A Bouquet of Dyson: and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists PDF
Preview A Bouquet of Dyson: and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists
10762_9789813231924_tp.indd 1 2/1/18 4:19 PM b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM 10762_9789813231924_tp.indd 2 2/1/18 4:19 PM Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A BOUQUET OF DYSON and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists Copyright © 2018 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 978-981-3231-92-4 ISBN 978-981-3238-28-2 (pbk) For any available supplementary material, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10762#t=suppl Desk Editor: Christopher Teo Typeset by Stallion Press Email: [email protected] Printed in Singapore Christopher - 10762 - A Bouquet of Dyson.indd 1 09-01-18 9:34:32 AM I am grateful to Freeman Dyson for giving me permission to publish these letters b3109_FM.indd 5 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM Contents I People 1 1 A Bouquet of Dyson 3 2 The Pope 17 3 A Preprint 33 4 Murray 41 II Chronicles 49 5 Houtermans 51 6 Charlotte 61 7 Einstein and the Fraud 67 8 Pontecorvo 71 III Science 75 9 Three for the Road 77 10 Bode’s Law and the Trappists 85 11 Advanced Quantum Mechanics 89 12 Gian Carlo 103 IV Nuclear Weapons 109 13 An Error 111 14 Round and Round 125 15 Li6 127 16 Is E = mc2? 131 b3109_FM.indd 7 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM viii Contents V Life 135 17 A Trick of Memory 137 18 Checkers 143 19 A Little List 147 20 Anti-Semitism at Harvard 157 21 Twenty One 161 b3109_FM.indd 8 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM A Bouquet of Dyson ix My 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 con- sultant 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. I then pass on to two Italian scientists Enrico Fermi who is very well known and Bruno Pontecorvo who is not and my old boss Gian Carlo Wick. 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. b3109_FM.indd 9 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM
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