07/29/2024
German mathematician Emmy Noether (1882–1935) deserves to be remembered alongside Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger for her contributions to physics, according to this persuasive study. Journalist Phillips (Practical Julia) explains that Noether published a groundbreaking 1918 paper that elevated the law of energy conservation “from semi-empirical observation to a mathematical truth” and proved that Isaac Newton’s laws of physics remain constant regardless of location and time. It’s hard to overstate the significance of these findings, Phillips argues, chronicling how they were combined with quantum mechanics to form the standard model of physics in the mid-20th century and how Noether’s correspondence with Albert Einstein helped the latter fill a gap in his theory of general relativity. Examining why Noether has received little credit for her work, Phillips suggests that while prejudice is partly to blame (Nazis forced her out of her academic appointment at the University of Göttingen in 1933 for being Jewish and a woman), Noether was uninterested in promoting her accomplishments, and frequently gifted unpublished work to colleagues and students to put out under their own names. Phillips makes a strong case that Noether is the most important mathematician most people have never heard of, though his valiant efforts to present her breakthroughs in accessible terms can still be tough going. Nonetheless, this gives an overlooked innovator her due. Agent: Susan Rabiner, Susan Rabiner Literary. (Sept.)
In the first full-length biography of yet another hidden figure of science, Einstein's Tutor paints a moving portrait of the German-Jewish mathematician Emmy Noether, a woman of ‘infinite generosity [and] unstoppable optimism’—a woman who was also, as Phillips makes the case, one of the three most ingenious minds in the history of science, fully the equal of Albert Einstein and the brilliant mathematician David Hilbert. Phillips recounts the fascinating story of how Noether resolved a conundrum that Einstein created in his general theory of relativity—one that the great man himself could not unravel. Her work, known as Noether’s theorem, allowed modern science to rethink the entire framework of theoretical physics and build the modern standard model of the universe. It’s a tender story and a vital key to the yet-unfinished story of women taking their rightful places in the world of science.” —Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, author of Nobel Prize Women in Science
“Emmy Noether has been recognized by many researchers as one of the most creative and important figures in the history of mathematics. Yet, as the New York Times once wrote, few can match Noether ‘in the depths of her perverse and unmerited obscurity.’ In this valuable book, Philips takes it upon himself to counter this chronic neglect. He successfully weaves Noether’s fascinating life story with her mathematics, along the way explaining how her celebrated theorem is nothing short of a backbone of modern physics.” —Mario Livio, astrophysicist, author of Is Earth Exceptional?
“[A] persuasive study…this gives an overlooked innovator her due.” —Publishers Weekly
"[Phillips] captures the invigorating atmosphere of mathematics surrounding Noether in her time."—Wall Street Journal
08/01/2024
Phillips, a former research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, spotlights a brilliant German mathematician from the early 20th century: Emmy Noether, who made significant contributions to abstract algebra. Rather than being a straight biography, the book showcases Noether's ideas and accomplishments, while also devoting attention to the obstacles she experienced due to her gender and later, in Nazi Germany, her Jewish heritage. Phillips also details the scientists whose work Noether influenced, including Albert Einstein; Noether is credited with giving him the basis to develop his theory of relativity. Phillips describes Noether's Theorem—connected to physicists, laws of nature, and symmetries—as a "theory-construction kit" that undergirds research in physics and mathematics, and he offers concrete examples using familiar objects, but readers without math expertise may find this concept and section challenging to fully comprehend. With that said, however, the book is still successful in explaining why Noether's research remains important today. VERDICT An intriguing title capturing the work of a brilliant mathematician who excelled despite obstacles she experienced simply because she was a woman. Best for students of physics, math, and gender studies.—Caren Nichter
2024-06-11
An overlooked scientist gets her due.
In his debut book, Phillips celebrates a German Jewish mathematician whose groundbreaking eponymous theorem was “one of the, if notthe, single most important result in theoretical physics.” Emmy Noether (1882-1935) grew up in an era of German history when women had few rights. The daughter of a mathematician, she audited courses at “the [world’s] center of mathematics,” Göttingen University, and then at the University of Erlangen. She earned a doctorate in 1907. Unable to secure an academic position, however, she worked as her father’s unpaid assistant, even teaching his classes while publishing her own research, becoming an “expert in something called thetheory of differential invariants.” Throughout the book, the author delves deeply into the insular world of mathematics. After Noether returned to Göttingen, Einstein arrived. He benefited from brilliant colleagues, including Noether, even though, Phillips notes, they may not have met. He did express gratitude for her “tutelage” in correspondence. In fact, Noether often assisted others without any interest in credit. She “was a mathematician’s mathematician, believing that mathematics should be enjoyed for its own sake, without any thought of application,” and her elegant 1918 paper “reached a new understanding of the beauty and harmony found in nature” and had “important implications forcosmology.” In 1922, writes the author, “the Minister of Science, Art and Public Education…promoted her to the lowest professorial rank.” After Noether was purged by the ascendant Nazis, she went to Bryn Mawr, where she worked with graduate students, conducted her own research, and traveled weekly to Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Study to deliver a lecture. Following her death, mathematical societies around the world held memorials. The text is dry and mathematically overwhelming at times, but the author duly highlights Noether’s impressive achievements.
An accessible, fairly workmanlike biography.
