Product Description

Is science beautiful? Yes, argues acclaimed philosopher and historian of science Robert P. Crease in this engaging exploration of history’s most beautiful experiments. The result is an engrossing journey through nearly 2,500 years of scientific innovation. Along the way, we encounter glimpses into the personalities and creative thinking of some of the field’s most interesting figures.

We see the first measurement of the earth’s circumference, accomplished in the third century B.C. by Eratosthenes using sticks, shadows, and simple geometry. We visit Foucault’s mesmerizing pendulum, a cannonball suspended from the dome of the Panthéon in Paris that allows us to see the rotation of the earth on its axis. We meet Galileo—the only scientist with two experiments in the top ten—brilliantly drawing on his musical training to measure the speed of falling bodies. And we travel to the quantum world, in the most beautiful experiment of all.

We also learn why these ten experiments exert such a powerful hold on our imaginations. From the ancient world to cutting-edge physics, these ten exhilarating moments reveal something fundamental about the world, pulling us out of confusion and revealing nature’s elegance. The Prism and the Pendulum brings us face-to-face with the wonder of science.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54749 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-12
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
“Science and scientists are so often seen as cold and emotionless, but they are passionately drawn to beauty and truth, no less intensely than artists or poets. One can open this book anywhere and get a sense of this special passion—each chapter has its own special feel and delectations, and all of them bring out that beauty, for scientists, is no less important than truth, and that one can be ravished by an experiment no less than by a work of art.”
—Oliver Sacks

“In an era in which the public perceives science as a string of ethereal ideas conjured up by cute men in tweed jackets sitting in overstuffed leather chairs in the faculty lounge, The Prism and the Pendulum creates a refreshing portrait of beauty in science: of men with rough hands polishing inclined planes, peering into wells, climbing towers, or sitting in the dark looking for the one spark in eight thousand that would ignite the nuclear age. In this readable, narrative-driven book, we meet scientists wresting the truth from nature by confronting her on a physical, visceral level. Robert Crease, with this volume, destroys and corrects the ‘damn good stories’ commonly used to teach science, and places himself among our most important science historians and philosophers.”
—Dick Teresi, author of Lost Discoveries, coauthor of The God Particle, cofounder of Omni


From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover
“Science and scientists are so often seen as cold and emotionless, but they are passionately drawn to beauty and truth, no less intensely than artists or poets. One can open this book anywhere and get a sense of this special passion—each chapter has its own special feel and delectations, and all of them bring out that beauty, for scientists, is no less important than truth, and that one can be ravished by an experiment no less than by a work of art.”
—Oliver Sacks

“In an era in which the public perceives science as a string of ethereal ideas conjured up by cute men in tweed jackets sitting in overstuffed leather chairs in the faculty lounge, The Prism and the Pendulum creates a refreshing portrait of beauty in science: of men with rough hands polishing inclined planes, peering into wells, climbing towers, or sitting in the dark looking for the one spark in eight thousand that would ignite the nuclear age. In this readable, narrative-driven book, we meet scientists wresting the truth from nature by confronting her on a physical, visceral level. Robert Crease, with this volume, destroys and corrects the ‘damn good stories’ commonly used to teach science, and places himself among our most important science historians and philosophers.”
—Dick Teresi, author of Lost Discoveries, coauthor of The God Particle, cofounder of Omni

About the Author
Robert P. Crease is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York, and historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He writes a monthly column, “Critical Point,” for Physics World magazine. His books include Making Physics: A Biography of Brookhaven National Laboratory; The Play of Nature: Experimentation as Performance; The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics (with Charles C. Mann); and—with Robert Serber—Peace & War: Reminiscences of a Life on the Frontiers of Science. Crease’s translations include American Philosophy of Technology: The Empirical Turn. He lectures widely, and his articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, and elsewhere. He lives in New York City.


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Beauty prizes
The "war" of the humanities against science has been long and arduous. According to Crease, the revelations of science in the 18th and 19th Centuries led the Romanticists to claim nature's wonders had been diluted or destroyed by the "mechanics". He refutes those assertions with an expressive study of ten "beautiful" experiments. Crease isn't arguing for a redefinition of "beauty" in this book. On the contrary, he shows how beauty's normally accepted role in human life can be suitably applied to science's accomplishments.

He admits outright to his own surprise at a researcher's exclamation over a "beautiful" experiment. The novelty of the assertion led him to query many scientists on which experiments might be so considered. The responses both surprised and gratified him. The result of his survey is this excellent book. The ten selected range from the means to first measure the earth to the realization that electrons can be in two places at once. A combination of good science and fine writing, coupled with an astute historical sense make this book a treasure.

What makes an experiment "beautiful"? Crease sets three criteria: depth, efficiency and definitiveness. "Depth" implies something fundamental about the world is revealed by the experiment. Certainly, measuring the globe using shadows in sunlight qualifies that criterion. "Efficiency" means the result is general enough to preclude having to do the experiment in a different manner to gain the same results. "Definitiveness" suggests that anyone can understand both the experiment and its value. Clearly, his ten choices show how these criteria work. Following the descriptive essay, Crease then explains the "beauty" aspect of it in the appropriate scenario, whether music, graphic art or theatre.

Of the ten, the two of the title are symbolic: Newton's breakdown and recombination of sunlight with prisms and Foucault's use of a pendulum to verify the Earth's rotation. Newton's demonstration has probably been castigated by the humanities more than anything else in science. "Unweaving the Rainbow" was the causus belli of the Victorian Romanticists their assault on science. Crease readily dismisses such obscurantism in explaining how valuable an exercise Newton's analysis of light proved. By extending the experiment from breaking down light to recombining it, Newton showed how research, like creating a painting, must reach beyond first results. There is, Crease notes, even a moral lesson in the exercise.

Foucault's pendulum conveys a reality about our world we cannot perceive otherwise. Awed by the realization that only our planet's rotation can force the pendulum to describe a circle while swaying from its mount, Crease applauds the teachers who bring their students to observe it. The experience is so profound, Crease describes it as a manifestation of "sublime beauty". It is clearly an experiment beyond an exercise in either pure mechanics or reasoning. Seeing the swinging orb successively tumbling a set of pegs forces a reconsideration of how we perceive the universe. What else, he asks, might greater perception have in store? This book challenges all who feel their perception of either science or beauty is complete. It is a worthwhile read for anyone asking, at any level, about the world they inhabit. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Beautiful Book...Beautiful Minds...Beautiful Experiments
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The author, Robert Crease, a professor of philosophy and historian, sums up this entire book (that has ten chapters with a separate introduction and conclusion) by telling us to "think of this book as a special kind of gallery [of science experiments]." He goes on to say that "this gallery contains [ten experiments] of rare beauty, each with its own [experimental] design, distinct materials, and unique appeal. You will not like everything equally, for your background, experience, education, and personal taste will incline you to prefer some [experiments] over others."

These experiments were chosen by conducting a poll. The author asked readers of a certain international science magazine what they thought were the most beautiful science experiments. Then the author selected the ten most frequently mentioned candidates. (By the way, the author admits that his "poll, to be sure, was unscientific.")

The ten experiments, from oldest to more recent, are as follows:

(1) An ancient experiment that uses a shadow, a measuring tool, and junior high school geometry. ("It is so simple and instructive that it is reenacted annually, almost 2,500 years later, by school children all around the globe.")

(2) A 400-year-old experiment that was demonstrated on the surface of the Moon in August of 1971 by one of the Apollo 15 astronauts.

(3) "The first modern scientific experiment [done by the same person of (2) above], in which an investigator...planned, staged, and observed a series of actions in order to discover a mathematical law."

(4) A three-centuries-old experiment that the author describes as "a landmark in the history of science [since it reveals a new aspect of nature] and a sensational demonstration of the experimental method."

(5) "A measurement experiment that stood out by [its] extreme degree of precision." (The laboratory where this experiment was first performed was in the same lab where Watson and Crick discovered - many years later - the structure of DNA.)

(6) This experiment was "a classic example of the successful use of analogy in science."

(7) An experiment that uses "one of the simplest devices in science" and enables you "to watch the Earth turn."

(8) A century-old experiment (actually a series of experiments) that was "a defining moment in our electronic age." (This experiment, in my opinion, was rather messy and not really that beautiful.)

(9) An experiment that "marked the birth of modern particle physics." (This is my favorite experiment of these ten.)

(10) This experiment's result "is one of the most awesome and arresting human experiences." (This was the most frequently selected experiment in the poll.)

Throughout the book, two main questions are indirectly answered. These questions are as follows:

(i) "What does it mean for experiments, if they can be beautiful?"

(ii) "And what does it mean for beauty, if experiments can possess it?"

(Both these questions, as well, are given thorough treatment in the book's conclusion.)

Each of the book's ten chapters concludes with a short "interlude." Many of these interludes deal directly or indirectly with beauty in science. For example, there are interludes that have the following titles: "Why Science is Beautiful" and "Does Science Destroy Beauty?" But other subjects are covered in these interludes such as experiment versus demonstration and science & culture. Be sure to read the interlude entitled "The Newton-Beethoven Comparison."

The last chapter has a "Runners-Up" interlude. These are experiments that did not make it into the author's ten-best list.

The conclusion of this book is entitled "Can Science Still be Beautiful?" It details the author's "personal candidate for the most beautiful experiment" and, as already mentioned, gives comprehensive answers to the two main questions stated above.

This book is very easy to read (and the 25 illustrations throughout this book aid in that ease) and assumes no science background. You are given a wealth of historical and biographical information of all major persons involved in each experiment. The only prequisite, I feel, that's needed to read this book is inquisitiveness and curiosity.

What I especially enjoyed about this book is that throughout it we are given some examples of the actual writings of the experimenters (as well as those who admired them and those who did not). One of my favorite writings is as follows: "It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch (artillery) shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."

My only complaint is with the book's subtitle: "The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science." Remember that the poll to obtain these ten experiments was unscientific. Thus, I feel that this subtitle is unjustified and perhaps misleading. Therefore, the book's subtitle should more accurately read "Ten Beautiful Experiments in Science."

In conclusion, this is somewhat of a unique book that attempts to explain how science can be beautiful and illustrates this idea with ten beautiful experiments. This book allows the reader to experience science's beauty, mystery, and wonderment. As well, the reader gets to experience the thrill of discovery!!

**** 1/2

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Good summary of great discoveries
This book was an interesting an fun review of significant scientific discoveries. It provides more detail than I have read about these discoveries, and it left me wanting to find even more detail through other sources.

This book is written for a technical audience, but it does not overwhelm the non-technical reader with a lot of numbers and equations.