Synopsis
Tracing the history of scientific discovery, a physicist explains why scientific culture has become so inaccessible, beginning with Galileo, who described his theories in mathematical language in order to avoid trouble with the church. 15,000 first printing.
Reviews
The coauthor of Einstein for Beginners here continues his crusade to demystify science by placing some of its legendary "creative moments" in full context. Schwartz transforms textbook dates and events like Alamogordo into phenomena with real social dimensions. Most of those events are breakthroughs within his own discipline (and our most ahistoric science), physics. Schwartz means to show in these "moments" a progressive loss of the sense of discovery: a reification of science that parallels the persistent triumph, in larger society, of image over purpose. His seven cases, ranging from Galileo's trial by the Roman Catholic Church to the Manhattan Project, are fortuitous choices for the general reader: "Munich 1919/Almagordo 1945" could almost be produced as a one-act play, so closely are the forces of science and society joined in the 20-year struggle over quantum physics. Schwartz is a graceful writer and a thoughtful scientist; even unconcerned readers will find themselves brought round the back way to the idea that science is an inherently human activity whose roots in wonder must be reclaimed.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Former physics professor Schwartz offers a captivating history of the progressive alienation between Western culture and its scientists--an unnatural split that, he says, can be blamed for, among other things, modern technological disasters, cultural malaise, and the physics-propelled cold war. There was a time, Schwartz writes, when the pursuit of science meant the exploration of humanity's relationship to the natural world. This golden age, when experiments could be (and were) replicated and discussed by practically any educated person, and when theories were inspired by experience rather than the other way around, is now long gone. Beginning with Galileo, who attempted to avoid excommunication by veiling his heretical theories behind the baffling language of mathematics, and continuing in England, where Newton and other Royal Society members retreated behind a wall of intentional mystification to avoid political censure, science has become nearly incomprehensible to almost everyone--including, in some instances, scientists themselves. Schwartz also argues that 20th-century industrialization, economic disasters, and war have led the middle class to turn its back on the once-abundant fruits of science--an act that has encouraged the discipline to grow increasingly compartmentalized and self-referential. In this atmosphere of mutual alienation between science and culture, nuclear physicists failed to make a timely connection between their work on the atom bomb and the cold war that would inevitably result; Einstein's easily comprehensible and culturally significant theories were eclipsed by a quasi-mystical worship of his personal genius; the absence of meaningful interaction between the designers of technology and its users led to the Challenger disaster and deaths in industry; unexamined scientific prejudice may have obscured the real causes of cancer and AIDS; and theoretical scientists' increasing dependence on esoteric mathematics has led to an arcane physics of quarks and string theory that offers little to benefit mankind. An original and highly stimulating argument in favor of bringing science and scientists back down to earth. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Former physics professor and coauthor of Einstein for Beginners (Pantheon, 1978) Schwartz explores the contradiction between science and technology's tremendous impact on our world and most people's ignorance of scientific and technological theories and processes. He assigns much of the blame to science, criticizing both the form of today's science (the arcane theories of particle physics, biological determinism) and the ends to which it is applied (nuclear bombs, misdirected medical research). This harsh criticism is tempered by Schwartz's real appreciation of science's potential to explain and exhilarate. This original and thought-provoking book includes a wealth of ideas, some quite controversial, that force the reader to think critically about the place of science in our lives. Recommended.
-Eric Hinsdale, Simmons Coll. Graduate Sch. of Management Lib., Boston
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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