The Physics of a Lifetime : Reflections on the Problems and Personalities of 20th Century Physics

Every reader interested in understanding the important problems in physics and astrophysics and their historic development over the past 60 years will enjoy this book immensely. The philosophy, history and the individual views of famous scientists of the 20th century known personally to the author, make this book fascinating for non-physicists, too. The book consists of three parts on (I) major problems of physics and astrophyics, (II) the philosophy and history of science and (III) memorial essays on famous physicists. The author is an internationally renowned scientist, who summarises here his life-long experience. Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What Problems of Physics and Astrophysics Seem Now to Be Especially Important and Interesting?....Pages 3-148 What Problems of Physics and Astrophysics Seem Now to Be Especially Important and Interesting (Thirty Years Later, Already on the Verge of the 21st Century)?....Pages 149-197 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 How Does Science Develop? Remarks on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by T. Kuhn....Pages 201-216 Who Created the Theory of Relativity and How Was It Developed? A Review with a Preamble and a Commentary....Pages 217-240 Does Astronomy Need ‘New Physics’?....Pages 241-258 Physical Laws and Extraterrestrial Civilizations....Pages 259-264 Wide Scope and Up-to-Date Information as a Precondition of Successful Research....Pages 265-268 Physics Stays Young. A Way of Answering the Questionnaire in Nauka i Zhizn ’ Magazine....Pages 269-276 On Popular Science and More....Pages 277-284 Notes on the Occasion of My Jubilee....Pages 285-307 A Scientific Autobiography — an Attempt....Pages 309-347 Front Matter....Pages 349-349 About Igor Evgenevich Tamm....Pages 351-359 A Piece of Advice Given by Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam....Pages 361-364 On the 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Nikolai Dmitrievich Papaleksi....Pages 365-366 About Lev Davidovich Landau....Pages 367-384 To the Memory of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Andronov....Pages 385-388 About Aleksandr Lvovich Mints....Pages 389-394 In Commemoration of Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov....Pages 395-396 A Story of Two Directors....Pages 397-402 To the Memory of Ilya Mikhailovich Frank....Pages 403-410 Front Matter....Pages 349-349 About Grigorii Samuilovich Landsberg....Pages 411-417 To the Memory of Evgenii Konstantinovich Zavoiskii....Pages 419-421 About Matvei Samsonovich Rabinovich....Pages 423-424 Mstislav Vsevoldovich Keldysh (A Detached View)....Pages 425-427 About Albert Einstein....Pages 429-431 In Memory of Niels Bohr....Pages 433-442 About Richard Feynman — a Remarkable Physicist and a Wonderful Man....Pages 443-449 John Bardeen and the Theory of Superconductivity....Pages 451-456 On High-Energy Astrophysics (On the 80th Birthday of Jan Oort)....Pages 457-469 The Sakharov Phenomenon....Pages 471-506 Back Matter....Pages 507-514 Every reader interested in understanding the important problems in physics and astrophysics and their historic development over the past 60 years will enjoy this book immensely. The philosophy, history and the individual views of famous scientists of the 20th century known personally to the author, make this book fascinating for non-physicists, too. The book consists of three parts on (I) major problems of physics and astrophysics, (II) the philosophy and history of science and (III) memorial essays on famous physicists. The author is an internationally renowned scientist, who summarizes here his life-long interests, experience, and insights into the work of other eminent 20th-century physicists. Professor Ginzburg's fundamental contributions to the theory of superconductivity, encapsulated in the famous and widely-used Ginzburg-Landau equations, have been recognized with the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with A.A. Abrikosov and A.E. Leggett. Part 1 covers major probems of physics and astrophysics, part 2 the philosophy and history of science and part 3 deals with memorial essays on famous physicists