The Merely Personal

Fülszöveg

PRAISE FOR JEREMY BERNSTEIN'S WRITINGS
The loss of Sagan and Asimov has left our world almost wholly bereft of writers who brandish (as Nabokov said) the precision of poets and the imagination of scientists. Jeremy Bernstein is one of those few who still^sjiow how to tell us what scientists do.
— MARVIN MINSKY
In these essays Jeremy Bernstein reminds one of how full of surprise and pleasure the world is. He enlightens and entertains. It's a rare combination, but then Mr. Bernstein is a rare bird.
—JOSEPH EPSTEIN
Jeremy Bernstein's readers find themselves enjoying his stories about science before they realize they are understanding the science in the stories with the same pleasure.
— GERARD PIEL
[His writing] shows Bernstein's considerable range of scientific insight and literate humor. It brings to the reader an almost gustatory satisfaction in its balance of flavors and moods.
—HUGH DOWNS


Ever since i began studying science, Jeremy Bernstein writes, "I have been... Tovább

Fülszöveg

PRAISE FOR JEREMY BERNSTEIN'S WRITINGS
The loss of Sagan and Asimov has left our world almost wholly bereft of writers who brandish (as Nabokov said) the precision of poets and the imagination of scientists. Jeremy Bernstein is one of those few who still^sjiow how to tell us what scientists do.
— MARVIN MINSKY
In these essays Jeremy Bernstein reminds one of how full of surprise and pleasure the world is. He enlightens and entertains. It's a rare combination, but then Mr. Bernstein is a rare bird.
—JOSEPH EPSTEIN
Jeremy Bernstein's readers find themselves enjoying his stories about science before they realize they are understanding the science in the stories with the same pleasure.
— GERARD PIEL
[His writing] shows Bernstein's considerable range of scientific insight and literate humor. It brings to the reader an almost gustatory satisfaction in its balance of flavors and moods.
—HUGH DOWNS


Ever since i began studying science, Jeremy Bernstein writes, "I have been struck by its human characteristics. Yet in his autobiography, Einstein said that he took up science precisely as an alternative to the merely personal. In fact there is no alternative to the merely personal, as Einstein's own life demonstrates."
Thus the title of Mr. Bernstein's sparkling new collection of essays, which represents much ofhis work over the past ten years.
When he first began writing about science for The New ii)rA;eryears ago, Mr. Bernstein was asked by the magazine's editor, William Shawn, to write about science as a form of human experience. This he has been doing with great aplomb and success since 1960. His \)ookEinstein, for example, was nominated for a National Book Award.
In The Merely Personal, his essays range from an attempt to explain the quantum theory through the use of Tom Stoppard's T^lsy Hapgood, to a critical review of recent books on Einstein. They describe Mr. Bernstein's encounters with such people as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe, Bobby Fischer, W. H. Auden, and Richard Feynman. Readers will find an explanation of the origin of Newton's contention that he stood on the shoulders of giants; a description of a surreal encounter with the logician Kurt Godel; a discussion of computer chess; and an analysis of
(continued from front flap)
the attempts of the Germans to build an atomic bomb during World War 11.
Most of all, readers will find a relentlessly curious mind at work, its product conveyed in a compulsively readable style. Mr. Bernstein has few peers in his ability to translate the most difficult scientific endeavors for intelligent readers and in the process to tell a marvelously good story.
Jeremy Bernstein is a theoretical physicist who is perhaps best known for his writings for non-scientists, mcYad^ng AlbertEinstein\ Cranks, Quarks, and the Cosmos-, Three Degrees Above Zero\ Cosmological Constants-, Quantum Profiles-, and Hitler's Uranium Club. His writing has won awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Physics. He lives in New York City and Aspen, Colorado.
Jacket Design by Jorge Colombo Vissza