Cranks, Quarks, and the Cosmos: Writings on Science [Paperback]

Jeremy Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997 | ISBN-10: 0192880438 | ISBN-13: 978-0192880437

Asking "How can we be sure that Albert Einstein was not a crank?", this book looks at the history of science from a general perspective. It includes an autobiographical account of how the author became science writer for the "New Yorker", and a series of profiles of famous scientists from Einstein, Neils Bohr and Alan Turing to Primo Levi, Edwin Land and Sophia Kovalevsky.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the third collection from physicist Bernstein, whose New Yorker column, "The Annals of Science," begun in the 1960s, popularized literary profiles of scientists. His first collection, Experiencing Science , published in 1978, contains what are arguably his best pieces, but the 13 profiles and meditations here, drawn from the last five years, offer certain late-career pleasures. The "cranks" of the title refers to Bernstein's personal test for distinguishing the insight of genius from the demands of eccentricity, elucidated in "How Can We Be Sure That Albert Einstein Was Not a Crank?" Among pieces on Alan Turing, Primo Levi and James Watson, "Feet of Clay," the profile of Erwin Schrodinger, creator of wave mechanics, demonstrates the Bernstein approach at its best: an arcane theory and a diffident man caught in difficult times--all drawn with lucidity, humanity and discreet intelligence.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Always articulate and interesting, Bernstein ranks among the very best of popular science essayists. This anthology of 16 of his finest recent essays is a true collection --i.e., instead of a smattering of unrelated writings, haphazardly assembled, this book explores several related themes and, by doing so, reveals fundamental linkages between the lives and works of several key 20th-century scientists. Among them, readers meet, in very personal ways, Albert Eintein, Niels Bohr, Alan Turing, Erwin Schrodinger, and Stephen Hawking. They also meet some significant but lesser-known figures, like Edwin Land, Tom Lehrer, Sophia Kovalevsky, and, in an extremely moving work, the Italian chemist Primo Levi, who was a prisoner at Auschwitz. While most of the essays have been previously published, one of the new works, the concluding essay entitled "Science Education for Non-Scientists," is an important addition in that it convincingly outlines why science literacy is important. Recommended for popular science collections.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr (Txt) (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192880438
• ISBN-13: 978-0192880437
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,809,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a superb mix of articles, well written and accurate., August 31, 2001

By 

Dinoj Surendran "buymespresso" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cranks, Quarks, and the Cosmos: Writings on Science (Paperback)

Bernstein is one of that small set of people who are both scientists and have written for the New Yorker. This books is a collection of essays on scientists. In addition to to more 'regular' ones about Bohr, Einstein, Mach and Turing, there are stories about Edwin Land and Sonya Kowalewsky. The tale of how Tom Lehrer, Harvard math graduate student, actually got his songs to market caught me by surprise. And I had no idea Primo Levi had been in a concentration camp.

This book's focus is more on the people who make science than the actual science itself. It is not a flippant biography or collection of anecdotes by any means, but a solid (well --- as solid as you can be in twenty pages per person) well balanced description of various scientists. The author's science/writing experience allows him to avoid being condescending, bloated or abstruse. More than mere journalism, this book gives a real flavor of the lives of scientists.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine writing and a deep understanding, March 30, 2007

By 

Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cranks, Quarks, and the Cosmos: Writings on Science (Paperback)

Bernstein is the author of a good many books and a good many scientific profiles for the New Yorker, a literary form that he claims to have invented. I'm not sure that I'd completely accept that- Berton Rouche's "Annals of Medicine" series for that magazine seem to have predated him- but that aside, Bernstein is still one of the best popular science writers around. He is a master of the New Yorker style, having been trained by that magazine's great editor William Shawn.

Bernstein also has a deep understanding of modern science missing from some of the modern writers of popular accounts, and he lets the story tell itself, rather than taking the lazy route of adding stylistic affectations to add interest to a poorly told story. His profiles of some of the greatest physicists of the modern era, like Mach, Bohr and Schroedinger, really clarify for the lay reader what it was about the accomplishments of these men that gave them their place in history.