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> Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Born in the
United Kingdom,
Freeman John Dyson
(1923-)
is an American mathematician and physicist. He has made important contributions
in the fields of nuclear engineering, quantum mechanics, and solid-state physics,
but is also known for his predictions about the future
(not always correct, but in his own words, "it is better to be wrong than to be vague"),
and his ideas about space exploration, space colonization (including a favorite
idea of science fiction authors, the "Dyson sphere"), and the search
for extra terrestrial life.
Dyson was team leader of Project Orion and a leading advocate.
When the project ended, he wrote an empassioned plea for the project
to continue in the journal
Science :
"this is the first time in modern history that a major expansion of human technology has been suppressed for political reasons."
Here are some books by Freeman Dyson:
By Freeman J. Dyson
Basic Books
Released: 2001-05-08
Paperback (304 pages)
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The classic intellectual autobiography of a great theoretical physicist Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has composed an autobiography unlike any other. Dyson evocatively conveys the thrill of a deep engagement with the world-be it as scientist, citizen, student, or parent. Detailing a unique career not limited to his groundbreaking work in physics, Dyson discusses his interest in minimizing loss of life in war, in disarmament, and even in thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies. |
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By Freeman J. Dyson
New York Review Books
Released: 2008-09-09
Paperback (400 pages)
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From Galileo to today’s amateur astronomers, scientists have been rebels, writes Freeman J. Dyson. Like artists and poets, they are free spirits who resist the restrictions their cultures impose on them. In their pursuit of nature’s truths, they are guided as much by imagination as by reason, and their greatest theories have the uniqueness and beauty of great works of art.Dyson argues that the best way to understand science is by understanding those who practice it. He tells stories of scientists at work, ranging from Isaac Newton’s absorption in physics, alchemy, theology, and politics, to Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the structure of the atom, to Albert Einstein’s stubborn hostility to the idea of black holes. His descriptions of brilliant physicists like Edward Teller and Richard Feynman are enlivened by his own reminiscences of them. He looks with a skeptical eye at fashionable scientific fads and fantasies, and speculates on the future of climate prediction, genetic engineering, the colonization of space, and the possibility that paranormal phenomena may exist yet not be scientifically verifiable.Dyson also looks beyond particular scientific questions to reflect on broader philosophical issues, such as the limits of reductionism, the morality of strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, the preservation of the environment, and the relationship between science and religion. These essays, by a distinguished physicist who is also a prolific writer, offer informed insights into the history of science and fresh perspectives on contentious current debates about science, ethics, and faith. |
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By Freeman J. Dyson
University of Virginia Press
Hardcover (160 pages)
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Freeman Dyson's latest book does not attempt to bring together all of the celebrated physicist's thoughts on science and technology into a unified theory. The emphasis is, instead, on the myriad ways in which the universe presents itself to us - and how, as observers and participants in its processes, we respond to it. "Life, like a dome of many-colored glass," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley, "stains the white radiance of eternity." The author seeks here to explore the variety that gives life its beauty. Taken from Dyson's recent public lectures - delivered to audiences with no specialized knowledge in hard sciences - the book begins with a consideration of the practical and political questions surrounding biotechnology. As he seeks how best to explain the place of life in the universe, Dyson then moves from the ethical to the purely scientific. The book concludes with an attempt to understand the implications of biology for philosophy and religion. The pieces in this collection touch on numerous disciplines, from astronomy and ecology to neurology and theology, speaking to the lay reader as well as to the scientist. As always, Dyson's view of human nature and behavior is balanced, and his predictions of a world to come serve primarily as a means for thinking about the world as it is today. |
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By Freeman J. Dyson
Oxford University Press, USA
Paperback (144 pages)
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A forecast of the future in genetics, solar technology, and engineering, asserting that these three technologies will create a more even distribution of the world's wealth. Discusses the ethical uses of science with conviction, a challenge to use new technologies to close the gap between the rich and the poor. Softcover. DLC: Mathematical physics. |
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By Freeman Dyson; David Derbes
World Scientific Publishing Company
Paperback (236 pages)
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Renowned physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson is famous for his work in quantum mechanics, nuclear weapons policy and bold visions for the future of humanity. In the 1940s, he was responsible for demonstrating the equivalence of the two formulations of quantum electrodynamics Richard Feynman's diagrammatic path integral formulation and the variational methods developed by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonoga showing the mathematical consistency of QED. This invaluable volume comprises the legendary, never-before-published, lectures on quantum electrodynamics first given by Dyson at Cornell University in 1951. The late theorist Edwin Thompson Jaynes once remarked "For a generation of physicists they were the happy medium: clearer and motivated than Feynman, and getting to the point faster than Schwinger . Future generations of physicists are bound to read these lectures with pleasure, benefiting from the lucid style that is so characteristic of Dyson's exposition. |
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By Freeman Dyson
Harvard University Press
Paperback (224 pages)
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One hundred years after H.G. Wells visited the future in "The Time Machine", Freeman Dyson marshals his uncommon gifts as a scientist and storyteller to take readers once more to that ever-closer, ever receding time to come. 27 halftones. |
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By Freeman Dyson
Cambridge University Press
Paperback (110 pages)
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How did life on Earth originate? Did replication or metabolism come first in the history of life? In the second edition of the acclaimed Origins of Life, distinguished scientist and science writer Freeman Dyson examines these questions and discusses the two main theories that try to explain how naturally occurring chemicals could organize themselves into living creatures. The majority view is that life began with replicating molecules, the precursors of modern genes. The minority belief is that random populations of molecules evolved metabolic activities before exact replication existed and that natural selection drove the evolution of cells toward greater complexity for a long time without the benefit of genes. Dyson analyzes both of these theories with reference to recent important discoveries by geologists and chemists, aiming to stimulate new experiments that could help decide which theory is correct. This second edition covers the impact revolutionary discoveries such as the existence of ribozymes, enzymes made of RNA; the likelihood that many of the most ancient creatures are thermophilic, living in hot environments; and evidence of life in the most ancient of all terrestrial rocks in Greenland have had on our ideas about how life began. It is a clearly written, fascinating book that will appeal to anyone interested in the origins of life. |
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By Freeman J. Dyson
Penguin (Non-Classics)
Paperback (384 pages)
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This collection of essays and articles range across the author's many interests including theoretical physics, the origins of life, technological development, the bomb and nuclear politics. |
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By Freeman J. Dyson
Harper Perennial
Released: 2004-08-03
Paperback (352 pages)
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Infinite in All Directions is an expertly guided tour of our wondrous universe -- and our place within it -- with stops along the way to discoversuperstrings, black holes, "astrochickens," comet showers, and butterflies. A distinguished scientist, lecturer, writer, arms-control expert, and one of the world's most esteemed theoretical physicists, Freeman J. Dyson adroitly guides us through a rich array of topics, from the origins of life and the prospects of immortality to nuclear weapons and the frontiers of space. In this generous rewriting of his esteemed Gifford Lectures, Dyson uses the tools of science and religion as two distinct ways in which we can view the cosmos. He believes that "our universe is the most interesting of all possible universes, and our fate as human beings is to make it so." Exuberantly stimulating, astute, and often imbued with the poetic and whimsical, Infinite in All Directions is a meditation on the meaning of life, the purpose of the universe, and the nature of God. As a celebration of diversity as the chief source of beauty and value in the natural universe, in the governance of human societies, and in our souls, this is popularized science at its best. |
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By Freeman Dyson
Amer Mathematical Society
Hardcover (601 pages)
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This book offers a unique compilation of papers in mathematics and physics from Freeman Dyson's 50 years of activity and research. These are the papers that Dyson considers most worthy of preserving, and many of them are classics. The papers are accompanied by commentary explaining the context from which they originated and the subsequent history of the problems that either were solved or left unsolved. This collection offers a connected narrative of the developments in mathematics and physics in which the author was involved, beginning with his professional life as a student of G. H. Hardy. |
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