Steven Weinberg: A Life in Physics

Steven Weinberg reflects on his life in physics for a broad audience spanning physicists, historians of science, and general readers.

Steven Weinberg (Author)

9781009513470, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 December 2024

264 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.57 kg

'Steven Weinberg's (1933–2021) autobiography will become an invaluable source for future historians of physics and astronomy. His candid memoir of a scintillating life in physics opens with a child's memory of the key books that sparked his innate curiosity about the physical world … Weinberg was polishing his memoirs at the time of his death. Steven's wife, Louise, has organized and edited them to produce this engaging account of his life as a scientist and public intellectual. Many vignettes of his formative encounters with dozens of leading physicists in the mid-20th Century enrich the narrative. Weinberg's talent as a writer of popular science shines through brightly. He offers many good stories… Weinberg is instructive on how one should write history of science in a contemporary style, composed of social contexts, complex conundrums, and conflicting conclusions. Echoing Copernicus (1543), I recommend diligent readers 'to buy, read, and enjoy this work.'' Simon Mitton, The Observatory

Steven Weinberg shares his candid thoughts, in his own words, on theoretical physics and cosmology, along with personal anecdotes and recollections of the people who helped shape his career. These memoirs of his life as a scientist and public figure cover his student days and early career, through the golden age of particle physics in the 1970s, his being awarded the Nobel prize, through to the end of the twentieth century. In addition to his research insights, Weinberg provides glimpses into his life in academia more broadly: dealing with the 'two-body problem', tenure, international conference travel, his book-writing, advisory work with JASON, and his advocacy for the Superconducting Super Collider. Physicists, historians of science and interested readers will find the presentation engaging and often witty, as Weinberg reflects on his life in physics.

Preface: The Twentieth Century
1. First Things
2. Turning to Science
3. Cornell
4. Copenhagen
5. Princeton
6. Manhattan
7. San Francisco and Berkeley
8. East to London
9. Berkeley
10. Cambridge, 1966–69
11. Cambridge, 1969–72
12. Cambridge, 1972–79
13. Gone-to-Texas
14. SuperCollider Days
15. Austin: the 1980s
16. The Dark Energy
17. Austin: the 1990s
Bibliography
Image credits
Index.

Subject Areas: Statistical physics [PHS]