Maker of patterns : an autobiography through letters
Freeman J. Dyson (Author)
"Both recalling his life story and recounting many of the major advances in twentieth-century science, a renowned physicist shares his autobiography through letters. While recognizing that quantum mechanics "demands serious attention," Albert Einstein in 1926 admonished fellow physicist Max Born that the theory "does not bring us closer to the secrets of the Old One." Aware that "there are deep mysteries that Nature intends to keep for herself," Freeman Dyson, the 94-year-old theoretical physicist, has nonetheless chronicled the stories of those who were engaged in solving some of the most challenging quandaries of twentieth-century physics. Written between 1940 and the early 1980s, these letters to relatives form an historic account of modern science and its greatest players, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, and Hans Bethe. Whether reflecting on the horrors of World War II, the moral dilemmas of nuclear development, the challenges of the space program, or the considerable demands of raising six children, Dyson offers a firsthand account of one of the greatest periods of scientific discovery of our modern age"-- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2018
First edition View all formats and editions
Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 2018
Nonfiction
xvi, 400 pages ; 25 cm
9780871403865, 0871403862
1021069509
Preface
Great minds around the billiard table
War and peace
Truth and reconciliation
Cornell student
Go west, young man
Demigods on stilts
Nolo contendere
Well, doc, you're in
The physicist in love
Cornell professor
Mycenean tablets and spin waves
Moscow and La Jolla
The forsaken merman
A spaceship and a wedding
Homecoming
Working for peace
Marching for justice
Sitting in judgment
Two deaths and two departures
Adventures of a psychiatric nurse
Whale worshippers and moonchildren