To Explain the World by Steven Weinberg

To Explain the World by Steven Weinberg

A masterful commentary on the history of science from the Greeks to modern times, by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg--a thought-provoking and important book by one of the most distinguished scientists and intellectuals of our time.

In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand, or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged. Along the way, Weinberg examines historic clashes and collaborations between science and the competing spheres of religion, technology, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy.

An illuminating exploration of the way we consider and analyze the world around us, To Explain the World is a sweeping, ambitious account of how difficult it was to discover the goals and methods of modern science, and the impact of this discovery on human knowledge and development.

Weinberg, Steven: - Steven Weinberg is a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments at the University of Texas, Austin. His research has covered a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics and cosmology and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics, the National Medal of Science and the Heinemann Prize in Mathematical Physics. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Britain's Royal Society and other academies in the US and abroad. The American Philosophical Society awarded him the Benjamin Franklin medal, with a citation that said he is 'considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today'. His books for physicists include Gravitation and Cosmology, the three-volume work The Quantum Theory of Fields, and most recently, Cosmology. Educated at Cornell University, the University of Copenhagen and Princeton University, he also holds honorary degrees from sixteen other universities. He taught at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University - where he was Higgins Professor of Physics - before moving to Texas in 1982.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780062346650
ISBN 10	0062346652
Title	To Explain the World
Author	Steven Weinberg
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Year published	2015-02-17
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.