The advance of scienti?c thought in ways resembles biological and geologic transformation: long periods of gradual change punctuated by episodes of radical upheaval. Twentieth century physics witnessed at least three major shifts - relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos theory - as well many lesser ones. Now, st early in the 21, another shift appears imminent, this one involving the second law of thermodynamics. Over the last 20 years the absolute status of the second law has come under increased scrutiny, more than during any other period its 180-year history. Since the early 1980's,...
The advance of scienti?c thought in ways resembles biological and geologic transformation: long periods of gradual change punctuated by episodes of ra...
Shortly after its inauguration in 1985 the Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, India, started a series of lectures by Nobel Laureates and other scientists of international renown, mostly on Physics and Astronomy. The present collection mostly consists of lectures on frontier topics. The transcript of each lecture is preceded by a short biography of the Nobel Laureate/Scientist in question. The lectures are aimed at a wide non-specialist but higher educated audience.
Shortly after its inauguration in 1985 the Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, India, started a series of lectures by Nobel Laureates and other scient...
The book is a newly arranged and revised English version of "Aufbau der Physik" by Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker. Some original chapters and sections have been deleted, and a new chapter about further insights and results of ur-theoretic research of the late 1980's and 1990's has been included. Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker combines the perspectives of science, philosophy, religion and politics with a view towards the challenges as well as the responsibilities of our time.
The book is a newly arranged and revised English version of "Aufbau der Physik" by Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker. Some original chapters and sectio...
There exist essentially two levels of investigation in theoretical physics. One is primarily descriptive, concentrating as it does on useful phenomenological approaches toward the most economical classifications of large classes of experimental data on particular phenomena. The other, whose thrust is explanatory, has as its aim the formulation of those underlying hypotheses and their mathematical representations that are capable of furnishing, via deductive analysis, predictions - constituting the particulars of universals (the asserted laws)- about the phenomena under consideration. The two...
There exist essentially two levels of investigation in theoretical physics. One is primarily descriptive, concentrating as it does on useful phenomeno...
This volume contains the text of the twenty-five papers presented at two workshops entitled Maximum-Entropy and Bayesian Methods in Applied Statistics, which were held at the University of Wyoming from June 8 to 10, 1981, and from August 9 to 11, 1982. The workshops were organized to bring together researchers from different fields to critically examine maxi mum-entropy and Bayesian methods in science, engineering, medicine, oceanography, economics, and other disciplines. An effort was made to maintain an informal environment where ideas could be easily xchanged. That the workshops were at...
This volume contains the text of the twenty-five papers presented at two workshops entitled Maximum-Entropy and Bayesian Methods in Applied Statistics...
One of the most exciting predictions of Einstein's theory of gravitationisthat there may exist 'black holes': putative objects whose gravitational fields are so strong that no physical bodies and signals can break free of their pull and escape. Even though a completely reliable discovery of a black hole has not yet been made, several objects among those scrutinized by astrophysicists will very likely be conformed as black holes. The proof that they do exist, and an analysis of their properties, would have a significance going far beyond astrophysics. Indeed, what is involved is not just the...
One of the most exciting predictions of Einstein's theory of gravitationisthat there may exist 'black holes': putative objects whose gravitational fie...
Without listing his works, all of which are highly notable both for the originality of the methods utilized as well as for the importance of the results achieved, we limit ourselves to the following: Inmodernnucleartheories, thecontributionmadebythisresearcher to the introduction of the forces called 'Majorana forces' is universally recognized as the one, among the most fundamental, that permits us to theoretically comprehend the reasons for nuclear stability. The work of Majorana today serves as a basis for the most important research in this ?eld. In atomic physics, the merit of having...
Without listing his works, all of which are highly notable both for the originality of the methods utilized as well as for the importance of the resul...
Temperature and heat, entropy and order or disorder are key classical concepts of physics. These are challenged by searching matter under extreme conditions, such as high (relativistic) energy, strong acceleration or gravitation, or unusual complexity due to long range correlations. In our quest for quark matter all these conditions might occur simultaneously. This book, strongly motivated by the authors' everyday research experiences in the field of high-energy heavy-ion collisions, aims to bundle these challenges to modern physics.
The main topic is at the heart of thermodynamics...
Temperature and heat, entropy and order or disorder are key classical concepts of physics. These are challenged by searching matter under extreme c...
This is a textbook on classical mechanics at the intermediate level, but its main purpose is to serve as an introduction to a new mathematical language for physics called geometric algebra. Mechanics is most commonly formulated today in terms of the vector algebra developed by the American physicist J. Willard Gibbs, but for some applications of mechanics the algebra of complex numbers is more efficient than vector algebra, while in other applica tions matrix algebra works better. Geometric algebra integrates all these algebraic systems into a coherent mathematical language which not only...
This is a textbook on classical mechanics at the intermediate level, but its main purpose is to serve as an introduction to a new mathematical languag...
An international workshop on CO2 and Biosphere' was held in Wageningen, the Netherlands on 15-19 November 1991 as part of the activities of the CO2 Commission of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research: this volume includes 32 papers presented at the workshop. The CO2 Commission stimulates and coordinates a broad range of research projects related to the greenhouse effect. This is reflected in the scope of papers presented, ranging from detailed analyses of ecological and physiological effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment to...
An international workshop on CO2 and Biosphere' was held in Wageningen, the Netherlands on 15-19 November 1991 as part of the activities of...
