Lake Views : This World and the Universe

by Weinberg, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780674035157
• ISBN10: 0674035151
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-15
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Just as Henry David Thoreau "traveled a great deal in Concord," Nobel Prizewinning physicist Steven Weinberg sees much of the world from the window of his study overlooking Lake Austin. In Lake Views Weinberg, considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive today, continues the wide-ranging reflections that have also earned him a reputation as, in the words of New York Times reporter James Glanz, "a powerful writer of prose that can illuminate-and sting."This collection presents Weinbergrs"s views on topics ranging from problems of cosmology to assorted world issues-military, political, and religious. Even as he moves beyond the bounds of science, each essay reflects his experience as a theoretical physicist. And as in the celebrated Facing Up, the essays express a viewpoint that is rationalist, reductionist, realist, and secular. A new introduction precedes each essay, explaining how it came to be written and bringing it up to date where necessary.As an essayist, Weinberg insists on seeing things as they are, without despair and with good humor. Sure to provoke his readers-postmodern cultural critics, enthusiasts for manned space flight or missile defense, economic conservatives, sociologists of science, anti-Zionists, and religious zealots-this book nonetheless offers the pleasure of a sustained encounter with one of the most interesting scientific minds of our time.

Author Biography

Steven Weinberg is Josey Regental Professor of Science and a member of the physics and astronomy departments at the University of Texas, Austin.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Waiting for a Final Theory	p. 1
Can Science Explain Everything? Anything?	p. 6
Peace at Last in the Science Wars	p. 24
The Future of Science, and the Universe	p. 28
Dark Energy	p. 47
How Great Equations Survive	p. 52
On Missile Defense	p. 59
The Growing Nuclear Danger	p. 80
Is the Universe a Computer?	p. 96
Foreword to A Century of Nature	p. 113
Ambling toward Apocalypse	p. 116
What Price Glory?	p. 123
Four Golden Lessons	p. 146
The Wrong Stuff	p. 150
A Turning Point?	p. 168
About Oppenheimer	p. 172
Einstein's Search for Unification	p. 178
Einstein's Mistakes	p. 186
Living in the Multiverse	p. 196
Againsst the Boycott	p. 205
A Deadly Certitude	p. 210
To the Postdocs	p. 218
Science or Spacemen	p. 222
Israel and the Liberals	p. 226
Without God	p. 229
Source	p. 247
Index	p. 251
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.