BIRDS AND FROGS: SELECTED PAPERS OF FREEMAN DYSON, 1990-2014 - Softcover

This is a remarkable collection of essays written late in his life by the co-founder of quantum electrodynamics ... The extremely varied and stimulating collection ends with 'Technical papers', among which one finds evidence of Dyson's unabated drive for publications also in the field of his original training, in number theory. --Zentralblatt MATH

The writing is reflective, thoughtful, and occasionally controversial. His memoirs of famous contemporaries and teachers, which include John Wheeler, S Chandrasekhar, C N Yang and Nicholas Kemmer, are illuminating and insightful. --CHOICE Connect

Dyson is perhaps uniquely placed among living scientists in having been privy to much that went on in the early days of quantum field theory, and to have met and be able to write about personal experiences with many of our modern-day heroes. In the 'Memoirs' section, and elsewhere, he offers insights not only into their work, but also their lives and beliefs. Dyson has a penchant for classifying things into a small number of categories, often just two you are certain to find much to delight you in this eclectic and yet somehow unified collection. --CERN Courier

This book is a sequel to the volume of selected papers of Dyson up to 1990 that was published by the American Mathematical Society in 1996. The present edition comprises a collection of the most interesting writings of Freeman Dyson, all personally selected by the author, from the period 1990-2014.The five sections start off with an Introduction, followed by Talks about Science, Memoirs, Politics and History, and some Technical Papers. The most noteworthy is a lecture entitled Birds and Frogs to the American Mathematical Society that describes two kinds of mathematicians with examples from real life. Other invaluable contributions include an important tribute to C. N. Yang written for his retirement banquet at Stony Brook University, as well as a historical account of the Operational Research at RAF Bomber Command in World War II provocatively titled A Failure of Intelligence. The final section carries the open-ended question of whether any conceivable experiment could detect single gravitons to provide direct evidence of the quantization of gravity - Is a Graviton Detectable? Various possible graviton-detectors are examined.This invaluable compilation contains unpublished lectures, and surveys many topics in science, mathematics, history and politics, in which Freeman Dyson has been so active and well respected around the world.