The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics / Edition 1

by Robert P Crease, Charles C Mann

Overview

The Second Creation is a dramatic—and human—chronicle of scientific investigators at the last frontier of knowledge. Robert Crease and Charles Mann take the reader on a fascinating journey in search of "unification" (a description of how matter behaves that can apply equally to everything) with brilliant scientists such as Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg, and many others. They provide the definitive and highly entertaining story of the development of modern physics, and the human story of the physicists who set out to find the "theory of everything."

The Second Creation tells the story of some of the most talented and idiosyncratic people in the world—many times in their own words. Crease and Mann conducted hundreds of interviews to capture the thinking and the personalities as well as the science. The authors make this complex subject matter clear and absorbing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813521770
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

ROBERT P. CREASE is an associate professor of philosophy at SUNY—Stony Brook. He is writing a history of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

CHARLES C. MANN is an Award-winning science writer and contributing editor of Atlantic Monthly and Science magazine. His most recent book is Noah's Choice.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
I Waves and Particles
II Particles and Fields
Strange Interlude
III The Weak Force
IV The Strong Force
V The Great Synthesis
VI Unification
Afterword: A Note on People and History
Notes 
Index

Editorial Reviews

Without qualification, this is the best account of the phenomenal story of physics in the twentieth century.

coauthor, The God Particle, and winner of the 1994 American Institute of Physics - Dick Teresi

Without qualification, this is the best account of the phenomenal story of physics in the twentieth century.--Dick Teresi "coauthor, The God Particle, and winner of the 1994 American Institute of Physics"

From the Publisher

A journalistic narrative of the scientific quest for a unified field theory of physics, based on interviews with two generations of scientists including Max Planck and Erwin Schrodinger, and covering the early days of Einstein's work through the 1980s. First published in 1986 by Macmillan Publishing Company; this revised edition clarifies many technical points. For general readers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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