A PASSION FOR DISCOVERY

This fascinating book assembles human stories about physicists and mathematicians. Remarkably, these stories cluster around some general themes having to do with the interaction between scientists, and with the impact of historic events — such as the advent of fascism and communism in the twentieth century — on scientists' behavior. Briefly, but lucidly, some of the beautiful science that brought these scientists together in the first place is explained.

Author's webpage: http://freund9.googlepages.com/peterfreundwritings.

Contents:

Einstein Once Removed
The Conscience of Physics
The Language of God
Oswald Teichmüller and Nazi Science
Scientists in Politics
Jews in Science. The Backlash
Stalin and the Quantum
Oppenheimer, Hero or Antihero?
On and Off the Map: Romanian Mathematics
A Brief History of Space
as well as chapters on Richard Feynman, E C G Stueckelberg, Emmy Noether, Andrei Sakharov, and others

Readership: Primarily general readers, and particularly theoretical physicists, mathematicians and high energy experimental physicists.

“Like the author, these stories are full of wisdom, wit and humor. Sometimes they are hilarious and sometimes tragic. They need to be told, and I suspect that Peter Freund is the only one who can tell them.”

Leonard Susskind
Author of The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

“Freund is at his best when he focuses on one, perhaps two, scientists in each chapter … Throughout his long career, Freund has obviously met many influential scientists and collected many fascinating stories about them and their colleagues.”

CERN Courier

“Can there be a common endeavour, whether physics or poetry, that can remain objective when the researchers involved are also people? According to Peter Freund, one of the founding physicists of String Theory, in his book “A Passion for Discovery,” the answer is Yes and No … Poetry esthetics might seem a lot less imposing than theoretical physics, but it isn't. Outlandish humans make both.”

Andrei Codrescu
Commentator National Public Radio, Columnist, Novelist and Poet

“Freund is a good narrator; in fact, he is a gifted writer … There are more doubtful stories — and many funny ones … mostly well told. Freund wrote A Passion for Discovery not just for physicists but also for a larger audience.”

Physics Today

240pp		Pub. date: Aug 2007
ISBN: 978-981-270-646-1 981-270-646-1		US$45 / £25

240pp		Pub. date: Aug 2007
ISBN: 978-981-277-214-5(pbk) 981-277-214-6(pbk)		US$31 / £18

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