Across the Frontiers by Werner Heisenberg, Ruth Nanda Anshen (.ePUB)
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Across the Frontiers by Werner Heisenberg, Ruth Nanda Anshen (Essays)
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Overview: A collection of essays by the Nobel Prize winner (for his work in quantum theory), a name of historical importance in the field of nuclear physics. His two previous books in this series, Physics and Philosophy and Physics and Beyond, are still in print.
Heisenberg’s nontechnical writings on physics have always been notable for a strong sense of the history of the subject, and a clear perception of the impact of modern discoveries on time-honored philosophical disputes, and their interrelationships. The essays in the present volume are often concerned with such themes, but their range is wider still. Appreciative assessments of the work of Einstein, Max Planck and Wolfgang Pauli are followed by discussions of the closed structure of scientific theories, the role of abstraction in science, the function of natural laws and the ultimate nature of matter. Beyond this, however, we find sage reflections on the conditions of progress in science, the administration of research and the problems of the modern university; a striking essay on Goethe’s attitude to science; a charming evocation of the city of Munich; and suggestive studies of the parallels and affinities between science, art and religion.
Heisenberg’s belief in science is tempered by the realization that it does not account for everything, and that inevitable limits exist to what it can or should do. This concern for the complementary aspect of human pursuits, the wish to see both sides of the question and to keep them both in view, is the source of Heisenberg’s distinctively humane qualities as a scientist.
Of Heisenberg, Noel Pharr Davis has written: “Every century has its own particular science spokesman. Heisenberg may be to the twentieth what Darwin was to the nineteenth.”
Genre: Non-Fiction > Educational
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