Candid Science IV

Candid Science IV
Author: Magdolna Hargittai
Publisher: Imperial College Press
Total Pages: 732
Release: 2004
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781860944161

Candid Science IV: Conversations with Famous Physicists contains 36 interviews with well-known physicists, including 20 Nobel laureates, Templeton Prize winners, Wolf Prize winners, and other luminaries. Physics has been one of the determining fields of science in the past 100 years, playing a conspicuous role not only in science but also in world politics and economics. These in-depth conversations provide a glimpse into the greatest achievements of physics during the past few decades, featuring stories of the discoveries, and showing the human drama behind them. The greatest physicists are brought into close human proximity as if readers were having a conversation with them. The interviewees span a wide range of scientists, from such early giants as Eugene Wigner and Mark Oliphant to members of the youngest generation such as the 2001 Nobel laureate Wolfgang Ketterle. The list includes famous personalities of our time, such as Steven Weinberg, Leon Lederman, Norman Ramsey, Edward Teller, John Wheeler, Mildred Dresselhaus, Maurice Goldhaber, Benoit Mandelbrot, John Polkinghorne, and Freeman Dyson.

Culture of Chemistry

Culture of Chemistry
Author: Balazs Hargittai
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2015-04-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1489975659

Includes specially selected articles that previously appeared in The Chemical Intelligencer magazine published (1995-2000). Excerpts of these Editor's choice chapters chronicle the culture and history of chemistry, featuring great chemists and discoverers. Contributors from among the best-known authors of the chemistry community, including numerous Nobel laureates. Features behind the scenes stories about pivotal discoveries, intricacies of laboratory life and interactions among scientists, favorite recipes of renowned researchers, life histories and anecdotes. Chapters detail the human side of science but also present scientific information communicated in an easy-to-perceive and entertaining way. This unique book is not only aimed at chemists but individuals who are interested in the cultural aspects of our science.

The Martians of Science

The Martians of Science
Author: István Hargittai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0195365569

Hargittai tells the story of five remarkable Hungarians: Wigner won a Nobel Prize in theoretical physics; Szilard was the first to see that a chain reaction based on neutrons was possible, initiated the Manhattan Project, but left physics to try to restrict nuclear arms; von Neumann could solve difficult problems in his head and developed the modern computer for more complex problems; von Kármán became the first director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, providing the scientific basis for the U.S. Air Force; and Teller was the father of the hydrogen bomb, whose name is now synonymous with the controversial "Star Wars" initiative of the 1980s.

Women Scientists

Women Scientists
Author: Magdolna Hargittai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2015-03-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199360006

Magdolna Hargittai uses over fifteen years of in-depth conversation with female physicists, chemists, biomedical researchers, and other scientists to form cohesive ideas on the state of the modern female scientist. The compilation, based on sixty conversations, examines unique challenges that women with serious scientific aspirations face. In addition to addressing challenges and the unjustifiable underrepresentation of women at the higher levels of academia, Hargittai takes a balanced approach by discussing how some of the most successful of these women have managed to obtain professional success and personal happiness. Women Scientists portrays scientists from different backgrounds, different geographical regions-eighteen countries from four continents-and leaders from a variety of professional backgrounds, including eight Nobel laureate women. The book is divided into three sections: "Husband and Wife Teams," "Women at the Top," and "In High Positions." Hargittai uses her own experience to introduce her first section on the lives of prominent scientific couples and addresses the joys and disadvantages of husband and wife teams. The second section is a comprehensive exploration of the struggles and triumphs of "women at the top." Hargittai introduces women from countries where relatively little has been written about female scientists. The final section focuses on women scientists involved with science administration and leadership. Hargittai's biographical sketches role models for budding scientists. The book is a much needed account of female presence and influence in the sciences.

New York Scientific

New York Scientific
Author: István Hargittai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2017
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0198769873

New York city is a world center of science and the memorabilia presented introduce the reader to a culture of learning and of creating new knowledge, venues of great medicine, and a number of exceptional schools graduating world leaders in science.

Science In Moscow: Memorials Of A Research Empire

Science In Moscow: Memorials Of A Research Empire
Author: Istvan Hargittai
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811203466

'The statuary and monuments catalogued in this impressive body of work are accompanied by descriptions of the subjects their work and achievements.'Chemistry WorldMoscow is the center of science and higher education of Russia and is also an international hub of science. There have been milestone achievements of science in Russia (and the Soviet Union), especially in the areas of physics, chemistry, mathematics, the conquest of space, various technologies and medicine. However, the scientists and inventors often created in isolation and have become less known than their discoveries would justify. At the same time, there is no other city in the world that has so many memorials honoring scientists as Moscow. There is a caveat in that political considerations have often influenced who was remembered and who was not. This book presents statues, memorial plaques, and historical buildings. Not only celebrated excellences are mentioned, but also some of the greats that perished during the years of terror. The book is full of human drama and 750 photos illustrate the narrative. Science in Moscow follows Budapest Scientific and New York Scientific and is the third in the series about memorials of scientists in great cities of the world.

The Road to Stockholm

The Road to Stockholm
Author: István Hargittai
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2002-03-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191500186

The Nobel Prize is by far the highest recognition a scientist may receive and the only one with which the general public is familiar. Its prestige has reached improbable heights. At the same time a lot of myth surrounds the Nobel Prize, and this is compounded by the fact that people tend to view scientists with some bewilderment. This book introduces the process of selection of the laureates, discusses the ingredients for scientific discovery and for getting recognition. It reviews the decisive moments of scientific careers en route to the Nobel Prize, points to characteristic features of the laureates, the importance of mentors and venues in scientific careers and other components of success. It also covers some discoverers and discoveries for whom and for which the Nobel Prize never materialized. Whereas there is no general recipe for receiving the Nobel Prize, there are common features of successful scientific careers. The book reveals some information about the scientists' lives and careers that may guide other scientists in increasing their chances of becoming more effective and better recognized players - although it is not expected to help anyone to receive the Nobel Prize! For the general reader The Road to Stockholm reveals the human face of scientists and the human side of their endeavours. The Nobel Prize has served as inspiration for scientists and the general public for a hundred years: this book discusses its problems and celebrates its triumphs.

Budapest Scientific

Budapest Scientific
Author: István Hargittai
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2015-03-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191029157

This guidebook introduces the reader to the visible memorabilia of science and scientists in Budapest - statues, busts, plaques, buildings, and other artefacts. According to the Hungarian-American Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, this metropolis at the crossroads of Europe has a special atmosphere of respect for science. It has been the venue of numerous scientific achievements and the cradle, literally, of many individuals who in Hungary, and even more beyond its borders, became world-renowned contributors to science and culture. Six of the eight chapters of the book cover the Hungarian Nobel laureates, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the university, the medical school, agricultural sciences, and technology and engineering. One chapter is about selected secondary schools from which seven Nobel laureates (Szent-Györgyi, de Hevesy, Wigner, Gabor, Harsanyi, Olah, and Kertész) and the five "Martians of Science" (von Kármán, Szilard, Wigner, von Neumann, and Teller) had graduated. The concluding chapter is devoted to scientist martyrs of the Holocaust. A special feature in surveying Hungarian science is the contributions of scientists that left their homeland before their careers blossomed and made their seminal discoveries elsewhere, especially in Great Britain and the United States. The book covers the memorabilia referring to both émigré scientists and those that remained in Hungary. The discussion is informative and entertaining. The coverage is based on the visible memorabilia, which are not necessarily proportional with achievements. Therefore, there is a caveat that one could not compile a history of science relying solely on the presence of the memorabilia.

Brilliance in Exile

Brilliance in Exile
Author: István Hargittai
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2023-03-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9633866073

By addressing the enigma of the exceptional success of Hungarian emigrant scientists and telling their life stories, Brilliance in Exile combines scholarly analysis with fascinating portrayals of uncommon personalities. István and Balazs Hargittai discuss the conditions that led to five different waves of emigration of scientists from the early twentieth century to the present. Although these exodes were driven by a broad variety of personal motivations, the attraction of an open society with inclusiveness, tolerance, and – needless to say – better circumstances for working and living, was the chief force drawing them abroad. While emigration from East to West is a general phenomenon, this book explains why and how the emigration of Hungarian scientists is distinctive. The high number of Nobel Prizes among this group is only one indicator. Multicultural tolerance, a quickly emerging, considerably Jewish, urban middle class, and a very effective secondary school system were positive legacies of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Multiple generations, shaped by these conditions, suffered from the increasingly exclusionist, intolerant, antisemitic, and economically stagnating environment, and chose to go elsewhere. “I would rather have roots than wings, but if I cannot have roots, I shall use wings," explained Leo Szilard, one of the fathers of the Atom Bomb.

Buried Glory

Buried Glory
Author: Istvan Hargittai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2013-09-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199985618

Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery is the final resting place of some of Russia's most celebrated figures, from Khrushchev and Yeltsin to Anton Chekhov, Sergei Eisenstein, Nikolai Gogol, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Using this famed cemetery as symbolic starting point, Buried Glory profiles a dozen eminent Soviet scientists-nine of whom are buried at Novodevichy-men who illustrate both the glorious heights of Soviet research as well as the eclipse of science since the collapse of the USSR. Drawing on extensive archival research and his own personal memories, renowned chemist Istvan Hargittai bring these figures back to life, placing their remarkable scientific achievements against the tense political backdrop of the Cold War. Among the eminent scientists profiled here are Petr L. Kapitza, one of the most brilliant representatives of the great generation of Soviet physicists, a Nobel-Prize winner who risked his career-and his life-standing up for fellow scientists against Stalin. Yulii B. Khariton, who ran the highly secretive Soviet nuclear weapons laboratory, Arzamas-16, despite being Jewish and despite the fact that his father Boris had been sent to the labor camps. And Andrei D. Sakharov, the "father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb" and a brilliant fighter for human rights, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Along the way, Hargittai shines a light on the harrowing conditions under which these brilliant researchers excelled. Indeed, in the post-war period, Stalin's anti-Semitism and ongoing anti-science measures devastated biology, damaged chemistry, and nearly destroyed physics. The latter was saved only because Stalin realized that without physics and physicists there could be no nuclear weapons. The extraordinary scientific talent nurtured by the Soviet regime belongs almost entirely to the past. Buried Glory is both a fitting tribute to these great scientists and a fascinating account of scientific work behind the Iron Curtain.