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"A wealth of observations on contemporary mathematicians and physicists, from David Hilbert to Richard Feynman."--American Scientist

One of the greatest physicists of the 20th century recounts his journey from Hungary and the Nazi invasion to the creation of the first atomic bomb. ... Read more

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Fascinating scientific autobiography!
This engrossing book offers the reader a behind-the-scenes view of the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic Bomb. It also describes Wigner's later work refining nuclear technology and theorizing on quantum mechanics.Other notable physicists and geniuses of the era--including Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, Paul Dirac, John von Neumann, and Edward Teller (the model for Dr. Strangelove) feature in fascinating anecdotes throughout the book.Von Neumann, Teller, Szilard and Wigner were all from the same Hungarian-Jewish circle in turn-of-the-century Budapest, and Wigner's reverence for the other three was tinged with rivalry - he was the only one of the four to win a Nobel Prize, though a plausible case could be made that the other three were equally deserving. The human-interest side is well described: we hear about how Wigner developed his interest in science and mathematics while confined to a tuberculosis sanitarium as a boy and how he and other Jewish physicists got out of Nazi-controlled Europe to eventually work against Hitler.Because the autobiography is "as told to" memoirist Andrew Szanton, it explains scientific concepts so clearly in lay terms that my nuclear physicist father and I both enjoyed this book equally. I recommend it to anyone interested in science, creativity, WWII history or just looking for an interesting read.

History and Science brought seamlessly together -----
By structuring Eugene Wigner's story in such a readable and flowing format, Andrew Szanton has provided us with a book that takes us back to the early 20th century and parallels many of the European political experiments with the scientific progress of that century.This book provides historical insight as well as traces the qualities of the prominent scientific minds of the time.One is inspired as Eugene Wigner's modest recollections show us a great scientific mind, who was delighted to give his research to the world.It is a great lesson in ethics for all of us, as well as a truly engaging read.As Wigner and Szanton carry us along through the decades, you can feel the camaraderie amongst the great minds in physics and imagine the energy that must have been exchanged during their coffee talks after colloquia presentations.This book is also a wonderful complement to the published works of Richard Feynman.

A towering figure
When Eugene Wigner died a few years ago, we lost another towering figure in twentieth century physics. His contributions are probably equally well remembered by physicists and chemists, especially in the field of spectroscopy, where he published a seminal text on using the theory of discrete groups to analyse data.

But this book of his recollections is not about his scientific papers, per se. Rather, the most interesting sections to many readers will be the times that he lived through, and the other major figures that he knew, like Dirac and Einstein. The book goes through the turbulent and terrible years of the 1930s and 40s. Thus, you can see the development of quantum mechanics and his involvement in it during the 30s. At a time when the key ideas in this subject were rapidly discovered. Then see the development of nuclear fission and the Manhattan Project through his eyes, at the University of Chicago campus during World War 2.

An excellent book for a general audience. ... Read more

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Not only was E.P. Wigner one of the most active creators of 20th century physics, he was also always interested in expressing his opinion in philosophical, political or sociological matters. This volume of his collected works covers a wide selection of his essays about science and society, about himself and his colleagues. Annotated by J. Mehra, this volume will become an important source of reference for historians of science, and it will be pleasant reading for every physicist interested in forming ideas in modern physics. ... Read more

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This volume contains some of Professor Wigner's more popular papers, which, in their diversity of subject and clarity of style, reflect the author's deep analytical powers and the remarkable scope of his interests. Included are articles on the nature of physical symmetry, invariance and conservation principles, the structure of solid bodies and of the compound nucleus, the theory of nuclear fission, the effects of radiation on solids, and epistemological problems of quantum mechanics. Other articles deal with the story of the first man-made nuclear chain reaction, the long-term prospects of nuclear energy, the problems of Big Science, and the role of mathematics in the natural sciences. In addition, the book contains statements of Wigner's convictions and beliefs, as well as memoirs of his friends, Enrico Fermi and John von Neumann. ... Read more

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Why we can discover laws of nature
Although simply written, this is not a book for beginers. On the other hand it doesn't hurt to read it early and think about it for a long time, rereading it from time to time, in order finally to get the main point. Wigner points out that the basis for answering the question posed by him, 'Why is it possible to discover laws of nature?' is explained in every elementary physics text but the point is too subtle, is therefore lost on nearly every reader. The answer, he explains convincingly, lies in invariance principles. As an example, were local Galilean invariance not true it would have been impossible for Galileo to have discovered any law of motion at all. The same holds for local translational, rotational and time-translational invariance. Inherent in Wigner's argument is the explanation why the so-called principle of general covariance is not the foundation of general relativity, which also is grounded in the local invariance principles of special relativity.

Contrast this with the nonsense propagated in the first chapter of Samuelson's well-sold Economics text, where he asserts on the basis of a hokey picture that the difference between physics and the social sciences is not as great as it seems. In fact, there are no known invariance principles in the socio-economic sciences, and no corresponding laws of socio-economic motion (motion of money, e.g.). At best, there are intelligent gambling strategies like the equations for predicting option pricing, but these depend on market statistics that can change from one era to the next. Nor is it guaranteed that options traders will forever favor the dalta-hadging strategy and it's refinements. The last word: mathematical modelling and computer simulations are a completely different cat than approximate predictions based on laws of nature, like the laws of physics and genetics. The fact that we cannot yet (if ever) solve the Navier-Stokes equations for turbulence, which are grounded in local invariance principles and physical law, has nothing to do with our general inability to model human behavior mathematically. ... Read more

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This 1984 book brings together 48 studies and essays written by physicists from around the world to mark the 90th birthday of Louis de Broglie and the 80th birthdays of Paul Dirac and Eugene Wigner. Publication under one cover of studies based on the discoveries of scientific personalities as diverse as those to whom this volume is dedicated serves at least one important purpose: it concretely reflects the rival pathways in quantum physics at the time of this book's publication. From one perspective, the papers contrast the strategies of a champion of the mathematical approach (Wigner) with those of a thinker who relied on physical intuition (de Broglie). From another, they compare the views of a defender (Wigner) and and opponent of the Copenhagen school (de Broglie), as well as those of an individual who helped to reconstruct the prevailing quantal paradigm, only later to advocate a return to causality (Dirac). ... Read more

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In this memorial volume, twenty-four of Dirac's closest friends, colleagues and contemporaries remember him with affection.Dirac, who died in 1984, was unquestionably one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century.The book describes his human side, with many anecdotes about the man with a reputation for silence.His immense influence on modern physics is surveyed in chapters written by eminent scientists.Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933 at the age of thiry-one.His tremendous contributions to the field included his prediction of the magnetic moment and antiparticles as well as the spin of the electron.His formulations of the quantum field theory, statistics of particles and fields, his work on gravitational waves, and his prediction of magnetic monopoles stand as monuments to his originality and deep understanding of natural phenomena.This book will appeal to anyone interested in the development of quantum theory or in Paul Dirac. ... Read more

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Among the founding fathers of modern quantum physics few have contributed to our basic understanding of its concepts as much as E.P. Wigner. His articles on the epistemology of quantum mechanics and the measurement problem, and the basic role of symmetries were of fundamental importance for all subsequent work. He was also the first to discuss the concept of consciousness from the point of view of modern physics. G.G. Emch edited most of those papers and wrote a very helpful introduction into Wigner's contributions to Natural Philosophy. The book should be a gem for all those interested in the history and philosophy of science. ... Read more

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The first part of this third volume of Wigner's Collected Works is devoted to his analysis of symmetries in quantum mechanics, of the relativistic wave equations, of relativistic particle theory, and of field theory. It is introduced by the masterly annotation of Arthur S. Wightman. Abner Shimony annotates the second part where the reader will find Wigner's contributions to the foundations of quantum physics and to the problems of measurement. ... Read more

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A compilation of previously unpublished lectures delivered at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics by the pioneers and creators of modern physics --Bethe, Dirac, Heisenberg, Wigner, Klein and Landau (the sixth delivered by E Lifshitz). By sharing with us their own lives of physics, these outstanding physicists convey the sense of total dedication, the pleasure and elegance of scientific creation at its peak. Readers would acquire a deeper sense of the scope and nature of physics, and the insights of its fascinating diverse disciplines as the developments of modern physics are being unfolded through history.

Contents: Foreword: Twenty-One Years After (Abdus Salam); Energy on Earth and in the Stars (H A Bethe); Methods in Theoretical Physics (P A M Dirac); Theory, Criticism and a Philosophy (W Heisenberg); The Scientist and Society (E P Wigner); From My Life of Physics (O Klein); Landau Great Scientist and Teacher (tribute by E M Lifshitz). ... Read more

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Meet the Heros
This is a collection of lectures (I suppose in 1968) by those authoritieswho actually created the physic as we know it today. Very much accessibleand provides a rare chance to look into the minds of the giants. Tointroduce some of them:

Hans Bethe. A teacher, collaborator, and goodfriend of R.P. Feynman. Participated in the Manhattan Project and helpedcreate the bomb. The man who first realized what fuels the sun. Got hisNobel Prize for this realization (1967, thermonuclear processes).

P.A.M.Dirac. Created relativistic quantum mechanics and so-called the"symbolic formulation" of quantum mechanics (the bra-ketnotation). His theory formed a basis for later developments of quantumelectrodynamics (QED). More of a mathematician. Had a very deep faith inmathematics. Seldom talked in public.

Werner Heisenberg. Father of _the_quantum machanics. His formulation parallels Erwin Schrodinger's in that,though they used different mathematical languages, they described the samething. Heisenberg's so-called "matrix formulation" was madepossible by his great collaborators, i.e., Jordan, Born and Bohr. He was inthe German camp when the major forces concentrated their powers indeveloping the A-bomb. Heisenberg had thought an A-bomb was a theoreticalimpossibility. Philosophically, he was forever a disciple of Niels Bohr.With Bohr, he was the guru of an orthodox interpretation of quantummechanics, known as the Copenhagen Interpretation.

Eugene Wigner. Amathematician who won a Nobel prize in physics. A classmate of J. von.Neumann. He had a kind and gentle personality (quite rare among famousphysicists). Wigner was the man who gave a Ph.D. to E. Jaynes, who wasdoing research on QED under Oppenheimer and had some difficulties inaccepting quantum mechanics. Wigner, too, had troubles with the CopenhagenInterpretation and presented a unique interpretation that takesconsciousness into account. To most of us, known by his 3-j symbol.

Toobad that Landau (a god figure in condensed matter physics) was not there toshare his insights. ... Read more

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The Wigner symposia gather forefront researchers in the manybranches of mathematical physics initiated or influenced by the workof Eugene P Wigner, who died this year. It is a group-theoretic viewof Nature encompassing particle, nuclear and molecular physics,quantum optics, random matrices, and the study of groups themselves. ... Read more

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Eugene Wigner is one of the very few scientists that may safely be described as creators of 20th-century physics. This volume of his Collected Works is devoted to his contributions to nuclear energy. In his Introduction and Annotations A.M. Weinberg surveys Wigner's contributions to nuclear-reaction physics and nuclear engineering, at the same time giving a glimpse of the early history of nuclear-reactor technology. Wigner himself gave a lively and critical account, which is published in this volume for the first time. Furthermore the book contains forty-two reports and memoranda from 1941 to 1945 and twelve of Wigner's many patents relating to nuclear energy. ... Read more

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Chapters: Eugene Wigner, Hyman G. Rickover, High Flux Isotope Reactor, Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment, Alvin M. Weinberg, Clifford Shull, National Center for Computational Sciences, Spallation Neutron Source, X-10 Graphite Reactor, Ward Plummer, National Institute for Computational Sciences, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Arpad Vass, Herbert York, John H. Gibbons, Karl Z. Morgan, Manson Benedict, National Leadership Computing Facility, Jack Dongarra, Eugene Guth, Alston Scott Householder, Atomic Trades and Labor Council, Thomas Zacharia, Sheldon Datz, Fission Product Pilot Plant, Stone Soupercomputer, Oracle, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, National Transportation Research Center, Ut-battelle. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 158. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Hyman George Rickover (January 27, 1900 July 8, 1986), was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades. Rickover was known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", which as of July 2007 had produced 200 nuclear-powered submarines, and 23 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and cruisers, though many of these U.S. vessels are now decommissioned and others under construction. With his unique personality, political connections, responsibilities, and depth of knowledge regarding naval nuclear propulsion, Rickover became the longest-serving naval officer in U.S. history with 63 years active duty. Rickover's substantial legacy of technical achievements includes the United States Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents, as defined by the uncontrolled release of fission products subsequent to reactor core damage. Hyman Rickover was born to Abraham Rickover and Rachel (née Unger) Rickover, a J...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=42345 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Wernher Von Braun, Albert Speer, Eugene Wigner, Konrad Zuse, Fritz Haber, Alfred Stieglitz, Ursula Franklin, Arthur Rudolph, Ida Noddack, Erich Schumann, Ion Gigurtu, Fritz Houtermans, Wojciech Korfanty, Edward Lasker, Dennis Gabor, Henri Coandă, Hugo Junkers, Georg Von Arco, Walter Kaufmann, Adolf Slaby, Georg Hans Madelung, Kurt Tank, Carl Bosch, Johan Koren Christie, Rudolf Mössbauer, Werner Hosewinckel Christie, Johannes Mayer, Krafft Arnold Ehricke, Heinz-Hermann Koelle, Wolfgang Paul, Paul Rosbaud, Hans-Paul Schwefel, Hans Klein, Ernst Steinitz, Ernst Herzfeld, Max Cetto, Fritz Gosslau, Christian Fürst, Philipp Mißfelder, Klaus Riedel, Ingo Rechenberg, Harald Uhlig, Max Berg, Wilhelm Nusselt. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 June 16, 1977) was a German-American rocket scientist, astronautics engineer and space architect, becoming one of the leading figures in the creation of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. He was a member of the Nazi party and a commissioned SS officer. Wernher von Braun was said to be the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century. In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in Germany's pre-war rocket development programme, responsible for the design and realization of the deadly V-2 combat rocket during World War II. After the war, he and some of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the then-secret Operation Paperclip. In 1955, ten years after entering the country, von Braun became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Von Braun worked on the US Army intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated by NASA, under which he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Fl...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=33783 ... Read more

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Chapters: John Von Neumann, Freeman Dyson, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller, Hyman G. Rickover, Glenn T. Seaborg, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Ernest Lawrence, Leon M. Lederman, Martin Kamen, John Archibald Wheeler, Luis Walter Alvarez, Hans Bethe, Rudolf Peierls, Raymond Davis, Jr., Robert R. Wilson, John B. Goodenough, Fritz Strassmann, George Cowan, John N. Bahcall, Ugo Fano, Victor Frederick Weisskopf, Marshall Rosenbluth, Bennett Lewis, Ernest Courant, Herbert York, Siegfried Hecker, Maurice Goldhaber, Richard Garwin, Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, Seth Neddermeyer, Norris Bradbury, Kenneth Alan Ribet, Norman Rasmussen, Sidney Drell, Sheldon Datz. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 281. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: J. Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his role as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons at the secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. For this reason he is remembered as "The Father of the Atomic Bomb". In reference to the Trinity test in New Mexico, where his Los Alamos team first tested the bomb, Oppenheimer famously recalled the Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one." and "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." After the war Oppenheimer was a chief advisor to the newly created United States Atomic Energy Commission and used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power and to avert the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. After provoking the ire of many politicians with his outspoken political ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=39034 ... Read more

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Chapters: Stephen Cole Kleene, Eugene Wigner, Harrison Schmitt, Stanislaw Ulam, Henry Barnard, Harry Harlow, Harvey Littleton, James W. Cannon, Paul Ziff, Paul M. Herzog, Selig Perlman, Wallace Stegner, Miloš Velimirović, Lionel Trilling, Warrington Colescott, Robert W. Mcchesney, George Mosse, Denice Denton, Henry Charles Taylor, Oliver Smithies, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, William Sethares, Harold Cook, Léon Brillouin, Joshua Lederberg, Thomas D. Brock, William Appleman Williams, Susan Pharr, Laura Schwendinger, William Shainline Middleton, Nellie Y. Mckay, William Bleckwenn, Robert J. Havighurst, Alfred W. Mccoy, Mary Lee Hu, Donna Shalala, John R. Commons, David Bordwell, C. Cameron Macauley, Stephen Moulton Babcock, Conrad Elvehjem, Harvey Goldberg, Meredith Gardner, Hans Reese, Elmer Kraemer, Warren Weaver, Keewaydinoquay Peschel, George E. P. Box, Carl R. de Boor, Lorrie Moore, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Ann Althouse, George David Birkhoff, Antony Stretton, Carolyn Martin, Richard T. Ely, Charles F. Manski, Ada Deer, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Samuel A. Stouffer, Doris Dungey, Margaret H'doubler, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Ivan Soll, Geoffrey D. Borman, Catherine D. Deangelis, William Lorenz, Richard Davis, Anoop Chandola, James Henry Taylor, Daryl B. Lund, Richard Davidson, John W. Dower, Edgar Buckingham, Allyn Abbott Young, Arthur B. Chapman, Howard Newby, James Danky, John Fiske, Julius Adler, Mitchell J. Nathan, Lewis Leavitt, Dominic W. Massaro, Farrington Daniels, Jim Propp, Arthur Pardee, Albert H. Taylor, Clark L. Hull, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, James Thomson, John D. Wiley, Charles R. Van Hise, Arthur Peabody, Einar Haugen, Thomas J. Scheff, Arne Skaug, James C. Hickman, Teresa de Lauretis, Balthasar H. Meyer, John W. Ryan, William L. Van Deburg, Ryan G. Van Cleave, James R. Lewis, Lawrence Shapiro, Oswaldo Frota-Pessoa, Howard Martin Temin, Archibald Campbell Jordan, Ernest J. Briskey, Martha Fineman, Joseph Jastrow, Ed...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=839100 ... Read more