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Every reader interested in understanding the important problems in physics and astrophysics and their historic development over the past 60 years will enjoy this book immensely. The philosophy, history and the individual views of famous scientists of the 20th century known personally to the author, make this book fascinating for non-physicists, too. The book consists of three parts on (I) major problems of physics and astrophysics, (II) the philosophy and history of science and (III) memorial essays on famous physicists. The author is an internationally renowned scientist, who summarizes here his life-long interests, experience, and insights into the work of other eminent 20th-century physicists. Professor Ginzburg's fundamental contributions to the theory of superconductivity, encapsulated in the famous and widely-used Ginzburg-Landau equations, have been recognized with the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with A.A. Abrikosov and A.E. Leggett.
List of contents
I.- What Problems of Physics and Astrophysics Seem Now to Be Especially Important and Interesting?.- What Problems of Physics and Astrophysics Seem Now to Be Especially Important and Interesting (Thirty Years Later, Already on the Verge of the 21st Century)?.- II.- How Does Science Develop? Remarks on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.- Who Created the Theory of Relativity and How Was It Developed? A Review with a Preamble and a Commentary.- Does Astronomy Need 'New Physics'?.- Physical Laws and Extraterrestrial Civilizations.- Wide Scope and Up-to-Date Information as a Precondition of Successful Research.- Physics Stays Young. A Way of Answering the Questionnaire in Nauka i Zhizn' Magazine.- On Popular Science and More.- Notes on the Occasion My Jubilee.- A Scientific Autobiography - an Attempt.- III.- About Igor EvgenevichTamm.- A Piece of Advice Given by Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam.- On the 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Nikolai Dmitrievich Papaleksi.- About Lev Davidovich Landau.- To the Memory of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Andronov.- About Aleksandr Lvovich Mints.- In Commemoration of Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov.- A Story of Two Directors.- To the Memory of Ilya Mikhailovich Frank.- About Grigorii Samuilovich Landsberg.- To the Memory of Evgenii Konstantinovich Zavoiskii.- About Matvei Samsonovich Rabinovich.- Mstislav Vsevoldovich Keldysh.- About Albert Einstein.- In Memory of Niels Bohr.- About Richard Feynman - a Remarkable Physicist and a Wonderful Man.- John Bardeen and the Theory of Superconductivity.- On High-Energy Astrophysics (On the 80th Birthday of Jan Oort).- The Sakharov Phenomenon.- Notes on A. I. Solzhenitsyn, A. D. Sakharov, and the 'Crosswind'.- About the Author.
About the author
Vitaly L. Ginzburg was born 4 October 1916 in Moscow, Russia. Graduated from Moscow State University in 1938. Defended candidate dissertation (Ph.D.) in Moscow State University in 1940. From 1940 till now works in P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute Acad. Sci. USSR (now Russian Acad. Sci.). In 1942 defended Dr. Sci. dissertation. From 1971 till 1988 - head (director) of I. E. Tamm department of theoretical physics, from 1988 till now adviser in Russian Acad. Sci. and head of the theoretical group in P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute. From 1945 was visiting professor in Gorkii State University and from 1968 till now professor in Moscow Physico-Technical Institute. In 1953 was elected corresponding member of Acad. Sci. USSR and in 1966 - full member. Decorated with USSR and Russian orders.§V. L. Ginzburg is the author of several hundreds papers and many books including
Summary
The book will appeal to everybody interested in understanding the major problems in the development of physics in the twentieth century, historical progress and the views of famous researchers. A further thread is the relationship between physics and philosophy.
