George Johnson:Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth- Century Physics
- gebunden oder broschiert 1999, ISBN: 9780679437642
Knopf. Very Good. 6 x 1.25 x 10 inches. Hardcover. 1999. 448 pages. <br>No contemporary scientist has done more to shape o ur understanding of the universe than Murray Gell-Mann, th… Mehr…
Knopf. Very Good. 6 x 1.25 x 10 inches. Hardcover. 1999. 448 pages. <br>No contemporary scientist has done more to shape o ur understanding of the universe than Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel Prize-winner many consider the most brilliant physicist of his g eneration. His discoveries of the quark and the Eightfold Way wer e cornerstones for all that has followed in particle physics, the effort to explain the very stuff of creation. In this first biog raphy of Gell-Mann, George Johnson tells the story of a remarkabl e life. Born on New York's Lower East Side, Gell-Mann was quickl y recognized as a child prodigy. Propelled by an intense boyhood curiosity and a love for nature, he entered Yale at fifteen. By a ge twenty-three he had ignited a revolution, laying bare in his g roundbreaking work the strange beauty of the minute particles tha t constitute the ultimate components of physical reality. Partic le physics is the most competitive of sports, and Johnson shows u s the precocious polymath holding his own with giants like Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Richard Feynman -- Gell-Mann's fa vorite intellectual sparring partner and sometimes antagonistic r ival. We see Gell-Mann the self-taught linguist (who couldn't res ist correcting visitors on the pronunciation of their own names); Gell-Mann the birdwatcher and amateur archaeologist; Gell-Mann t he Aspen socialite, world traveler, and environmental crusader. We watch him making his scientific breakthroughs, his abrasive, c ompetitive drive leaving behind a growing trail of enemies. The e arly death of his first wife and a family crisis sent him veering in new directions. Turning from the physics of simple particles, like quarks, he began exploring how complex phenomena like life can be understood scientifically. George Johnson's informed and insightful biography goes far in helping us understand the comple xities of both the man and the science in which he has loomed so large. Editorial Reviews Review Murray Gell-Mann is a leading light in 20th-century physics, yet his name rings bells only for those interested in particle physics. Science writer Ge orge Johnson was fortunate enough to develop a friendly relations hip with the great scientist, and his biography, Strange Beauty, glows with a rare intimacy gained from a notoriously private and irascible man. From his childhood in New York City to his current scientific elder-statesman status in New Mexico, Johnson explore s Gell-Mann's life in glorious detail. A passionate, jealous, and brilliant man, he was capable of both profound insight and bitte r lifelong rivalries, but Johnson finds there's much more to the man than these two simple poles; Gell-Mann's volatile family life and deft academic maneuvering also find room in this expansive b iography. The reader finds that Johnson's careful attention to d etail shows more than it tells through enlightening stories of Ge ll-Mann's troubled, romantic, or pretentious dealings with peers, family, and even strangers. Explaining his strange surname means investigating old phone books, scientific legend, and family his tory, as the scientist is unwilling to shed light on the mystery (it turns out that his father hyphenated it, and Murray dreamed u p etymologies as needed--giving rise to the tangled web of myths) . Johnson is up to the challenge of recording the life story of a man nearly as strange as the quarks he discovered and named, and Strange Beauty lives up to the promise of its title. --Rob Light ner From Publishers Weekly Up, down, top, bottom, strange and c harm aren't just states of mind: they're kinds of quarks, the min d-bending, omnipresent sub-subatomic particles co-discovered and named in the early 1960s by the American physicist Murray Gell-Ma nn. New York Times science reporter Johnson (Fire in the Mind) ha s written a brisk, accessible life of the Nobel-winning scientist , who will turn 70 next month. Gell-Mann grew up poor in New York City, the son of Eastern European Jews. Still in his teens, he a ttended Yale and MIT, and soon afterward won notice for his work on cosmic rays. Gell-Mann followed up his insights about quarks w ith important work at Caltech and elsewhere on superstrings, supe rgravity and mathematical complexity. His adult life has had its hardships: his daughter gave much of her life to an American Stal inist fringe group, and his wife died of cancer in 1981. (He's si nce remarried.) Johnson makes clear that Gell-Mann's direct, some times arrogant manner could make him difficult to work with; admi red by physicists, he failed to achieve the wider fame of his med ia-friendly colleague, the late Richard Feynman. While Johnson re lates such troubles sympathetically, the story of Gell-Mann's lif e is in large part the story of his and others' researches and di scoveries. Explaining difficult fields like quantum physics, John son uses as many analogies, and as little math, as he can, while trying always to give some picture of what scientific problems Ge ll-Mann and his fellow scientists solved. The result is a careful if colloquial biography, perfect for readers who aren'tAor aren' t yetAworking scientists. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business In formation, Inc. From Publishers Weekly Up, down, top, bottom, st range and charm aren't just states of mind: they're kinds of quar ks, the mind-bending, omnipresent sub-subatomic particles co-disc overed and named in the early 1960s by the American physicist Mur ray Gell-Mann. New York Times science reporter Johnson (Fire in t he Mind) has written a brisk, accessible life of the Nobel-winnin g scientist, who will turn 70 next month. Gell-Mann grew up poor in New York City, the son of Eastern European Jews. Still in his teens, he attended Yale and MIT, and soon afterward won notice fo r his work on cosmic rays. Gell-Mann followed up his insights abo ut quarks with important work at Caltech and elsewhere on superst rings, supergravity and mathematical complexity. His adult life h as had its hardships: his daughter gave much of her life to an Am erican Stalinist fringe group, and his wife died of cancer in 198 1. (He's since remarried.) Johnson makes clear that Gell-Mann's d irect, sometimes arrogant manner could make him difficult to work with; admired by physicists, he failed to achieve the wider fame of his media-friendly colleague, the late Richard Feynman. While Johnson relates such troubles sympathetically, the story of Gell -Mann's life is in large part the story of his and others' resear ches and discoveries. Explaining difficult fields like quantum ph ysics, Johnson uses as many analogies, and as little math, as he can, while trying always to give some picture of what scientific problems Gell-Mann and his fellow scientists solved. The result i s a careful if colloquial biography, perfect for readers who aren 'tAor aren't yetAworking scientists. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal One of the most notable physicists of the Nuclear Age, Murray Gell-Mann worked cl osely with Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynmann, and others to help unl ock the secrets of the subatomic world. In 1969, he received a No bel prize for his work on the interaction of elementary particles and their classification. Now New York Times science writer John son (Fire in the Mind) has written a well-balanced biography of t his renowned scientist's complex life and work. Noting Gell-Mann' s idiosyncrasies, his faults, and his accomplishments, Johnson fo llows his subject through his passions (nature and conservation, art collection, anthropology, ornithology, and linguistics), his struggles with chronic writer's block, and his incredible scienti fic achievements. While it is necessarily dense in parts, this bo ok is free of mathematics and is accessible to the advanced lay r eader. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.AJames Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Scientific American 'Stran ge Beauty' brings together an irresistible subject -- the difficu lt polymath Murray Gell-Mann -- and a talented writer who spins a n enthralling tale out of the kind of esoteric physics that gener ally flies right over our heads. Johnson is one of the best scien ce journalists writing today, known for his books 'Fire in the Mi nd' and 'In the Palaces of Memory' and for incisive reporting in the New York Times. This is his most ambitious project yet -- com municating the fascination of a kind of science that only an elit e of superbright people fully understands. He succeeds brilliantl y. From Kirkus Reviews Part biography, part textbook on quarks a nd other phenomena discovered by one of the great particle physic ists of the twentieth century. Johnson (a New York Times science writer) first introduces us to Murray Gell-Mann in the present da y, as a likable retiree living in Santa Fe. He sets his personal experiences with Gell-Mann against Gell-Mann the legend, cutting colleagues down to size if their viewpoints didn't coincide with his own, or calling them by unpleasant and sarcastic nicknames. G ell-Mann's broad scope of knowledge started in his youth in New Y ork City, where he would visit museums, the zoo, anywhere he coul d learn about the world around him. In school young Murray was al ways eager to show off his knowledge, winning a spelling bee at t he age of seven. At fourteen, he won a scholarship to Yale, movin g from there to MIT, where he reveled in the unsolved problems in physics. It was these problems, theories about particles yet to be discovered, that Gell-Mann would spend his career solving. Joh nson is not afraid to present these theories in great detail, giv ing crystal-clear descriptions of some of the most abstract and c onvoluted ideas in physics. Nor is he afraid to delve into the pe rsonal side of Gell-Mann, including his relationship with his col league Richard Feynman, a friendship at times strained by the fam e that Feynman achieved from his best-selling book of autobiograp hical anecdotes. Gell-Mann wanted to write one, too, but for all his knowledge he was crippled by a lifelong case of writer's bloc k. The limited success of his autobiography once it was finished presumably led to Strange Beauty. A must-read for anyone studying physics or its history, and for others not afraid to swim in the sometimes deep and murky waters of cutting-edge science. -- Copy right ®1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review George Johnson has nailed this biography of the brilliant and ira scible Murray Gell-Mann. Strange Beauty is complex, mind-expandin g, beautiful, and true. -- James Gleick When you have one of the world's most accomplished science writers recounting the life an d times of one of the world's most accomplished scientists, reade rs' expectations are justifiably high. They are fully met. Johnso n gives us an extraordinary view of an extraordinary man, and nav igates through science that ordinarily would seem difficult, with such skill that it is not difficult at all. Strange Beauty is a masterpiece of modern biography. -- Roger Lewin Gell-Mann could not have written such a perceptive book about himself as Johnson has....Reads like a detective novel. Johnson does a wonderful job of describing the competition and cooperation among scientists, the egos and insecurities, the disappointments and triumphs, and the disputes, suspicions and shifting allegiances. -- The New Yor k Times Book Review Skillfully and engagingly written . . . John son paints a convincing portrait of Gell-Mann's personality, whic h is in turn charming, irritating, and generous . . . Johnson cap tures well his subject's inner scientific conflicts. -- Science Few physicists have displayed the poetic inspiration of the Nobel ist Murray Gell-Mann....In this biography he emerges as brilliant and often insufferable, relentlessly curious, hopelessly pedanti c, and one of the best synthetic thinkers in the history of his f ield. The book [offers] a vivid sense of Gell-Mann and his contem poraries (including his collaborator and competitor Richard Feynm an).... --The New Yorker From the Publisher A conversation with George Johnson, author of STRANGE BEAUTY: Murray Gell-Mann and t he Revolution in Twentieth Century Physics Q. Why do you call t he book Strange Beauty? A. When Gell-Mann was in his early 20s, physicists were baffled by cosmic-ray particles, bombarding the earth from outer space, that seemed to defy the known laws of phy sics. Gell-Mann solved the problem by proposing that the particle s were affected by a previously unknown phenomenon that he decide d to call strangeness. The theory, weird name and all, created a sensation. It was the first example of the strange beauty he kept finding in the universe -- mesmerizing patterns that lie beneath the surface of reality. Q. What happened next? A. From there h e went on to discover The Eightfold Way and quarks, always bestow ing his creations with whimsical names. There are top quarks, bot tom quarks, strange quarks, charmed quarks. They're held together by things called gluons. Physics was never again the same. Q. W hat is the Eightfold Way? And where do quarks fit in? A. Before Gell-Mann came onto the scene, there were hundreds of tiny subato mic particles of all shapes and sizes. Gell-Mann saw in a flash o f insight that they could all be arranged into patterns. He saw o rder where there had been confusion. The result was the Eightfold Way. Just as the Periodic Table of the Elements is used to arran ge all the different kinds of atoms, the Eightfold Way is used to arrange all the subatomic particles. A little later, Gell-Mann r ealized that the particles line up this way because they are made of tinier things called quarks. A Nobel prize was around the cor ner. Q. One of the classic rivalries in science is between Gell- Mann and Richard Feynman. Why was there so much friction between these two intellectual giants? A. A favorite pastime of physicis ts was arguing over who was smarter, Dick or Murray. At any unive rsity in the world, each would have been the unquestioned star. B ut at Caltech they were crowded into the same small department, j ust two doors from each other (with the same poor secretary in be tween.) Each was always trying to upstage the other. And they had strikingly different styles. Feynman would speak in an affected Brooklyn drawl and refuse to wear a coat and tie. Murray was as i mpeccable in his dress as he was in his pronunciation -- and not just in English but in dozens of other languages. He's famous for sitting down at Ch, Knopf, 1999, 3<
