
The Swings of Science
From Complexity to Simplicity and Back
Len Pismen(Author)
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 19. December 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
VIII, 190 pages
978-3-319-99776-6 (ISBN)
Description
This book is a personal account of some aspects of the emergence of modern science, mostly from the viewpoint of those branches of physics which provided the much needed paradigm shift of "more is different" that heralded the advent of complexity science as an antidote to the purely reductionist approach in fundamental physics. It is also about the humans that have helped to shape these developments, including personal reminiscences and the realization that the so-called exact sciences are inevitably also a social endeavour with all its facets.
Served by the razor-sharp wit of the author, this erudite ramble is meant to be neither comprehensive nor systematic, but its generous insights will give the inquisitive academically trained mind a better understanding of what science, and physics in particular, could or should be about.
More details
Edition
2018 ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Illustrations
25 s/w Abbildungen, 83 farbige Abbildungen
VIII, 190 p. 108 illus., 83 illus. in color.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
312 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-319-99776-6 (9783319997766)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-99777-3
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
12/2018
1st Edition
Springer
€64.19
Available for download
Person
Len Pismen is professor emeritus at Israel Institute of Technology where he held the Julius M. and Bernice Naiman Chair in Fluid Mechanics.
He has published two monographs - Vortices in Nonlinear Fields: From liquid crystals to superfluids, From non-equilibrium patterns to cosmic strings (Oxford University Press, 1999), Patterns and Interfaces in Dissipative Dynamics (Springer, 2006) - and is member of the editorial board of The European Physical Journal Special Topics .
He has published two monographs - Vortices in Nonlinear Fields: From liquid crystals to superfluids, From non-equilibrium patterns to cosmic strings (Oxford University Press, 1999), Patterns and Interfaces in Dissipative Dynamics (Springer, 2006) - and is member of the editorial board of The European Physical Journal Special Topics .
Content
Swings Through the Ages.- Continuum Mechanics.- Continuum Beyond Mechanics.- From Continuum to Atoms.- Condensed Matter.- Quantum Matter.- Broken symmetry.- Complexity Simplified.- Complexity Strikes Back.- Quo Vadis?