From Alchemy to Quarks: The Study of Physics As a Liberal Art

by Sheldon L. Glashow

A Nobel Laureate who is committed to scientific literacy, Glashow brings his intelligence and vast understanding of the subject to a text geared to liberal arts students. Combining fascinating literary and historical references with a vigorous, whimsical, and often humorous writing style, Glashow traces the evolution of physics and chemistry from ancient to modern times and explains not only what we know about matter and the universe, but how we came to know it, and why it is important.

670 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 1993

About the author

American theoretical physicist who, with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current".

Glashow was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He and Stephen Weinberg were members of the same classes at the Bronx High School of Science, New York City (1950), and Cornell University (1954). Glashow received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1959. He joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1961 and returned to Harvard as a professor of physics in 1967.

He is known for:
Electroweak theory
Georgi–Glashow model
Criticism of Superstring theory