Cranks, Quarks, And The Cosmos

by Jeremy Bernstein

Essays discuss how the early work of Einstein, a then-unknown patent office clerk, could be told from the work of a crank, the life of Sophia Kovalevsky, the foremost woman mathematician of the nineteenth century, and other scientific subjects

Genres: Science, Physics, History, Astronomy

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are essays reprinted from the New Yorker, or at least largely based on articles for the New Yorker. Bernstein is a decent writer, and I would check out his column monthly if I read that magazine. However, I probably wouldn't read every month, just when his subject already interested me.

These pieces attempt to mix human interest and hard science. In the attempt to simply the hard science for the lay reader, much is lost. The human interest items are Bedazzled on like rhinestones on a lab coat.

All that said, I really did enjoy the chapter on Tom Lehrer. I think Bernstein shines when covering people he actually interviewed, rather than researching and rehashing other people's biographies and autobiographies (see the chapters on Einstein and the quantum physicists).

I'd recommend this book, but glance through the table of contents before you start, and skip the chapters which don't appeal to you. Then put the book on the shelf and come back to it in 5 years when your interests have changed.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recopilación de ensayos, algunos de ellos biográficos, con la ciencia como telón de fondo. JB no es un gran historiador de la ciencia, ni siquiera es un gran escritor. Sin embargo, algunas de las historias que cuenta, como las muestras de precocidad de los grandes matemáticos, salvan en general el libro,. No es de los mejores pero trae un montón de cosas interesantes que aprender. Ya es algo.

[Gibreel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the most intensive books I've ever read. I like to highlight that what you do inside a book has a lot to do with how you live the book, so if your a geek or some type of math freak then look up this book to highlight your library.