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Title details for To Explain the World by Steven Weinberg - Available

To Explain the World

The Discovery of Modern Science

by Steven Weinberg
Tom Perkins
Audiobook
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In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries, from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world—they did not understand what there is to understand or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged. Along the way, Weinberg examines historic clashes and collaborations between science and the competing spheres of religion, technology, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy.

An illuminating exploration of the way we consider and analyze the world around us, To Explain the World is a sweeping, ambitious account of how difficult it was to discover the goals and methods of modern science, and the impact that this discovery had on human knowledge and development.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 10, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781494528379
      • File size: 308879 KB
      • Duration: 10:43:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Weinberg traces science's evolution from its ancient beginnings through Newton's discoveries. Narrator Tom Perkins delivers Weinberg's book as a well-presented beginners' lecture, starting in the early passages, where the author writes about scientists' love of theory. As Weinberg mixes science and math with biographies and a discussion of cultural attitudes toward science, Perkins makes sure listeners can follow the main points on an international tour of early scientific inquiry. Still, there are places where it bogs down. The general listener may not be interested in lists of people who translated scientific works or be able to follow an equation while driving. Nonetheless, listeners will learn enough to appreciate the development of science. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 2, 2015
      With his usual scholarly aplomb, Weinberg (The First Three Minutes), a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, leads readers on a tour of early scientific theory, from the ancient Greeks to the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. Weinberg begins around 500 B.C. with philosopher Heraclitus, whose infinite "ordered" cosmos made of "ever-living Fire" typifies an early Greek focus on aesthetics rather than observation and verification. Pythagoras brought mathematical rigor and logic to the field, while Aristotle's ideas about motion became scientific bedrock throughout Arab advances of the Middle Ages and held sway until Copernicus, Galileo, and the subsequent Scientific Revolution. Throughout, Weinberg stresses a need for humans to "outgrow" a "holistic" (as in one that considers humanistic concerns) approach to nature, and stop attaching religion and other abstract ideasâjustice, love, strifeâto our scientific understanding. Science students will particularly appreciate the clarity and detail of Weinberg's "Technical Notes" at the back of the book, which delve more deeply into selected topics. Accessible and smoothly-written, Weinberg offers new insights on what has become familiar territory for pop-science readers. Illus.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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