ESSAYS BY PHILIP MORRISON-Astronomy/Physics/Nuclear War/History/SETI/ NEW/HB/DJ

Description: Description: Wonderful essays on physics and politics by one of the great physicists and teachers of the late 20th century—and a regular contributor to Scientific American. From the book publisher’s blurbs: “There are very few with Philip Morrison's gifts, few who can lead us with firm knowledge whispering just the right encouragement as he guides us across the great ideas of science. Take this journey with one of the most astute navigators and you'll find yourself compelled to go deeper into some of the most daring adventures of modern science. Start when "the day was calm and the scene was lonely...no flies buzzed; nothing at all hopped or crawled along the water's edge. No birds flew; no fish swam in the sea; no clawed creatures scuttled below the tidal waters. The rocky lands inward from the sea were utterly barren of life." So begins our walk with Morrison at our side as life starts to breathe on Earth. And then further back still to the formation of the continents, to creation itself. Nothing is too grand or seemingly too trivial—the nature of time, the fabric of the atom, what it means to explore scientific horizons, the galaxies, even the search for unknown intelligence in the vast as-yet-uncharted universe. Then as deftly as Morrison takes us on a dazzling tour of the stars, he gently settles down for an intimate stop in the nursery where children have their first encounters with the things of everyday life, everyday things that cause us to wonder and make for discovery. With an equally firm grasp, Morrison, who witnessed the first tests of the atom bomb, takes us unflinchingly through some of the most frightening terrain of modern times, where the arms race can cause our ultimate destruction, but where sanity can still bring us peace. This extraordinary collection of essays by one of the most profound commentators on the successes and failures of the scientific enterprize concludes with lively portraits of men of science—Neils Bohr, Richard Feynman, Charles Babbage, among other notable friends and heroes.” CHAPTER TITLES INCLUDE: SOMETHING PERSONAL: Radio Days; Engineers in Kindergarten? THEORIES LARGE AND SMALL: Searching for Our Ancestors;The Wonder of Time; The Fabric of the Atom; Why Man Explores; Two Dials; Science and the Nation; On the Causes of Wonderful Things; The Simulation of Intelligence; The Actuary of Our Species; Cause, Chance and Creation; On Broken Symmetries; Looking at the World ASTRONOMY SHINES OUT What Is Astronomy? The Explosive Core; Is M82 Really Exploding? A Whisper from Space SEARCHING FOR INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATION Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man; Twenty Years After Life in the Universe; A Talk with Philip Morrison; The Search for Extraterrestrial Communications ON LEARNING AND TEACHING: Less May Be More; Ice that Sinks; The New General Physics; The Full and Open Classroom; Primary Science: Symbol or Substance? Knowing Where You Are WAR AND PEACE IN THE AGE OF URANIUM:If the Bomb Gets Out of Hand; Physics of the Bomb; Accidents with Atomic Weapon;s Caught Between Asymptotes; The Spiral of Peril; Insecurity Through Technical Prowess; Nationalism, Science, and Individual Responsibility FRIENDS AND HEROES:Bruno Rossi;Robert Noyce and the First Chip; Niels Bohr: A Glimpse of the Other Side; Richard Feynman: An Old Friend; The Exploratorium: Frank and Jackie Oppenheimer; Heaven and Earth One Substance: Bernard Peters and the Heavy Primaries; Charles Babbage: Far Ahead of His Time with Emily Morrison Sources and Acknowledgments; Index; About the Author About the Author: Andrew Robinson Philip Morrison was born on November 7, 1915, in Somerville, New Jersey. Stricken with polio as a child, a disease that left him partly handicapped, he started tinkering with machinery and was building radios by age 5. He grew up in Pittsburgh and attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon) and then the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained a Ph.D. in physics. In 1945, Morrison was among the scientists of the Manhattan Project, along with J. Robert Oppenheimer, his former graduate-school teacher, and was witness to the Trinity nuclear testing. He helped assemble the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and was part of a team that toured Japan after the country's surrender ended World War II. Following the war, Morrison became a forceful advocate of international arms control, helping to found the Federation of American Scientists, writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, appearing at meetings and signing statements opposing militarism. His views on disarmament led him to be labeled a communist sympathizer, and he was called to testify before the U.S. Senate International Security Subcommittee in 1953. In 1946, Morrison left Los Alamos and jointed Hans Bethe at Cornell, where he became interested in astrophysics and cosmology. During the 1950s, he began to concentrate on theoretical astrophysics, and he and a colleague proposed a search for radio signals emanating from extraterrestrial beings. He moved on to M.I.T. in 1964, where he authored and co-authored several books and studies on arms control. He later became involved in television and film, co-writing and narrating the 1977 film "Powers of Ten," which was later turned into a book, and hosting a six-part PBS miniseries called "The Ring of Truth." Morrison was also a book-review editor for Scientific American magazine. Morrison died April 22, 2005, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from respiratory failure. He was professor emeritus at M.I.T. and is survived by a stepson. 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Price: 14 USD

Location: Riverside, Rhode Island

End Time: 2024-08-31T19:29:47.000Z

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