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Obsessed by a Dream: The Physicist Rolf Widerøe – a Giant in the History of Accelerators
This biography chronicles the life and achievements of the Norwegian engineer and physicist Rolf Widerøe. Readers who meet him in the pages of this book will wonder why he isn't better known.
Molecular Beams in Physics and Chemistry : From Otto Stern's Pioneering Exploits to Present-Day Feats
This book gives a comprehensive account of both the history and current achievements of molecular beam research. In 1919, Otto Stern launched the revolutionary molecular beam technique. This technique made it possible to send atoms and molecules with well-defined momentum through vacuum and to measure with high accuracy the deflections they underwent when acted upon by transversal forces. These measurements revealed unforeseen quantum properties of nuclei, atoms, and molecules that became the basis for our current understanding of quantum matter. This volume shows that many key areas of modern physics and chemistry owe their beginnings to the seminal molecular beam work of Otto Stern and his school. Written by internationally recognized experts, the contributions in this volume will help experienced researchers and incoming graduate students alike to keep abreast of current developments in molecular beam research as well as to appreciate the history and evolution of this powerful method and the knowledge it reveals.
Melting Hadrons, Boiling Quarks - From Hagedorn Temperature to Ultra-Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions at CERN : With a Tribute to Rolf Hagedorn
Shows how the study of multi-hadron production phenomena in the years after the founding of CERN culminated in Hagedorn's pioneering idea of limiting temperature, leading on to the discovery of the quark-gluon plasma -- announced, in February 2000 at CERN.
Information and its role in nature
Infromation and Its Role in Nature presents an in-depth interdisciplinary discussion of the concept of information and its role in the control of natural processes. After a brief review of classical and quantum information theory, the author addresses numerous central questions, including: Is information reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry? Does the Universe, in its evolution, constantly generate new information? Or are information and information-processing exclusive attributes of living systems, related to the very definition of life? If so, what is the role of information in classical and quantum physics? In what ways does information-processing in the human brain bring about self-consciousness? Accessible to graduate students and professionals from all scientific disciplines, this stimulating book will help to shed light on many controversial issues at the heart of modern science.
Information — Consciousness — Reality : How a New Understanding of the Universe Can Help Answer Age-Old Questions of Existence
This book chronicles the rise of a new scientific paradigm offering novel insights into the age-old enigmas of existence. It is explores a radical paradigm shift uncovering the ontology of reality. It is found to be information-theoretic and participatory, yielding a computational and programmable universe.
Il cielo sopra Roma : I luoghi dell’astronomia = The sky above Rome : The places of astronomy
Astronomy in Rome has always been there, but a little hidden: it was in the palaces, in the churches or, better, above the churches, speculas scattered along a path that few know by now. Intrigued and frightened, the Romans witnessed the burning of Giordano Bruno in a familiar corner of Campo de 'Fiori, but they probably didn't quite understand what guilt he was accused of. They certainly did not think that he was a philosopher and a scientist who had tried to imagine what the world was like.
Foundations of Quantum Theory : From Classical Concepts to Operator Algebras
This book studies the foundations of quantum theory through its relationship to classical physics. This idea goes back to the Copenhagen Interpretation (in the original version due to Bohr and Heisenberg), which the author relates to the mathematical formalism of operator algebras originally created by von Neumann. The book therefore includes comprehensive appendices on functional analysis and C*-algebras, as well as a briefer one on logic, category theory, and topos theory. Matters of foundational as well as mathematical interest that are covered in detail include symmetry (and its "spontaneous" breaking), the measurement problem, the Kochen-Specker, Free Will, and Bell Theorems, the Kadison-Singer conjecture, quantization, indistinguishable particles, the quantum theory of large systems, and quantum logic, the latter in connection with the topos approach to quantum theory.
Fading Foundations : Probability and the Regress Problem
This book addresses the age-old problem of infinite regresses in epistemology. How can we ever come to know something if knowing requires having good reasons, and reasons can only be good if they are backed by good reasons in turn? The problem has puzzled philosophers ever since antiquity, giving rise to what is often called Agrippa's Trilemma. The current volume approaches the old problem in a provocative and thoroughly contemporary way. Taking seriously the idea that good reasons are typically probabilistic in character, it develops and defends a new solution that challenges venerable philosophical intuitions and explains why they were mistakenly held. Key to the new solution is the phenomenon of fading foundations, according to which distant reasons are less important than those that are nearby.
Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
Documenting the extraordinary life of an aspiring woman scientist whose life was filled with adversity. Surviving both World Wars and gender discrimination, Meitner was a pioneer at the forefront of her discipline involving the study of radio-elements and nuclear fission.
La loi de la gravitation universelle Newton, Euler et Laplace : Le cheminement d’une révolution scientifique vers une science normale = The law of universal gravitation Newton, Euler and Laplace : The progress of a scientific revolution towards a normal science
An analysis of Newton's ideas dismisses this hypothesis by the simple fact that the Principia sought to demonstrate the fallacy of earlier approaches. However, Newton suffered a failure in the application of his theory of gravitation to the explanation of the movement of the Moon, failure which marked the development of celestial mechanics throughout the 18th century. Clairaut, d'Alembert and Euler doubted the validity of Newtonian law almost at the same time and their ideas advanced celestial mechanics which reached the state of "normal science" with Laplace's treatise on celestial mechanics, a century after Newton.
Buchi neri nel mio bagno di schiuma : L’enigma di Einstein = Black holes in my bubble bath : Einstein's riddle
Einstein's Enigma, or black holes in my foam bath, tells the story of the theory of gravitation, from its beginnings to the latest developments in astrophysics, focusing on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity and the physics of black holes. Through engaging conversations and diagrams scribbled on paper napkins, the rudiments of relativity, space-time and many aspects of modern physics follow one another. In skits narrated with pedagogical skill and remarkable literary talent, the reader will come across the informal lessons that a cosmopolitan astrophysicist gives to his friend Alfie, a free lance organizer of research projects. Join in the intellectual fun and get excited with sparkling ideas, while with your imagination you enjoy a relaxing soak in this magical tub!
A Century of Ideas : Perspectives from Leading Scientists of the 20th Century
Shortly after its inauguration in 1985 the Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, India, started a series of lectures by Nobel Laureates and other scientists of international renown, usually in Physics and Astronomy, sometimes in Life Sciences and Chemistry. The present collection mostly consists of lectures on frontier topics. The transcript of each lecture is preceded by a short biography of the Nobel Laureate/Scientist in question.
