Maverick genius the pioneering odyssey of Freeman Dyson

"Freeman Dyson has been influential in many fields over his long and legendary career, including quantum physics, national defense, space, and religion. In this definitive biography, author Phillip F. Schewe examines the life of one of the most innovative thinkers of our time, whose accomplishm...

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Main Author: Schewe, Phillip F.
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2013.
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Summary: "Freeman Dyson has been influential in many fields over his long and legendary career, including quantum physics, national defense, space, and religion. In this definitive biography, author Phillip F. Schewe examines the life of one of the most innovative thinkers of our time, whose accomplishments include: designing a nuclear rocket ship, the Orion, for NASA; helping write the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; consulting Stanley Kubrick on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey; winning the coveted million dollar Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. A colleague of Albert Einstein at Princeton and friends with leading thinkers including Robert Oppenheimer, George F. Kennan, and Richard Feynman, Freeman Dyson is a larger-than-life figure in the world of science, and he has recently made headlines for his controversial views on global warming. Written with the cooperation of Dyson's children, entrepreneur Esther Dyson (an early investor in Flickr, Google, and Orbitz, who has often been called 'The First Lady of the Internet') and tech writer George Dyson, this is the first complete biography of the man who changed the way we think about science today"--
Physical Description: x, 339 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780312642358 (hardback)
0312642350 (hardback)
Author Notes: PHILLIP F. SCHEWE works at the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, where he is director of communication. He has a PhD in physics but has spent most of his career as a writer, chiefly as an explainer and popularizer of science. In addition, he has written numerous plays, which have been performed in New York, Washington, DC, and elsewhere. His previous book, The Grid , a history of the impact of electricity on society, was called by NPR one of the top science books of the year for 2007. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland.