The most important answer that science has a human question is that “the world is governed by impersonal mathematical laws, for which purposes or human desires no influence at all” according to the Nobel Prize in Physics 1979 Steven Weinberg.
Born in New York in 1933, the son of Jewish immigrants, Weinberg received his doctorate in physics from Princeton University in 1957 and won the Nobel combine electromagnetism and weak in the so-called electroweak interaction of elementary particles force.
The award, shared with Sheldon Lee Glashow and Abdus Salam, catapulted him to rank among the world’s experts in theoretical physics. Among his numerous awards include the Lewis Thomas Prize, the best writers of popular science is granted, thanks to works like “The first three minutes of the universe” or “The dream of a final theory.” “I think it was-the novelist and essayist EM Forster Briton who said he wrote to earn the respect of those whom he respected … and to earn a living,” he recalls in an interview with Efe Weinberg, just Spanish published in his book “Explaining the World” (Taurus). He adds, “I like to think there are smart people, not necessarily physical, enjoying what I write … Of course the bread is also worth of revenue.” In his latest book briefly reviews the scientific contributions from ancient Greece until the time of Newton, when “the goals and criteria of science had not yet acquired its present form,” and that has examined providing “the perspective from which a scientist Current active sees science of the past. ” At the risk of trying to understand the way of thinking of the ancient researchers judging the past with contemporary standards, it acknowledges that “it is difficult to understand the mentality of our predecessors but we must try, examining its successes and failures” and “without forgetting the difference Between both”. In this regard, an interesting aspect of the book is its examination of the Middle Ages, when usually seen as an example of superstition or incompetence but is better off in the reflections of Weinberg. “I can not consider as incompetent or superstitious scientists like (Jean) Buridan a disciple of William of Ockham, who experimented with logic, optics and mechanically or (Nicolas) Oresme, who excelled as an astronomer, psychologist, physicist, philosopher -… and economist, although they did not have our modern knowledge to learn about the world, “he argues. In addition to his research itself, Weinberg exercises, along with other researchers known as Richard Dawkins and Norman Levitt, one of the main proponents of scientific materialism and rationalism activist stands out as very belligerent against religious fact. In fact, one of his most controversial reflections uttered in 1999 at a conference in Washington where he described religion as “an insult to the dignity,” a view shared with beliefs such as astrology because according to says “in a sense, everything that exists in the universe affects else in it, but the effect types described by astrologers are simply nonsense. ” As an example, he explains why the moon, head of earth tides, does not affect humans and defends astrology although these are composed of a number of H20 that can reach 75% of their total weight. Still, much it remains to be explained as “the more our universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems to make no sense” and there are many issues that science has not been able to clarify the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which make up 90% what it exists. For Weinberg, the most important scientist in history “in regard to the physical sciences” is Isaac Newton, but also quotes Charles Darwin, who “may have played a more important role in elucidating the impersonal nature of the laws that govern the world. ”
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