A Bouquet of Dyson: and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists

186 Pages·2018·7.014 MB·English

by  Jeremy Bernstein

10762_9789813231924_tp.indd 1 2/1/18 4:19 PM
b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads
TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk
b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM
10762_9789813231924_tp.indd 2 2/1/18 4:19 PM
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A BOUQUET OF DYSON
and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists
Copyright © 2018 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance
Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy
is not required from the publisher.
ISBN 978-981-3231-92-4
ISBN 978-981-3238-28-2 (pbk)
For any available supplementary material, please visit
http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10762#t=suppl
Desk Editor: Christopher Teo
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore
Christopher - 10762 - A Bouquet of Dyson.indd 1 09-01-18 9:34:32 AM
I am grateful to Freeman Dyson for giving me
permission to publish these letters
b3109_FM.indd 5 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM
b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads
TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk
b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM
Contents
I People 1
1 A Bouquet of Dyson 3
2 The Pope 17
3 A Preprint 33
4 Murray 41
II Chronicles 49
5 Houtermans 51
6 Charlotte 61
7 Einstein and the Fraud 67
8 Pontecorvo 71
III Science 75
9 Three for the Road 77
10 Bode’s Law and the Trappists 85
11 Advanced Quantum Mechanics 89
12 Gian Carlo 103
IV Nuclear Weapons 109
13 An Error 111
14 Round and Round 125
15 Li6 127
16 Is E = mc2? 131
b3109_FM.indd 7 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM
viii Contents
V Life 135
17 A Trick of Memory 137
18 Checkers 143
19 A Little List 147
20 Anti-Semitism at Harvard 157
21 Twenty One 161
b3109_FM.indd 8 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM
A Bouquet of Dyson ix
My friendship with Freeman Dyson goes back over a half century.
My first contact with him goes back to the late 1950s when I was at
the Institute for Advanced Study and then evolved when I was a con-
sultant at General Atomics in La Jolla, California. Freeman was then
trying to design a space ship — the Orion — which would be propelled
by atomic bombs. When I left the Institute Freeman and I continued
our correspondence and I saved his letters. They are written in an
almost calligraphically elegant handwriting. It is hard to see how you
could make a mistake in a mathematical computation if you wrote that
clearly. The letters show his human side and his enormous range of
knowledge. I then pass on to two Italian scientists Enrico Fermi who
is very well known and Bruno Pontecorvo who is not and my old boss
Gian Carlo Wick. There are then two essays involving the physicist
Fritz Houtermans who was an extraordinarily colorful character. There
is a brief essay on Einstein’s collaboration with a fraud. There is even
an essay on the Titius Bode law and the new exo-planets. Because of
my enduring interest in nuclear weapons the reader will find essays
devoted to that.
b3109_FM.indd 9 03-Jan-18 11:07:15 AM