Analogies In Physics And Life: A Scientific Autobiography
by Richard M. Weiner /
2008 / English / PDF
9 MB Download
Analogies play a fundamental role in science. To understand how and
why, at a given moment, a certain analogy was used, one has to know
the specific, historical circumstances under which the new idea was
developed. This historical background is never presented in
scientific articles and quite rarely in books. For the general
reader, the undergraduate or graduate student who learns the
subject for the first time, but also for the practitioner who looks
for inspiration or who wants to understand what his colleague
working in another field does, these historical circumstances can
be fascinating and useful. This book discusses a series of analogy
effects in subatomic physics, the prediction and theory of which
the author has contributed to in the last 50 years. These phenomena
are presented at a level accessible to the non-specialist, without
formulae but with emphasis on the personal and historical
background: memoirs of meetings, discussions and correspondence
with collaborators and colleagues. As such, besides its scientific
aspects, the book constitutes an absorbing witness account of a
holocaust survivor who subsequently illegally crossed the Iron
Curtain to escape communist persecution.
Analogies play a fundamental role in science. To understand how and
why, at a given moment, a certain analogy was used, one has to know
the specific, historical circumstances under which the new idea was
developed. This historical background is never presented in
scientific articles and quite rarely in books. For the general
reader, the undergraduate or graduate student who learns the
subject for the first time, but also for the practitioner who looks
for inspiration or who wants to understand what his colleague
working in another field does, these historical circumstances can
be fascinating and useful. This book discusses a series of analogy
effects in subatomic physics, the prediction and theory of which
the author has contributed to in the last 50 years. These phenomena
are presented at a level accessible to the non-specialist, without
formulae but with emphasis on the personal and historical
background: memoirs of meetings, discussions and correspondence
with collaborators and colleagues. As such, besides its scientific
aspects, the book constitutes an absorbing witness account of a
holocaust survivor who subsequently illegally crossed the Iron
Curtain to escape communist persecution.