UNITED STATES AUTHOR
Heinz R. Pagels
Also known as: Heinz Rudolf Pagels, Pagels, Heinz, R.
Heinz R. Pagels, died on July 23, 1988, in a mountain climbing accident on Pyramid Peak in Aspen, Colorado. A physicist, he was Executive Director of The New York Academy of Sciences, adjunct professor of physics at Rockefeller University, and president of the International League for Human Rights. He was the author of three books:The Cosmic Code, Perfect Symmetry, and Dreams of Reason. He was also a founding member, and, at the time of his death, president of "The Reality Club," which, in 1997, moved to the Web as Edge.
That alcohol consumption is viewed as both a sin and a sacrament is indeed ironic.
— from The cosmic code
Most acclaimed
The dreams of reason
1961
Explains the new developments and the scientific impact of the computer as an instrument of the new sciences of complexity.
Perfect Symmetry
"This book is divided into four parts. The first part, 'Herschel's Garden,' {aims to} give the reader an overview of the dynamic universe discovered by astronomers--the stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, interstellar gas and dust, quasars, galaxies, their distribution in space as clustersand superclusters of galaxies, and the cosmos as a whole. . . . The second part, 'The Early Universe,' {seeks to} describe the . . . picture of the universe when it was only seconds and minutes old. . . . The third part of the book, 'Wild Ideas,' . . . speculates about the nature of that universe before the first nanosecond {one-billionth of a second}. . . . There is a short fourth part, 'Reflections,' which expresses my opinions and attitudes."
The cosmic code
Written for general readers, The Cosmic Code goes on a fantastic journey into the microcosmos. Without complicated mathematics, physicist Heinz Pagels presents an understanding of scientific discoveries that have extended human consciousness to the far readches of space & time. Anecdotes from the personal documents of Einstein, Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr & Max Planck provide an intimate glimpse into brilliant persons who've shaped civilzation & changed the world. Elegantly written, this is an opportunity to celebrate the physicist's vision of reality...& how physics is moving toward an understanding of the cosmos. Acknowledgments Foreword The last classical physicist Inventing general relativity The first quantum physicists Heisenberg on Helgoland Uncertainty and complementarity Randomness The invisible hand Statistical mechanics Making waves Schrödinger's cat A quantum mechanical fairy tale Bell's inequality The reality marketplace The matter microscopes Beginning the voyage: molecules, atoms and nuclei The riddle of the hadrons Quarks Leptons Gluons Fields, particles and reality Being and nothingness Identity and difference The gauge field theory revolution Proton decay The quantum and the cosmos Laying down the law The cosmic code Bibliography Index.