Customer Reviews

Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a wonderful book that is very clearly written and joy to read and read again. Dr. Teller shows how some of the most
difficult ideas can be made clear by examples. I liked his
conversational style, it reads as if Dr. Teller is talking directly to you. This is one of the top books on physics with the general reader in mind. Some of the best books for the general reader were written by the greatest contributors in the field. Other selections by: Einstein, Max Born, Richard Feynman, do well for the general reader but requires a little more math, ... not hard math, simple but rich math full of motion, ... math you need to visualize.
Dr. Teller helps you visualize ideas, as good teachers do.
I was very happy to see this book back in print having barrowed the hard cover book from the library a number of times just to hear again how Dr. Teller said it; and to make clear again an idea that puzzled me. It is well worth reading and owning.

I came away from reading this book (and from occasionally meeting and working with Teller) convinced that the essence of the man was not the political animal familiar to the public, but rather someone driven by a wonderfully childlike curiosity about any and all aspects of science. You may feel that the world would have been better off without him, but read this book anyway. I'll bet you wind up agreeing with Bob Parks of the American Physical Society: "Physics will be less interesting without him."

Good subject matter from a man who knew and developed modern physics.
Not only was Teller a great man in advancing pure and applied physics, he is also one of the great unsung heros of the United States and the free world.

The origin and so-called `secrets' of quantum physics are revealed for the general reader. To be specific, it is a book about quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle, and the explanation of the structure of matter.

Edward Teller was, and there is a dispute about this in the physics world, the "father of the H-Bomb". J Robert Oppenheimer, who recruited Teller in 1943 to work with him, and against whom Teller testified in 1954 security hearings, probably had a different name for him.

Teller believes that science illiteracy is in increasingly great danger to the western society: "young people must be exposed to science both because it is useful and because it is fun." Unfortunately, there is not a lot of fun in this book.

Wading through the morass of formulae on relativity, wave-particle dualism, the correspondence principle, and statistical mechanics may confuse and confound the reader. Teller writes that he is trying to convince the reader of his philosophy that science is simplicity - yet he does this in a very complicated manner. However, I did find merit in perusing the rotational states of n and n+1 of a diatomic molecule and their angular momentum values!

For those who already love science and mathematics, this book is an interesting read.

If you need more convincing that science is fun, try reading the works of the late Richard Feynman (like "Six Easy Pieces," "Six Not-so-Easy Pieces," and "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman"). Better yet, read Ed Regis' "Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition".

Martina Nicolls, Author of "The Sudan Curse" and "Kashmir on a Knife-Edge"

With so many good competitors available today
there was no reason to resurrect this fossil.