Einstein's Dreams
Einstein's Dreams

Author: Alan Lightman

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-03-02

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0307789748

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence. “A magical, metaphysical realm ... Captivating, enchanting, delightful.” —The New York Times Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, about time, relativity and physics. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar. Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

Einstein’s Dream
Einstein’s Dream

Author: Barry R. Parker

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1489927646

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Thirty years ago Albert Einstein died, his dream of a theory that would unify the universe unfulfilled. He spent the last decades of his life searching for such a theory-a theory that would explain everything from elementary particles and their interac tions to the overall structure of the universe. But he failed, not because he didn't try hard enough, but because the attempt was ahead of its time. When Einstein worked on the problem liter ally nothing was known about black holes, white holes, sin gularities, the Big Bang explosion and the early universe, quarks, gauge invariance, and weak and strong nuclear forces. Today we know that all these things are important in relation to a unified theory, and that they must be incorporated in and explained by such a theory. Thus, in a sense, our problem is much more complex today than it was in Einstein's day. But scientists have persevered and as a result we are now tan talizingly close to achieving this long-sought goal. Important breakthroughs have been made. In this book we will look at these breakthroughs and at recent unified theories-theories that go by the names supergravity, superstrings, GUTs, and twistor theory. In order to understand the problem, however, we must begin at the beginning.

Probable Impossibilities
Probable Impossibilities

Author: Alan Lightman

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0593081323

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The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

How Much is Enough?
How Much is Enough?

Author: Robert Skidelsky

Publisher: Other Press, LLC

Published: 2012-06-19

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1590515080

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A provocative and timely call for a moral approach to economics, drawing on philosophers, political theorists, writers, and economists from Aristotle to Marx to Keynes. What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. This book tackles such questions head-on. The authors begin with the great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930 Keynes predicted that, within a century, per capita income would steadily rise, people’s basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week. Clearly, he was wrong: though income has increased as he envisioned, our wants have seemingly gone unsatisfied, and we continue to work long hours. The Skidelskys explain why Keynes was mistaken. Then, arguing from the premise that economics is a moral science, they trace the concept of the good life from Aristotle to the present and show how our lives over the last half century have strayed from that ideal. Finally, they issue a call to think anew about what really matters in our lives and how to attain it. How Much Is Enough? is that rarity, a work of deep intelligence and ethical commitment accessible to all readers. It will be lauded, debated, cited, and criticized. It will not be ignored.

Proving Einstein Right
Proving Einstein Right

Author: S. James Gates,

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1541762231

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A thrilling adventure story chronicling the perilous journey of the scientists who set out to prove the theory of relativity--the results of which catapulted Albert Einstein to fame and forever changed our understanding of the universe. In 1911, a relatively unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published his preliminary theory of gravity. But it hadn't been tested. To do that, he needed a photograph of starlight as it passed the sun during a total solar eclipse. So began a nearly decade-long quest by seven determined astronomers from observatories in four countries, who traveled the world during five eclipses to capture the elusive sight. Over the years, they faced thunderstorms, the ravages of a world war, lost equipment, and local superstitions. Finally, in May of 1919, British expeditions to northern Brazil and the island of Príncipe managed to photograph the stars, confirming Einstein's theory. At its heart, this is a story of frustration, faith, and ultimate victory--and of the scientists whose efforts helped build the framework for the big bang theory, catapulted Einstein to international fame, and shook the foundation of physics.

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Author: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Limited

Published: 2021-11-09

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 0711257582

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A biography of the scientist Albert Einstein.

The Diagnosis
The Diagnosis

Author: Alan Lightman

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2001-03-13

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 037542119X

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From the bestselling author of Einstein’s Dreams comes this harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world, even as his own biological wiring short-circuits. As Boston’s Red Line shuttles Bill Chalmers to work one summer morning, something extraordinary happens. Suddenly, he can't remember which stop is his, where he works, or even who he is. The only thing he can remember is his corporate motto: the maximum information in the minimum time. Bill’s memory returns, but a strange numbness afflicts him. As he attempts to find a diagnosis for his deteriorating illness, he descends into a nightmarish tangle of inconclusive results, his company’s manic frenzy, and his family’s disbelief. Ultimately, Bill discovers that he is fighting not just for his body but also for his soul.

Life on the Infinite Farm
Life on the Infinite Farm

Author: Richard Evan Schwartz

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1470447363

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Mathematics professor from Brown University uses colorful illustrations and cartoons to display the concepts of infinity and large numbers.

The Legacy of Albert Einstein
The Legacy of Albert Einstein

Author: Spenta R. Wadia

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9812772715

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This indispensable volume contains a compendium of articles covering a vast range of topics in physics which were begun or influenced by the works of Albert Einstein: special relativity, quantum theory, statistical physics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, geometry, cosmology and unified field theory. An essay on the societal role of Einstein is included. These articles, written by some of the renowned experts, offer an insider's view of the exciting world of fundamental science. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Einstein and the Search for Unification (625 KB). Contents: Einstein and the Search for Unification (D Gross); Einstein and Geometry (M Atiyah); String Theory and Einstein's Dream (A Sen); Black Hole Entropy in String Theory: A Window into the Quantum Structure of Gravity (A Dabholkar); The Winding Road to Quantum Gravity (A Ashtekar); Brownian Functionals in Physics and Computer Science (S N Majumdar); Bose-Einstein Condensation: Where Many Become One and So There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom (N Kumar); Many Electrons Strongly Avoiding Each Other: Strange Goings On (T V Ramakrishnan); Einstein and the Quantum (V Singh); Einstein's Legacy: Relativistic Cosmology (J V Narlikar); Einstein's Universe: The Challenge of Dark Energy (S Sarkar); Gravitational Radiation OCo In Celebration of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis (B S Sathyaprakash); Albert Einstein: Radical Pacifist and Democrat (T Jayaraman). Readership: Physicists, mathematicians and academics."