Why Quark Rhymes with Pork: And Other Scientific Diversions 1st Edition by N. David Mermin (PDF)

Description

A collection of offbeat, entertaining and primarily nontechnical essays on physics and those who practice it, from eminent theoretical physicist N. David Mermin. Bringing together for the first time all thirty of his columns published in Physics Today’s Reference Frame series from 1988 to 2009, with updating commentary, this humorous and unusual volume includes thirteen other essays, many of them previously unpublished. Mermin’s lively and penetrating writing illuminates a broad range of topics, from the implications of bad spelling in a major science journal, to the crises of science libraries and scientific periodicals, the folly of scientific prizes and honors, the agony of getting funding, and how to pronounce ‘quark’. His witty observations and insightful anecdotes gleaned from a lifetime in science will entertain physicists at all levels, as well as anyone else interested in science or scientists at the turn of the twenty-first century.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐David Mermin is a theoretical physicist on the faculty of Cornell University. Many of the essays in this book first appeared in Physics Today’s Reference Frame, a column created by Mermin. For many years, this was my favorite section of that monthly magazine. Mermin’s little gems reflected his broad interests and his reflections on life as an academic physicist. Often with a title that began, “what’s wrong with”, he wrote about our colloquia, our journals, our funding mechanisms, and our writing. This book collects them all. Other short chapters tell affectionate stories of mentors and colleagues and of Mermin’s experience attending Nobel Prize festivities. Brief essays on more technical matters are also included – the interpretation of quantum mechanics, relativity, and quantum computing. I loved this book, and I suspect that most physicists will feel similarly, especially those of us who remember Reference Frame. For those outside of physics I would say, give it a try! The chapters are short. If you skip around, I think you’ll find some things of interest, not the least of which is Mermin’s well-crafted prose.

⭐David Mermin is a outstanding writer and an insightful physicist who easily skewers the conventional wisdom and separates the wheat from the chaff on a variety of issues. He is not afraid to discuss his opinions about many matters that his professional colleagues would probably keep to themselves. Moreover, he is very insightful and offers crisp, to the point, explanations of many difficult to understand quantum phenomena. The title article is very much fun as he proves himself a real wordmaster! His other books are equally a joy to read. I strongly recommend Boojums All The Way! In that book I especially enjoyed his discussions of Logarithms! and Sterling’s Formula! Finally, his first book on Special Relativity is a delight. I read it many years ago as a student and felt like he really explained the ideas of Lorentz contraction, time dilation, and special relativity. I strongly recommend any of his wonderful books to an interested reader. My only regrets are that I have not had time to read his Solid State book and his more recent books on relativity and quantum computing.

⭐Entertaining and thought-provoking commentary on physics and physicists, from an accomplished physicist and author. But as for the essay that gives the book its title, sorry, David. In the James Joyce book where Gell-Mann saw the word “quark,” it’s clearly meant to rhyme with all the other “-ark” words in the little poem, even though it does not come at the end of a line…

⭐I should have been wary about reading a book about physics, but the title had me beguiled. The book has 43 chapters and I could not understand eleven of them because they were too technical. But the rest were good and some were very good. In the latter group falls all of “Part Five · Some People I’ve Known.” Also in the very-good category were the chapters on the Nobel Prize ceremonies; the chapter on questions for 2105, and the chapter on why quark does rhyme with pork. As it happens, half of the chapters that I didn’t understand were consecutive (chapters 28-33) and so by chapter 33, I had thought that I had made a huge mistake picking up this book and was ready to stop reading. And then, just like that, the technical part ended and the rest of the book (except for one more chapter) was smooth sailing. Sometimes when I read a book, the author feels like a friend. That happened in Leon Lederman’s “The God Particle” and it happened here. And now that I finished the book, I will miss author N. David Mermin.I received this book for free via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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