Physics and Its Fifth Dimension: Society.

by Dietrich Schroeer

This book is designed as a supplement for introductory physics courses or as the main text for courses on science and society. It emphasizes the relevance of physics rather than physics itself, thus permitting the student to face science on his own terms rather than those chosen by scientists.

378 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A frustrating book. The "two cultures" is an interesting topic but once again (similar to CP Snow) I believe they miss what the two cultures are. The book gets off to a rocky start with the authors convoluted definition of the scientific culture. Some of the essays that follow are interesting but some seem like filler or not directly related to the thesis. For instance his example of using x-rays to examine paintings. Interesting but does not seem quite relevant. Also, the date of the book works against it. Obvious areas left out are environmental issues where the two cultures both clash or play off each other in bizarre ways. For instance, missing is a chapter on the elimination of DDT. This along with other environmental themes are totally left out- even though the book was written in the height of the environmental movement. Instead he has several chapters on nuclear weapons and ABM. More serious is his disturbing lack of context... for instance (as seems common amoung the elite) with his insistence on equivalence. For instance he makes a statement that the persecution of science and scientist (specifically with Oppenheimer) is equivalent to what the Soviet union did. This is absurd. He doubles down on odd his odd interpretation by saying how robust science in the Soviet Union is (using as witness, Sputnik). Again, while it is true that Soviet science was fairly advanced, it is a stretch to compare either their accomplishments or the extent of their discoveries in the same class as in the West and make it equivalent. Furthermore, the book dates itself with some more speculative sections (including a chart where oil resources are projected to peak out by 2000). For dramatic effect he also explains how eventually the greater and greater demands for energy will heat up the planet- a problem that he implies is unsolvable. The fact that this is nonsense- that there are many ways of shedding heat (increasing the albedo of the earth by a small amount, building large sunshades to shelter the earth from solar radiation) does not even come up- even though he is talking about several hundred years in the future. A frustrating book about an interesting topic.