Physics as Natural Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Laszlo Tisza on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. INSCRIBED BY LASZLO TISZA TO BENOIT MANDELBROT

SHIMONY, Abner & Herman FESHBACH (eds.) [MANDELBROT, Benoit] [TISZA, Laszlo]

Published by Cambridge & London: MIT Press, 1982.

About this Item

x, leaf, 432 pp; illus. Original cloth. For edges of pages foxed. Very Good, in dust jacket. First Edition. INSCRIBED BY LASZLO TISZA TO BENOIT MANDELBROT: "To Benoit / with pleasant recollection of our/ interaction some twenty odd years/ ago, and thanks for his gracious and grateful contribution to/ this volume/ Laszlo." Mandelbrot's contribution to this festschrift is the first one in the volume: "A Fractal Attractor, and Why It May Matter" (pp. 3-6). "Except in cases of extraordinary longevity, friendship with an older colleague is generally brief. Thus, it was a rare privilege that my friendship with the physicist László Tisza (1907-2009) lasted far longer than usual. He obliged by being born on 7/7/07 and the next 7/7/07 provided me with my only chance so far to talk to someone in the process of turning a hundred years old. The man was short, slight, retiring, and soft-spoken. Upon meeting him, I was told that he had been a well-known and productive researcher--in fact, had come close to fame by almost explaining a curious phenomenon called superfluidity of very low-temperature helium. However--as was added immediately--serious mistakes in that work had to be corrected by his onetime adviser, a star physicist named Lev Landau (1908-68). In truth, Tisza had made no mistake and deserved the credit he did not receive. Tisza was victimized by Landau, but lived long enough for this to be recognized. Instead of clamoring for full credit, he nominated Landau for a prize for this work. Tisza and I interacted intensely for a few years after a symposium on information theory held at MIT in the summer of 1956. The paper I presented there described an axiomatic for statistical thermodynamics that developed from the second half of my Ph.D. thesis. Asked to comment on my advance text, Tisza praised it handsomely and described himself, on this occasion, as being my student! Given the age difference, his words were a rarity--balm on my heart. Tisza was a hugely helpful professor. I was delighted to trigger an early celebration of his centennial. A large room was filled, a few people came from far away, and the mood was warm and altogether cheerful. His life had produced little needless sound and fury addressed to outsiders, and much reflection for his friends and his own pleasure. It extended late and added at least one solid brick to the permanent edifice of physics. Many mysteries remain open, but long live diversity. I was very moved" (The Fractalist, pp. 164-65; there is a section in The Fractalist entitled "Noam Chomsky and László Tisza.".

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Physics as Natural Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Laszlo Tisza on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. INSCRIBED BY LASZLO TISZA TO BENOIT MANDELBROT
• Publisher: Cambridge & London: MIT Press, 1982.
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)