******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
2015 happens to be the 100th anniversary of Einstein's general theory of
relativity, one of the most revolutionary physics advances of the
century and the first advance in understanding gravitation since Isaac
Newton's work two centuries earlier. On the occasion we had a speaker in
the field (Pedro G. Ferreira, Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford
University) who I would like to plug: he has written a popular book (you
don't have to be a physicist to follow it) including both history of
science and experimental/observational attempts at verification of the
theory. His talk to physicists here was probably not much more technical
than I expect his popular book is, which is why most of the people in
the room weren't totally lost (general relativity being a very difficult
and specialized study within physics). I found his presentation of the
history of the last 100 years very interesting as well as his discussion
of experimental challenges.
Here is the plug for his book on his website:
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~pgf/Pedro_Ferreira/The_Perfect_Theory.html
I haven't seen the book but from what I gathered from hearing his talk,
I believe it is probably worth reading by non-physicists (OR by
physicists!) who have an interest in physics or history of science. A
short excerpt from his book was published by Salon which you can judge
by:
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/16/einstein_the_failure_how_historys_greatest_physicist_flirted_with_disaster
- Jeff
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
