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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

Customer Reviews (3)

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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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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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

Customer Reviews (1)

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