Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam
A Life in Physics
24 May 2000
Description
Winner of the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award
"This delightful account is packed with insights…[Wheeler] is a consummately American physicist whose wide-ranging career spans much of a disturbing century." —Michael Riordan, New York Times Book Review
He studied with Niels Bohr, taught Richard Feynman, and boned up on relativity with his friend and colleague Albert Einstein. John Archibald Wheeler's fascinating life brings us face to face with the central characters and discoveries of modern physics. He was the first American to learn of the discovery of nuclear fission, later coined the term "black hole," led a renaissance in gravitation physics, and helped to build Princeton University into a mecca for physicists.
From nuclear physics, to quantum theory, to relativity and gravitation, Wheeler's work has set the trajectory of research for half a century. His career has brought him into contact with the most brilliant minds of his field; Fermi, Bethe, Rabi, Teller, Oppenheimer, and Wigner are among those he called colleagues and friends. In this rich autobiography, Wheeler reveals in fascinating detail the excitement of each discovery, the character of each colleague, and the underlying passion for knowledge that drives him still.
Reviews
"A paradigm of scientific autobiography: candid and warm, as clear as crystal…John Wheeler has lived an immensely interesting and important life at the center of physics in the twentieth century." — Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone
"In this rich and wonderful book, we see John Wheeler grow from fire-cracker-lightning boyhood into perhaps the most innovative physicist-thinker of our time and one of the most powerful mentors of young scientists. As we watch him struggle with the deepest puzzles at the frontiers of science—the nature of space, time, gravity, and the quantum—we find ourselves immersed in the ethos of twentieth-century physics, and we glimpse the physics of the future. It's a great read." — Kip S. Thorne, author of Black Holes and Time Warps
