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Author: Arthur I. Miller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146848771X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
This volume contains proceedings from the International School of History of Science, Sixty-Two Years of Uncertainty: Historical Philosophical and Physical Inquiries into the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, convened at the Ettore Maj orana Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily, 5-15 August 1989. In response to the high state of enth,usiasm from the sixty-one participants there were six to eight lectures each day, beginning at 9:00 AM and often ending at 7:00 PM. Vigorous discussions took place at every opportunity, even including the delightful excursions. The papers presented here are by the twelve invited lecturers (in some cases with coauthors) with a contribution from Philip Pearle. AU of us attending the conference express our appreciation to the exemplary staff of the Ettore Majorana Centre, and particularly to the Centre's Director, Professor Antonino Zichichi. for superb hospitality which made this conference a memorable intellectual and cultural experience. It is a pleasure to acknowledge financial support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Scientific Affairs Division.
Author: Arthur I. Miller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146848771X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
This volume contains proceedings from the International School of History of Science, Sixty-Two Years of Uncertainty: Historical Philosophical and Physical Inquiries into the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, convened at the Ettore Maj orana Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily, 5-15 August 1989. In response to the high state of enth,usiasm from the sixty-one participants there were six to eight lectures each day, beginning at 9:00 AM and often ending at 7:00 PM. Vigorous discussions took place at every opportunity, even including the delightful excursions. The papers presented here are by the twelve invited lecturers (in some cases with coauthors) with a contribution from Philip Pearle. AU of us attending the conference express our appreciation to the exemplary staff of the Ettore Majorana Centre, and particularly to the Centre's Director, Professor Antonino Zichichi. for superb hospitality which made this conference a memorable intellectual and cultural experience. It is a pleasure to acknowledge financial support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Scientific Affairs Division.
Author: Wayne C. Myrvold
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402091079
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 516
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Book Description
In July 2006, a major international conference was held at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada, to celebrate the career and work of a remarkable man of letters. Abner Shimony, who is well known for his pioneering contributions to foundations of quantum mechanics, is a physicist as well as a philosopher, and is highly respected among the intellectuals of both communities. In line with Shimony’s conviction that philosophical investigation is not to be divorced from theoretical and empirical work in the sciences, the conference brought together leading theoretical physicists, experimentalists, as well as philosophers. This book collects twenty-three original essays stemming from the conference, on topics including history and methodology of science, Bell's theorem, probability theory, the uncertainty principle, stochastic modifications of quantum mechanics, and relativity theory. It ends with a transcript of a fascinating discussion between Lee Smolin and Shimony, ranging over the entire spectrum of Shimony's wide-ranging contributions to philosophy, science, and philosophy of science.
Author: Sherwin B. Nuland
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588367231
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
“Life is short, and the Art so long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals, cooperate.” –attributed to Hippocrates, c. 400 B.C.E. The award-winning author of How We Die and The Art of Aging, venerated physician Sherwin B. Nuland has now written his most thoughtful and engaging book. The Uncertain Art is a superb collection of essays about the vital mix of expertise, intuition, sound judgment, and pure chance that plays a part in a doctor’s practice and life. Drawing from history, the recent past, and his own life, Nuland weaves a tapestry of compelling stories in which doctors have had to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Topics include the primitive (and sometimes illegal) procedures doctors once practiced with good intentions, such as grave robbing and prescribing cocaine as an anesthetic (which resulted in a physician becoming America’s first cocaine addict); the curious “cures” for irregularity touted by people from the ancient Egyptians to the cereal titan John Harvey Kellogg and bodybuilder Charles Atlas; and healers grappling with today’s complex moral and ethical quandaries, from cloning to gene therapy to the adoption of Eastern practices like acupuncture. Nuland also recounts his most dramatic experiences in a forty-year medical career: the time he was called out of the audience of a Broadway play to help a man having a heart attack (when no other doctor there would respond), and how he formed a profound friendship with an unforgettable–and doomed–heart patient. Behind these inspiring accounts always lie the mysteries of the human body and human nature, the manner in which the ill can will themselves back to health and the odd and essential interactions between a body’s own healing mechanisms and a doctor’s prescriptions. Riveting and wise, amusing and heartrending, The Uncertain Art is Sherwin Nuland’s best work, gems from a man who has spent his professional life acting in the face of ambiguity and sharing what he has learned.
Author: Wil S. Hylton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101616253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278
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Book Description
From a mesmerizing storyteller, the gripping search for a missing World War II crew, their bomber plane, and their legacy. In the fall of 1944, a massive American bomber carrying eleven men vanished over the Pacific islands of Palau, leaving a trail of mysteries. According to mission reports from the Army Air Forces, the plane crashed in shallow water—but when investigators went to find it, the wreckage wasn’t there. Witnesses saw the crew parachute to safety, yet the airmen were never seen again. Some of their relatives whispered that they had returned to the United States in secret and lived in hiding. But they never explained why. For sixty years, the U.S. government, the children of the missing airmen, and a maverick team of scientists and scuba divers searched the islands for clues. With every clue they found, the mystery only deepened. Now, in a spellbinding narrative, Wil S. Hylton weaves together the true story of the missing men, their final mission, the families they left behind, and the real reason their disappearance remained shrouded in secrecy for so long. This is a story of love, loss, sacrifice, and faith—of the undying hope among the families of the missing, and the relentless determination of scientists, explorers, archaeologists, and deep-sea divers to solve one of the enduring mysteries of World War II.
Author: Wolfgang Walter
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034875657
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 507
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Book Description
The sixthInternational Conference on General Inequalities was held from Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, 1990, at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (Black Fa rest, Germany). The organizing committee was composed of W.N. Everitt (Birm ingham), L. Losonczi (Debrecen) and W. Walter (Karlsruhe). Dr. A. Kovacec ( Coimbra) served cheerfully and efficiently as secretary of the meeting. The con ference was attended by 44 participants from 20 countries. Yet again the importance of inequalities in both pure and applied mathematics was made evident from the wide range of interests of the individual participants, and from the wealth of new results announced. New inequalities were presented in the usual spread of the subject areas now expected for these meetings: Classical and functional analysis, existence and boundary value problems for both ordinary and partial differential equations, with special contributions to computer science, quantum holography and error analysis. More strongly than ever, the role played by modern electronic computers was made clear in testing out and prohing into the validity and structure of certain inequalities. Here the computer acts not only for numerical calculations of great complexity, but also in symbolic manipulation of complex finite structures. Prob lems in inequalities which even a few years ago were intractable, now fall to solution or receive direct and positive guidance as a result of computer applications. The interface between finite and infinite structures in mathematics and the versatility of modern computers is weil developed in the subject of general inequalities.
Author: Robert D. Purrington
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190655186
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
Quantum theory is one of the great achievements of twentieth century physics. Born at the very beginning of the century, it attained a definitive form by 1932, yet continued to evolve throughout the century. Its applications remain fully a part of modern life. It should thus come as no surprise that literature on the history of quantum theory is vast, but author Robert D. Purrington approaches the story from a new angle, by examining the original physics papers and scientific studies from before the creation of quantum mechanics to how scientists think about and discuss the subject today. The Heroic Age presents for the first time a detailed but compact and manageable history of the creation of quantum theory, and shows precisely where each important idea originated. Purrington provides the history of the crucial developmental years of quantum theory with an emphasis on the literature rather than an overview of this period focusing on personalities or personal stories of the scientists involved. This book instead focuses on how the theoretical discoveries came about, when and where they were published, and how they became accepted as part of the scientific canon.
Author: Thomas Ryckman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351707892
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 477
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Book Description
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was the most influential physicist of the 20th century. Less well known is that fundamental philosophical problems, such as concept formation, the role of epistemology in developing and explaining the character of physical theories, and the debate between positivism and realism, played a central role in his thought as a whole. Thomas Ryckman shows that already at the beginning of his career - at a time when the twin pillars of classical physics, Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell’s electromagnetism were known to have but limited validity - Einstein sought to advance physical theory by positing certain physical principles as secure footholds. That philosophy produced his greatest triumph, the general theory of relativity, and his greatest failure, an unwillingness to accept quantum mechanics. This book shows that Einstein’s philosophy grew from a lifelong aspiration for a unified theoretical representation encompassing all physical phenomena. It also considers how Einstein’s theories of relativity and criticisms of quantum theory shaped the course of 20th-century philosophy of science. Including a chronology, glossary, chapter summaries, and suggestions for further reading, Einstein is an ideal introduction to this iconic figure in 20th-century science and philosophy. It is essential reading for students of philosophy of science, and is also suitable for those working in related areas such as physics, history of science, or intellectual history.
Author: Joke Meheus
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401700850
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. In recent years, however, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have showed a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The new interest gave rise to important questions. How is `logical anarchy' avoided? Is it ever rational to accept an inconsistent theory? In what sense, if any, can inconsistent theories be considered as true? The present collection of papers is the first to deal with this kind of questions. It contains case studies as well as philosophical analyses, and presents an excellent overview of the different approaches in the domain.
Author: R.K. Clifton
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940158656X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
But to admit things not visible to the gross creatures that we are is, in my opinion, to show a decent humility, and not just a lamentable addiction to metaphysics. J. S. Bell, Are There Quantum Jumps? ON CANADIAN THANKSGIVING WEEKEND in the autumn of 1994, a lively conference was held at The University of Western Ontario under the title "Conceptual Problems of Relativistic Quantum Mechanics". Most of the eighteen papers in this volume are directly connected with that conference. Articles by both theoretical physicists and philosophers of science are included, and many authors will be recognized immediately for their already substantive work in the foundations of physics. A quarter century ago Howard Stein suggested that relativistic quantum field theory should be 'the contemporary locus of metaphysical research', but there were few takers. Only fairly recently has that changed, with the result that the bulk of the papers here pursue issues that go beyond nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (or at least have serious implications for its relativistic generalization). Nevertheless, problems interpreting the nonrelativistic theory remain a persistent thorn in the side of any such endeavor, and so some of the papers develop innovative approaches to those issues as well.
Author: James T. Cushing
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226132020
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
Why does one theory "succeed" while another, possibly clearer interpretation, fails? By exploring two observationally equivalent yet conceptually incompatible views of quantum mechanics, James T. Cushing shows how historical contingency can be crucial to determining a theory's construction and its position among competing views. Since the late 1920s, the theory formulated by Niels Bohr and his colleagues at Copenhagen has been the dominant interpretation of quantum mechanics. Yet an alternative interpretation, rooted in the work of Louis de Broglie in the early 1920s and reformulated and extended by David Bohm in the 1950s, equally well explains the observational data. Through a detailed historical and sociological study of the physicists who developed different theories of quantum mechanics, the debates within and between opposing camps, and the receptions given to each theory, Cushing shows that despite the preeminence of the Copenhagen view, the Bohm interpretation cannot be ignored. Cushing contends that the Copenhagen interpretation became widely accepted not because it is a better explanation of subatomic phenomena than is Bohm's, but because it happened to appear first. Focusing on the philosophical, social, and cultural forces that shaped one of the most important developments in modern physics, this provocative book examines the role that timing can play in the establishment of theory and explanation.
