Author | Shi Yu (Professor, Department of Physics, Fudan University)
Professor Stephen Weinberg is one of the most eminent theoretical physicists of our time and has made many contributions to quantum field theory, particle physics and cosmology. In 1967, he proposed a unified theory of weak interactions and electromagnetic interactions, later known as the unified theory of electroweaks, which became part of the Standard Model of particle physics. He thus shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Weinberg received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1954 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1957. In 1973, he became eugene Higgins Chair Professor at Harvard University. After 1982, he was the son of Jack M. Lee of the University of Texas at Austin. S. Josie-Welch Foundation Chair Professor.
Weinberg is also one of the most engaging, respected, and outstanding masters of science communication. He received the 1999 Lewis Thomas Award for Scientific Writing and the 2009 James Joyce Award for his writing achievements. His 2021 Scientific Breakthrough Award Special Award (announced in September 2020) not only rewards his continued leadership of fundamental physics and his broad impact on particle physics, gravity and cosmology," but also his "scientific communication to the general public."
Weinberg has given many public lectures, written many popular science articles and essays, and published many books covering a wide range of topics, including astronomy, cosmology and physics, physicists, history of science, reductionism, scientific controversy, public affairs, politics, religion, advice to students, personal experiences, and so on.
Weinberg published his best-selling book The First Three Minutes in 1977, which played a historic role in the spread of big bang cosmology among scientists and the public. In 1982, he published The Discovery of Subatomic Particles, based on two of his previous two courses on the history of physics at Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin. In his preface, he points out that the discoveries of physics in the 20th century were already part of the culture.
In 1986, Feynman and Weinberg delivered a speech in honor of Dirac at Cambridge, "The Reason for Antiparticles" and "The Search for the Ultimate Laws of Physics," which were brought together into Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics.
Weinberg compiled his later public lectures and newspaper articles into three anthologies— "Looking Up at the Sky," "Reverie by the Lake," and this time's "Third Meditation," which basically correspond to his works from before 2000, 2000 to 2008, and 2009 to 2018. In his own words, his speeches and articles clearly demonstrate his ideas as a "rationalist, pragmatic, reductionist, and devout secular man."
Weinberg visited China only in 1978. In 2020, I invited Weinberg to give a public lecture on October 24, through the platform of the China Science and Technology Museum, with the title of "Very Large and Minimal". I worked as a live interpreter and had conversations with him. It was his first public address to a Chinese audience.
At the beginning of the event, I deliberately showed the audience an English version of the book "The Third Meditation" and asked Professor Weinberg whether the title meant "the third collection of essays", and got a positive answer.
Finally, Weinberg sent a message to the Chinese public, especially teenagers, summing up the mindset of his decades of work:
"As a physicist, looking back at the decades of work that began in the 1950s, it was a lot of fun. How exciting it is to discover a theoretical idea from time to time, to lead to experiments that confirm it, or to explain something that is known but seems strange. But it's not always so enjoyable, and a lot of time is spent on ideas that don't work. I have experienced more failures than successes, which is typical in scientific work. But a few successes make up for others. So keep working. ”
I am pleased to convey this passage to the readers of this book and to recommend the collection of essays, The Third Meditation.
Author: [U.S.] Stephen Weinberg
Translator: Qin Mai / Sun Zhengfan
Published 2022-1
Publisher: CITIC Publishing Group
Like the first two anthologies, much of Weinberg's prose originated in speeches and was then written into articles, mostly published in the New York Review of Books. So we're reading these articles now, like listening to Weinberg, unconsciously, increasing our knowledge and understanding of many aspects of the world, especially science, and also prompting us to think about these questions.
The book is roughly divided into four areas: the history of science, physics and cosmology, social commentary, and personal reverie.
Let me first introduce a few articles in the "History of Science" section.
Reading "The Usefulness of Astronomy" is like the audience on the original cruise ship, listening to Weinberg's speech, understanding the relationship between literature and human civilization from ancient times to the present day, the knowledge of life in two parts, and the usefulness of astronomy for sea voyages, and so on. This article later became the basis for chapter six of The Answer to the World.
In The Art of Discovery, Weinberg explains to audiences of all backgrounds how physicists do research, how they find problems in their research, and how they are now experimenting with particle physics.
The History of Particle Physics That Began with Rutherford presents the history of particle physics from Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus. The Rise of the Standard Model introduces the history of the development of the Standard Model of cosmology and the Standard Model of particle physics, emphasizing the relationship and convergence trend of these two fields. Out of modesty, Weinberg did not mention that he had given both of the "Standard Model" names.
Long Time and Short Time is a preface to the book of another theoretical physicist, T. Hooft, that talks about extremely long and extremely short time scales. This article reminds me of Weinberg's public lecture "The Great and the Small" at my invitation, about the spatial scale of the great and the small. The two are about time and space.
In Focusing on the Present: A Whig History of Science and A Whig History of Science: An Exchange, Weinberg points out that judging history from a contemporary perspective, the Whig view of history, has a place in the history of science. This is because the purpose of science is to understand the world, to pursue the truth, and there is right and wrong in science. The reason for the discussion of this question is that his own book, The Answer to the World, embodies this view. I've been running a course on the history of science for the last two years, using Weinberg's book as my main reference book, and I love it very much and appreciate his views.
In the "Physics and the Universe" section, Weinberg introduces the core concepts of elementary particles, the universe, symmetry, and the Higgs boson. Weinberg himself has made important contributions to the study of these topics. In "The Trouble with Quantum Mechanics", Weinberg introduced the probabilities in quantum mechanics, and many physicists, including Weinberg, were not satisfied.
In the "Social Review" section, Weinberg offers his views on the space program, big science, presidential campaigns, tax rates, manned spaceflight, and skepticism. In the "Personal Reverie" section, Weinberg recalls his experience as a student, talking about scientific writing and the similarities in the working methods of theoretical physicists and creative artists (this is the speech he gave when he won the James Joyce Prize).
On July 23, 2021, Weinberg died in Austin at the age of 88. I remembered that at the end of the online speech conversation the year before, Weinberg welcomed me to Texas again, and I was deeply shocked.
From the passage from the book's essay "Resting in The Educators and Scholars of Texas," we learn that Weinberg will be buried at the Texas Cemetery in Austin. Weinberg wrote:
"Educators probably won't have tombstones that can rival the monuments of Stephen Austin, the 'Father of Texas, or Albert Sidney Johnston, the first two-line commander-in-chief of the South during the American Civil War, but at least they can rest here and give silent proof of The prosperity of Science and Scholarship in Texas."
Rest in peace, Professor Weinberg, you have also made outstanding contributions to the prosperity of science and scholarship in Texas.
In the book's foreword, Weinberg candidly thanked readers in advance: "I hope this is not the last collection of essays. But..."
Let's savour this book as a tribute to Professor Stephen Weinberg.
This article is excerpted from the preface to The Third Meditation CITIC Publishing Group, published in January 2022
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Plate Editor |-Kogyu-