Most Popular Books by Jeremy Bernstein

How-- and how pervasively-- quantum mechanics has entered the general culture is the subject of this book, an engaging, eclectic, and thought-provoking look at the curious, boundlessly fertile intersection of scientific thought and everyday life.

Nuclear Weapons is a history of nuclear weapons. From their initial theoretical development at the start of the twentieth century to the recent tests in North Korea, the author seeks to, at each point in the narrative, describe the basic science of nuclear weaponry. At the same time, he offers accounts and anecdotes of the personalities involved, many of whom he has known firsthand. Dr. Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry.

This succinct book is timely reading for anyone who wishes to understand the maze of science and secrecy at the heart of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Writing for the general reader, Jeremy Bernstein draws on his knowledge as a physicist to elucidate the scientific principles and technical hurdles involved in creating nuclear reactors and bombs.

As a former colleague of Oppenheimer''s, Jeremy Bernstein has written a biographical profile that is both personal and historical, bringing the reader close to the life and workings of an extraordinary and controversial man. Without Oppenheimer''s totally remarkable leadership at Los Alamos, the atomic bomb would not have happened, and World War II would have ended very differently. Bernstein, combining the grace of a New Yorker writer with the insight of a theoretical physicist, draws a fine and fascinating portrait. --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Over the years, Jeremy Bernstein has been in contact with many of the world’s most renowned physicists and other scientists, many of whom were involved in politics, literature, and language. In this diverse collection of essays, he reflects on their work, their personal relationships, their motives, and their contributions. Even for those people he writes about that he did not know personally, he provides important insights into their lives and work, and questions their character, their decisions, and the lives they led. In the first three essays, Professor Bernstein looks at economic theory and how some physicists who developed interesting economic models based on derivatives and hedge funds almost led to the country into bankruptcy. In later essays, he discusses a suspect visit to Poland by the great Heisenberg during the Nazi era, a visit that there is almost nothing written about. Included also are essays on ancient languages and a nuclear weapons program in South Africa that was supposedly dismantled. In one particularly humorous essay, he describes how an ill-conceived manned spaceship to be powered by an atomic bomb was being developed by some of the country’s most powerful intellects. The project never got off the ground. Dipping into these pages is like rummaging around in the mind of a genius who has a potpourri of interests and an abundance of fascinating experiences. Bernstein has not only rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked and played with them. He has sometimes mourned with them and laughed at them. His sharp wit and even sharper analysis make for a fascinating read.

History.

Examines the personality as well as the thought process which led this physicist to his discoveries which have helped shape our understanding of the natural world.

This book updates Bernstein''s original edition of Quantum Profiles with seven added profiles about prolific twentieth century physicists.

From Newton to computer chess, engaging inquiries from and award-winning science writer.

In the early years of its conception, J Robert Oppenheimer spoke of quantum theory as a subject that was ''unlikely to be known to any poet or historian.'' Yet, as Bernstein notes, in just sixty-odd years, one can find at least nine million entries on Google under the rubric ''quantum theory'' — from poets and historians, as well as film critics and Buddhist monks. How did quantum mechanics enter general culture so pervasively?Having studied the subject for over a half-century, Jeremy Bernstein returns in this second edition to enlighten readers with a witty insider''s perspective on the development of quantum theory as well as its loopholes. It is also a scintillating account of the interplay between brilliance and fallibility in humankind, even in the key figures who have shaped common understanding of quantum theory — such eminent figures include Niels Bohr, the Dalai Lama, Tom Stoppard, and most notably, John Bell who made pioneering contributions in quantum physics.At once thought-provoking and intellectual, this semi-autobiographical popular science book is highly recommended for readers with rudimentary knowledge of science history, philosophy, and naturally, physics.

Makes these ideas accessible to a general reader complex concepts of relativity and the stimulated emission of light through the use of mathematics no more difficult than one learns in high school. Written by a noted and successful science writer. Noted science writer Jeremy Bernstein tells the remarkable story of Einstein’s papers and their impact one century ago. Explains the many technological ramifications of ideas which changed our lives in the twentieth century and continue to do so.

Jeremy Bernstein guides readers through high-energy physics from early twentieth-century atomic models to leptons, mesons, quarks, and the newly discovered Higgs boson, drawing them into the excitement of a universe where 80 percent of all matter has never been identified. From molecules to galaxies, the more we discover, the less we seem to know.

From April through December of 1945, ten of Nazi Germany''s greatest nuclear physicists were detained by Allied military and intelligence services in a kind of gilded cage at Farm Hall, an English country manor near Cambridge. The physicists knew the Reich had failed to develop an atomic bomb, and they soon learned, from a BBC radio report on August 6, that the Allies had succeeded in their own efforts to create such a weapon. But what they did not know was that many of their meetings and private conversations were being monitored and recorded by British agents. This book contains the complete collection of transcripts that were made from these secret recordings, providing an unprecedented view of how the German scientists, including two Nobel Laureates, thought and spoke about their roles during the war.

The noted physicist and author retraces the idiosyncratic path that led him to a life in science. 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

This volume explores the physics of cosmology without focusing on the full machinery of general relativity.

Bell Laboratories is one of the world''s leading research centres. Bell scientists have won seven Nobel prizes in, physics, more than any other single institution in the world. In this engrossing book - a blend of popular science, and history -Jeremy Bernstein guides us on a fascinating tour of the labs, introducing us to the men and women who have been responsible for some of the greatest scientific advances of this century, in computers and computation, solid state physics (including the invention and development of the transistor); communications, and in astrophysics.

"One Physicist''s Guide to Nuclear Weapons presents a truly global look at the history, use, and issues surrounding nuclear weapons from the perspective of physicist and writer Jeremy Bernstein. A first-hand witness to the development and science of nuclear weapons, he is in a unique position to highlight the ways in which nuclear weapons work with a writing style that is suitable for lay readers and scientists alike. Bernstein brings the reader on a journey from the Nevada nuclear-testing fields in the 1950s to the present day situations in Iran and North Korea, while delving into the physics and science behind the bomb. With an introduction by Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, this book is a testament to the last 70 years of the nuclear age, affecting every human being on the planet."--Prové de l''editor.

"Nothing in the history of empire is stranger than the creation of British rule in India, when a small European island became master of a subcontinent ranging from the Indian Ocean to the Himalayas. In the late eighteenth century, the person most responsible for this enterprise was Warren Hastings, Britain''s first governor-general of India. In Dawning of the Raj, Jeremy Bernstein brings to life in vivid colors Hastings''s story set against the background of the rise of British power."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book of essays in four parts, was written over a decade and full of surprises for the breadth and variety of its subject matter. The first part is about the foundations of the quantum theory which reflects the author''s many conversations with the late John Bell who persuaded him that there is still no satisfactory interpretation of the theory. The second part deals with nuclear weapons. One of the essays concerns the creation of the modern gas centrifuge which was done by German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. The proliferation of these centrifuges was one of the issues in the spread of nuclear weapons. The third section deals with financial engineering with a profile of Louis Bachelier, the French mathematician who created it at the beginning of the 20th century. The final section deals with the Higgs boson and how it is used for generating mass. It includes a detailed article of how this mechanism works.

A curation of essays penned by Jeremy Bernstein, this book is a treasure trove of personal stories ranging from Bernstein''s expedition to Mount Everest, cherished encounters with the fathers of Quantum Mechanics (Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac and Erwin Schrodinger), to a jovial collaboration with Freeman Dyson on the Orion spaceship project.This essay collection is a door into several pieces of scientific explorations as well as the celebrated life of Jeremy Bernstein, a physicist, professor and phenomenal writer. Readers will enjoy this book as both an autobiography and a popular science reading.

Profiles of famous scientists, from the great sixteenth-century Kepler to the discoverers of the Double Helix, are joined by essays and short fictions in a celebration of the contributions of the scientific enterprise to human experience

"This book is an essay collection, along with short stories, which attempts to explain some scientific ideas. Jeremy Bernstein was a long time staff writer for The New Yorker Magazine as well as a theoretical physicist. He has received several awards for his writing"--

This book is an essay collection, along with short stories, which attempts to explain some scientific ideas.Jeremy Bernstein was a long time staff writer for The New Yorker Magazine as well as a theoretical physicist. He has received several awards for his writing.

A Song for Molly is both a love story and a poetic homage to science. The subjects in this first-person novella range from encounters with Wittgenstein, Einstein and Gödel, to trying to live with a dog named Molly. The science is serious although the tone is whimsical. The spirit of this book can be demonstrated by a conversation between Einstein and his assistant Ernst Straus:'' ''You know Gödel has really gone crazy.'' So I said, ''Well, what worse could he have done?'' ''He voted for Eisenhower.'' ''

''Freeman Dyson has had an extraordinary range of interests, serious activity and influence. This is reflected in the choice of topics in these essays … This book is informative, very entertaining and well up to the high standards attained previously by this author!''Contemporary PhysicsMy friendship with Freeman Dyson goes back over a half century. My first contact with him goes back to the late 1950s, when I was at the Institute for Advanced Study, and then evolved when I was a consultant at General Atomics in La Jolla, California. Freeman was then trying to design a space ship — the Orion — which would be propelled by atomic bombs. When I left the Institute, Freeman and I continued our correspondence and I saved his letters. They are written in an almost calligraphically elegant handwriting. It is hard to see how you could make a mistake in a mathematical computation if you wrote that clearly. The letters show his human side and his enormous range of knowledge.There are then two essays involving the physicist Fritz Houtermans who was an extraordinarily colorful character. There is a brief essay on Einstein''s collaboration with a fraud. There is even an essay on the Titius-Bode law and the new exo-planets. Because of my enduring interest in nuclear weapons, the reader will find essays devoted to that. There is also a bit of fiction at the end.

Professor Bernstein discusses Einstein''s work through the year 1905, focusing on the invention of the special theory of relativity, while Dr. Feinberg traces Einstein''s contributions to the quantum theory from that year to his death in 1955. The second set of papers focuses on the status of chemical research and chemical education in the state of New Jersey. Dr. Hass cites several chemical achievements of the state, and Dr. Bose suggests ways of encouraging the blossoming of chemical talent in the state.

"...heartily recommended as being as fine an example as one can hope to find of expository writing on science. The profiles of the giants of modern science, not to mention the wonderful accounts of earlier titans of physics, certainly make the book a best-buy on the popular science shelf." -NEW SCIENTIST "an eclectic collection of essays...a well written work, as one expect(s) from a writer of Bernsteins caliber; recommended..." -LIBRARY JOURNAL

For sophomore-level courses in modern physics. This comprehensive text provides a clear, correct, and up-to-date introduction and survey of the topics of importance to tomorrow''s engineers and scientists. The presentation includes the description of the history of the topics, to show students how we got to where we are; it stresses the importance of observation and experiment; and it emphasizes numbers, so that students develop a feel for the magnitudes involved and for when different principles become important.