discoveries about the vacuum can tell us extraordinary things about the cosmos. - ;What is 'the void'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - 'nothing' - exist? This little book explores the science and the history of the elusive void: from Aristotle who insisted that the vacuum was impossible, via the theories of Newton and Einstein, to our very latest discoveries and why they can tell us extraordinary things about the cosmos. Frank Close tells the story of how scientists have explored the elusive void, and the rich discoveries that they have made there. He takes the reader on a lively and accessible history through ancient ideas and cultural superstitions to the frontiers of current research. He describes how scientists discovered that the vacuum is filled with fields; how Newton, Mach, and Einstein grappled with the nature of space and time; and how the mysterious 'aether' that was long ago supposed to permeate the void may now be making a comeback with the latest research into the 'Higgs field'. We now know that the vacuum is far from being 'nothing' - it seethes with virtual particles and antiparticles that erupt spontaneously into being, and it also may contain hidden dimensions that we were previously unaware of. These new discoveries may provide answers to some of cosmology's most fundamental questions: what lies outside the universe, and, if there was once nothing, then how did the universe begin? - ;It covers very complicated concepts in a mostly accessible way. - Lawrence Rudnick, Nature;A fascinating subject covered by a fascinating book. - Marcus Chown, Focus

Reality’s Fugue
Reality’s Fugue

Author: F. Samuel Brainard

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2017-09-21

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 0271080558

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Science, religion, philosophy: these three categories of thought have organized humankind’s search for meaning from time immemorial. Reality’s Fugue presents a compelling case that these ways of understanding, often seen as competing, are part of a larger puzzle that cannot be rendered by one account of reality alone. This book begins with an overview of the concept of reality and the philosophical difficulties associated with attempts to account for it through any single worldview. By clarifying the differences among first-person, third-person, and dualist understandings of reality, F. Samuel Brainard repurposes the three predominant ways of making sense of those differences: exclusionist (only one worldview can be right), inclusivist (viewing other worldviews through the lens of one in order to incorporate them all, and thus distorting them), and pluralist or relativist (holding that there are no universals, and truth is relative). His alternative mode of understanding uses Douglas Hofstadter’s metaphor of a musical fugue that allows different “voices” and “melodies” of worldviews to coexist in counterpoint and conversation, while each remains distinct, with none privileged above the others. Approaching reality in this way, Brainard argues, opens up the possibility for a multivoiced perspective that can overcome the skeptical challenges that metaphysical positions face. Engagingly argued by a lifelong scholar of philosophy and global religions, this edifying and accessible exploration of the nature of reality addresses deeply meaningful questions about belief, reconciliation, and being.

Materials with Complex Behaviour II
Materials with Complex Behaviour II

Author: Andreas Öchsner

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-01-04

Total Pages: 718

ISBN-13: 364222699X

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This volume highlights the latest developments and trends in advanced materials and their properties, the modeling and simulation of non-classical materials and structures, and new technologies for joining materials. It presents the developments of advanced materials and respective tools to characterize and predict the material properties and behavior.

The Atomic Theory of Lucretius
The Atomic Theory of Lucretius

Author: Fleeming Jenkin

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2020-12-08

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13:

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"The Atomic Theory of Lucretius" is a scientific essay written by Fleeming Jenkin which deals with principles of atomic theory covering the theory of matter and a postulate by Lucretius. Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism, elaborated by Roman philosopher Lucretius. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter and cut it into ever smaller pieces, one would eventually reach a point where the pieces could not be further cut into anything smaller.

The Atom in the History of Human Thought
The Atom in the History of Human Thought

Author: Bernard Pullman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780195150407

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The concept of the atom is very close to scientific bedrock, the deepest and most fundamental fact about the nature of reality. This book presents the whole panorama of the atomic hypothesis, and its place in Western civilization, from its origins in early Greek philosophy 2500 years ago to the definitive proof through direct microscopic imaging of since atoms, about ten years ago.