Synopses & Reviews
Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has composed an autobiography unlike any other. Dyson evocatively conveys the thrill of a deep engagement with the world-be it as scientist, citizen, student, or parent. Detailing a unique career not limited to his groundbreaking work in physics, Dyson discusses his interest in minimizing loss of life in war, in disarmament, and even in thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies.
Synopsis
Dyson looks at science not just from a scientist's perspective, but with intent to convince the nonscientist of his sincerity and integrity. Dyson's lyrical prose flows like fine literature as he shares the excitement of discovery, potentials for the future, and the innermost depths and goals of his own heart.
Synopsis
"Disturbing the Universe is a passionate testament, one of the most remarkable self-portraits of a scientist that have ever read....
"Though this book is meant primarily for non-scientists, to acquaint them with how a scientist looks at the world, one does not have to read far to realize that this is the witness, not of a scientist representing his class, but of a unique kind of scientist, a man endowed with literary skill, with a rare capacity for humor and for introspection, with a sensitive understanding of the language of the humanist. His rich fantasy life is freely communicated in actual dreams, narrated with beautiful simplicity, that may reveal the deepest fonts of his being. Imaginative ventures into the possibilities of exploring and colonizing the universe are interspersed with vignettes of the major physicists of our time, demonstrating once again the truth of the Pascalian reflection that only the great can truly appreciate their peers." -- Frank E. Manuel, The New Republic
Synopsis
The autobiography of one of the world's greatest scientists
Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has composed an autobiography unlike any other. Dyson evocatively conveys the thrill of a deep engagement with the world-be it as scientist, citizen, student, or parent. Detailing a unique career not limited to his groundbreaking work in physics, Dyson discusses his interest in minimizing loss of life in war, in disarmament, and even in thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies.
Synopsis
The classic intellectual autobiography of a great theoretical physicist
About the Author
Freeman Dyson is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is the author of seven books and the recipient of numerous awards including a National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.