A century of ideas : personal perspectives from a selection of the greatest minds of the Twentieth Century

Description

Shortly after its inauguration in 1985 the Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, India, started a series of lectures by Nobel Laureates and other scientists of international renown, mostly on Physics and Astronomy. The present collection mostly consists of lectures on frontier topics. The transcript of each lecture is preceded by a short biography of the Nobel Laureate/Scientist in question. The lectures are aimed at a wide non-specialist but higher educated audience. Content: Fifty Years of Cosmology Fred Hoyle. Science as an Adventure Hermann Bondi. The Early Universe William Fowler. The Long-Term Future of Particle Accelerators Simon van der Meer. Energy and Evolution George Porter. The Wonders of Pulsars Antony Hewish. Is the Future Given? Changes in our Description of Nature Ilya Prigogine. Bubbles, Foams and other Fragile Objects J.-P. De Gennes. Beyond the Standard Model: Will it be the Theory of Everything? Yuval Ne'eman. Living Joyfully with Complexity in Chemistry and Culture Roald Hoffmann. A Confrontation with Infnity Gerard 'tHooft. The Creative and Unpredictable Interaction of Science and Technology Charles Townes. The Link Between Neutrino Masses and Proton Decay in Supersymmetric Unification Jogesh Pati. The Nature of Discovery in Physics Douglas D. Osheroff. Symmetry in the Micro World - A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner B.G. Sidharth