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Einstein's Tutor by
A revelatory story of the woman who made foundational contributions to science and mathematics and persevered in the face of discrimination. Emmy Noether's mathematical genius enabled Einstein to bring his General Theory of Relativity-the basis of our current theory of gravity-to fruition. On a larger scale, what came to be known as "Noether's Theorem"--called by a Nobel laureate "the single most profound result in all of physics"--supplied the basis for the most accurate theory in the history of physics, the Standard Model, which forms our modern theory of matter. Noether's life story is equally important and revelatory in understanding the pernicious nature of sexual prejudice in the sciences, revealing the shocking discrimination against one of the true intellectual giants of the twentieth century, a woman effectively excluded from the opportunities given to her male counterparts. Noether's personality and optimistic spirit, as Lee Phillips reveals, enabled her unique genius to persevere and arrive at insights that still astonish those who encounter them a century later.
Molecular Storms by
"Following in the footsteps of Stephen Hawking's 'A brief history of time' and Simon Singh's 'Fermat's Last Theorem' this exceptionally accessible book will you leave marveling at the wonders of the world and, if you didn't listen to your science teachers, wishing you had. Graham writes with the mind of a physicist and the soul of a poet." Nicki Hayes, CCO, The Communications Practice, author of First Aid for Feelings. "Only a few writers have managed to turn the highly technical jargon of science into language accessible for interested lay readers. Isaac Asimov showed us how it could be done, and Carl Zimmer and Brian Greene are continuing today. In Molecular Storms, his first book, Liam Graham has shown that he has the essential quality required to join this group, a love of first learning then explaining how the universe works." David Deamer, Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz,author of Assembling Life. Why is the universe the way it is? Wherever we look, we find ordered structures: from stars to planets to living cells. This book shows that the same driving force is behind structure everywhere: the incessant random motion of the components of matter. Physicists call it thermal noise. Let's call it the molecular storm. This storm drives the fusion reactions that make stars shine. It drives whirlpools and currents in atmospheres and oceans. It spins and distorts molecules until they are in the right orientation to react and form new substances. In living cells, it drives proteins to fold and molecules to self-assemble. It is behind every detail of the astonishing molecular machines that control cellular processes. Using cutting-edge research, "Molecular Storms" takes us on a dazzling journey from the early universe to the interior of the smallest living things. There, in a nanoscale world of biological devices, it explains the physics behind the chemical system which we call Life. Whether you're someone with a general interest in science or a student looking to add context to your studies, this book is for you. "Molecular Storms" is an accessible and captivating read that will deepen your appreciation of the power of science to explain the world.
The Many Voices of Modern Physics by
The Many Voices of Modern Physics follows a revolution that began in 1905 when Albert Einstein published papers on special relativity and quantum theory. Unlike Newtonian physics, this new physics often departs wildly from common sense, a radical divorce that presents a unique communicative challenge to physicists when writing for other physicists or for the general public, and to journalists and popular science writers as well. In their two long careers, Joseph Harmon and the late Alan Gross have explored how scientists communicate with each other and with the general public. Here, they focus not on the history of modern physics but on its communication. In their survey of physics communications and related persuasive practices, they move from peak to peak of scientific achievement, recalling how physicists use the communicative tools available--in particular, thought experiments, analogies, visuals, and equations--to convince others that what they say is not only true but significant, that it must be incorporated into the body of scientific and general knowledge. Each chapter includes a chorus of voices, from the many celebrated physicists who devoted considerable time and ingenuity to communicating their discoveries, to the science journalists who made those discoveries accessible to the public, and even to philosophers, sociologists, historians, an opera composer, and a patent lawyer. With their final collaboration, Harmon and Gross offer a tribute to the communicative practices of the physicists who convinced their peers and the general public that the universe is a far more bizarre and interesting place than their nineteenth-century predecessors imagined.
The Odd Quantum by
An acclaimed physicist's accessible yet rigorous introduction to quantum mechanics for nonspecialists This is a rare and much-needed book: a concise but comprehensive account of quantum mechanics for popular science readers written by a respected physicist. Sam Treiman--who was internationally renowned for his work in particle physics--makes quantum mechanics accessible to nonspecialists. Combining mastery of the material with clear, elegant prose and infectious enthusiasm, he conveys the substance, methods, and profound oddities of the field. Treiman begins with an overview of quantum mechanics. He sketches the early development of the field by Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and others, and he makes clear how the quantum outlook flies in the face of common sense. As he explains, the quantum world is intrinsically probabilistic. For example, a particle is not in general in some particular place at a given instant, nor does it have a definite momentum. According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, there is a limit to how well both location and momentum can be specified simultaneously. In addition, particles can move through barriers and otherwise move in regions of space that are forbidden by classical mechanics. If a particle has a choice of different paths, it pursues all of them at once. Particles display wave-like characteristics and waves show particle-like characteristics. Treiman pays special attention to the more fundamental wave outlook and its expression in quantum field theory. He deals here with the remarkable fact that all the particles of a given species are strictly identical, and with the unnerving fact that particles can be created and destroyed. As Treiman introduces us to these and other wonders, he also touches--without resolution--on some of the deep philosophical problems of quantum mechanics, notably how probabilities become facts. Weaving together impeccable science, engaging writing, and a talent for clear explanation honed over Treiman's distinguished career as a physicist and teacher, The Odd Quantum is a remarkable survey of a field that changed the course of modern scientific and philosophical thought.
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics is a comprehensive, well-organized and engaging text covering every major area of modern astrophysics, from the solar system and stellar astronomy to galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, and cosmology. Designed to provide students with a working knowledge of modern astrophysics, this textbook is suitable for astronomy and physics majors who have had a first-year introductory physics course with calculus. Featuring a brief summary of the main scientific discoveries that have led to our current understanding of the universe; worked examples to facilitate the understanding of the concepts presented in the book; end-of-chapter problems to practice the skills acquired; and computational exercises to numerically model astronomical systems, the second edition of An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics is the go-to textbook for learning the core astrophysics curriculum as well as the many advances in the field.
Molecular World by
A compelling and innovative account that reshapes our view of nineteenth-century chemistry, explaining a critical period in chemistry's quest to understand and manipulate organic nature. According to existing histories, theory drove chemistry's remarkable nineteenth-century development. In Molecular World, Catherine M. Jackson shows instead how novel experimental approaches combined with what she calls "laboratory reasoning" enabled chemists to bridge wet chemistry and abstract concepts and, in so doing, create the molecular world. Jackson introduces a series of practice-based breakthroughs that include chemistry's move into lampworked glassware, the field's turn to synthesis and subsequent struggles to characterize and differentiate the products of synthesis, and the gradual development of institutional chemical laboratories, an advance accelerated by synthesis and the dangers it introduced. Jackson's historical reassessment emerges from the investigation of alkaloids by German chemists Justus Liebig, August Wilhelm Hofmann, and Albert Ladenburg. Stymied in his own research, Liebig steered his student Hofmann into pioneering synthesis as a new investigative method. Hofmann's practice-based laboratory reasoning produced a major theoretical advance, but he failed to make alkaloids. That landmark fell to Ladenburg, who turned to cutting-edge theory only after his successful synthesis. In telling the story of these scientists and their peers, Jackson reveals organic synthesis as the ground chemists stood upon to forge a new relationship between experiment and theory-with far-reaching consequences for chemistry as a discipline.
Structural Chemistry Across the Periodic Table by
This book is an expanded and updated version of Part III of the authors' previous work, Advanced Structural Inorganic Chemistry (OUP 2008). The original part deals with main-group elements, the rare-earth elements, transition-metal clusters, and supramolecular systems. In this new book, selected material from significant advances in the past decade has been added, with particular emphasis on compounds that exemplify new types of bonds such as sigma-hole, triel bond, tetrel bond, pnictogen bond, chalcogen bond, halogen bond, halogen-halogen interaction, aerogen bond, as well as quintuple and sextuple metal-metal bonds. Other new topics include actinide compounds, metallophilicity, heterometallic macrocycles and cages, com- and dis-proportionation reactions, hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs), halogen-bonded organic frameworks, halogen-halogen interactions in supramolecular frameworks, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
1924-1927: the Dawning of Quantum Mechanics by
In June of 1925, almost a hundred years ago, Werner Heisenberg spent ten days on the island of Heligoland - thanks to his hayfever. This respite afforded him the time to write an article that would mark the beginning of the history of modern quantum theory. Two years later, in October of 1927, the fifth Solvay Conference, arguably the most famous gathering in the history of physics, took place in Brussels, bringing the riveting story of the origins of quantum mechanics to a close. During this crucial and relatively short period between 1925 and 1927, eight physicists from five countries developed a theory that would radically change the physical understanding of our world and would become the basis for almost all advanced technologies: transistors, lasers, light-emitting diodes, medical imaging, the electron microscope and much more. The reader will travel through time from September 1924 to October 1927 and learn by way of monthly entries how quantum mechanics came into being, what the people involved experienced and thought in the context of the time they lived in, and how a unified whole slowly emerged from the interactions of these individuals. The book is aimed at laypeople who are fascinated by quantum mechanics and its history. They will learn that this theory, like Anita Berber, jazz or the invention of television, is a characteristic child of the 1920s.