Synopses & Reviews
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, for example, 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. There 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. Needless to say, 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 has rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked with them and played with them. He has sometimes mourned with them and laughed at them. His sharp wit and even sharper analysis make for reading you simply can't put down.
Synopsis
In this diverse collection of essays, renowned author Jeremy Bernstein assembles a diverse group of stories from various disciplines to create an engaging and illuminating text. In the essay Heisenberg in Poland, Bernstein brings forth details of Werner Heisenberg's visit to wartime Poland in the midst of the Holocaust. Almost nothing has previously been written about this visit, about which Heisenberg seems to have been embarrassed. Bernstein employs his unique perspective to reveal and explain for the general reader striking assertions that are not widely known. For example, he describes how the skills of code breakers led to deciphering a language found on Crete-Linear-B. Surprisingly, this language turned out to be a form of Ancient Greek that preceded Homer. Bernstein also describes the South African nuclear weapons program, which resulted in the construction of six Hiroshima-like bombs. He explains how and why the South Africans abandoned this program and how difficult it is to dismantle a nuclear weapons program even if the participants are willing. Essays on finance explain how derivatives in financial markets are priced and how hedge funds work. Throughout, Bernstein's incessant curiosity and prose style honed by thiry-five years of writing for the New Yorker magazine make these unlikely subjects interesting.
Synopsis
Dipping into this diverse collection of essays is like rummaging around in the mind of a genius who has a potpourri of interests. The author has not only has rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked with them and played with them.
About the Author
Many readers will recognize Bernstein (Cranks, Quarks & the Cosmos, LJ 1/93) as the noted science essayist for the New Yorker for the past 30 years. He has also contributed essays to Scientific American and The Atlantic Monthly. He wrote A Theory for Everything (Copernicus, 1996) which collected some of his essays as well as Hitler's Uranium Club 2e (Copernicus, 1996) and Secrets of the Old One: Einstein, 1905 (Springer, 2006).
Table of Contents
Foreword.- Part I: Economists.- Options.- Black-Scholes.- The Rise and Fall of the Quants.- Part II: Scientists.- Heisenberg in Poland.- The Orion.- Tales from South Africa.- A Nuclear Supermarket.- Ottavio Baldi: The Life and Times of Sir henry (Wotton).- Part III: Linguists.- The Spencers of Althorp and Sir William Jones: A Love Story.- All That Glitters.- In a Word, "Lions".- Part IV: Fiction and Stranger Than Fiction.- The Pianist, Fiction and Non-Fiction.- Rocket Science.- The Science of Michel Thomas.- Topology.- What the #$*!?.- Index.