Splinters of Infinity: Cosmic Rays and the Clash of Two Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists Over the Secrets of Creation

Wolverton, Mark

  • 出版商: MIT
  • 出版日期: 2024-03-12
  • 售價: $1,270
  • 貴賓價: 9.5$1,207
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 280
  • 裝訂: Hardcover - also called cloth, retail trade, or trade
  • ISBN: 0262048825
  • ISBN-13: 9780262048828
  • 海外代購書籍(需單獨結帳)

相關主題

商品描述

The riveting story of a modern age scientific feud between two Nobel Prize-winning scientists over the nature of cosmic rays and the universe.

Set in a revolutionary era of physics and science when a series of rapid-fire discoveries was upending our understanding of the universe, Splinters of Infinity by Mark Wolverton tells a little-known story: the tale of two of America's foremost physicists, Robert Millikan (1868-1953) and Arthur Compton (1892-1962), who found themselves locked in an intense, often deeply personal, conflict about cosmic rays. Confirmed in 1912, cosmic rays--enigmatic forms of penetrating radiation--seemed to raise all new questions about the origins of the universe, but they also offered the potential to explain everything--or reveal the existence of God.

In engaging, accessible prose, Wolverton takes the reader through the twists and turns of the Millikan-Compton debate, one of the first major public examples of how heated the controversies among scientists could become--and the lengths that scientists would go to settle their disputes. What set them apart, at least in most cases, Wolverton shows, was their ability to concentrate finally on what mattered: the science. Along the way, Wolverton probes the forever elusive question, still unanswered today, about where cosmic rays come from and what they reveal about black holes, distant galaxies, the existence of dark matter and dark energy, and the birth of the universe, concluding that these splinters of infinity may not hold the keys to the secret of creation but do bring us ever closer to it.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

《無窮碎片》是馬克·沃爾弗頓(Mark Wolverton)所著,講述了兩位諾貝爾獎得主之間關於宇宙射線和宇宙本質的現代科學爭鬥的引人入勝的故事。

故事背景設定在一個物理學和科學革命的時代,一連串的快速發現正在顛覆我們對宇宙的理解。這本書揭示了一個鮮為人知的故事:兩位美國頂尖物理學家羅伯特·米利堪(1868-1953)和亞瑟·康普頓(1892-1962)之間的故事。他們陷入了一場激烈而深層次的關於宇宙射線的爭論。宇宙射線在1912年被確認,這種神秘的穿透性輻射形式似乎提出了關於宇宙起源的全新問題,但它們也有可能解釋一切,或者揭示上帝的存在。

沃爾弗頓以引人入勝且易於理解的文字帶領讀者穿越米利堪-康普頓的辯論,這是科學家之間爭論激烈的首個重大公開例子,以及科學家為解決爭端而付出的努力。沃爾弗頓展示了他們的區別,至少在大多數情況下,是他們專注於真正重要的事情:科學。在這過程中,沃爾弗頓探索了一個永遠難以捉摸的問題,即宇宙射線來自何處,以及它們揭示了關於黑洞、遙遠星系、暗物質和暗能量存在以及宇宙誕生的什麼信息。他得出的結論是,這些無窮碎片可能不是創造之謎的關鍵,但確實將我們帶得更接近它。

作者簡介

Mark Wolverton is the author of Nuclear Weapons (MIT Press); Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space; A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer; The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Planetary Probes; and The Science of Superman.

作者簡介(中文翻譯)

Mark Wolverton是《核武器》(MIT Press)的作者;《燃燒天空:阿格斯行動與冷戰時期在外太空進行核試驗的未被告知的故事》;《黃昏中的一生:J. Robert Oppenheimer的最後幾年》;《太空的深處:先鋒行星探測器的故事》;以及《超人的科學》的作者。