Real Scientists Don’t Wear Ties When Science Meets Culture

Real Scientists Don’t Wear Ties links science to general and popular culture and everyday life in an easy-to-understand style. When a gifted writer of science selects his best pieces published in the world’s most reputable periodicals such as Nature, Discover, and MIT Technology Review, we get an eminently readable collection of his varied work in book form. That it covers all-time relevant topics like quantum physics, gravitational waves, genetic engineering, space exploration, and artificial intelligence is an added delight. Prof. Perkowitz also discusses how science can be found in medical practice, cooking, soccer, and art, and also science and science fiction in the media. On the lighter side, he reports on his efforts to teach a computer to understand poetry, explains why scientists resist dressing up, and shows that unlike many people, scientists actually enjoy math.

Science: Introduction. The mysteries of light. Illuminating Light. True Colors. Light Dawns. Quantum mechanics, relativity, strings, and time. Nobody Knows the Quantum. Strange Devices. These Georgia Tech Physicists Helped Prove Einstein Right. Quantum Gravity. The Seductive Melody of the Strings. Time Examined and Time Experienced. Solids, liquids, gases, and more. The Six Elements: Visions of a Complex Universe Stealth Science. Froth with Meaning. Everything Worth Knowing About…Ice. Technology. Technology: Introduction. Lasers and space travel. From Ray-gun to Blu-ray How Close are we to Actually Becoming Martians? Ad Astra! To the Stars! Technology in the clinic. Brain Injuries in Soccer When Vision Betrays. Robots and artificial intelligence. John Markoff’s Love for “Machines” Removing Humans from the AI Loop – Should we Panic? Do We Have Moral Obligations to Robots? Technology, society, and human behaviour. The Internet Before the Internet: Paul Otlet’s Mundaneum. The Internet of Things: Totally New and a Hundred Years Old Crimes of the Future How to Understand the Resurgence of Eugenics The Case Against an Autonomous Military. Frankenstein Turns 200 and Becomes Required Reading for Scientists. Can a Physics of Panic Explain the Motions of the Crowd? Future technologies. Fantasy into Science: Invisibility Fantasy into Science: Teleportation Fantasy into Science: Tractor Beams. Culture. Culture: Introduction. Science and scientists meet culture. In Salmon do did Mobile Bond… Laughing by Numbers. Real Physicists Don't Wear Ties. Spelling it Right in Karachi. Brother, Can You Spare a Cyclotron. Cooking with science. Food for (Future) Thought or Star Trek: the Menu. The Future of Meat. Science and art. Art Upsets, Science Reassures. Hubs, Struts, and Aesthetics Inspirational Realism: Chesley Bonestell and Astronomical Art Art, Physics, and Revolution. Mr. Turner, Artist, Meets Mrs. Somerville, Scientist. Science, literature, and the media. Connecting with E. M. Forster Science Fiction Covers the Universe and Also Our Own Little Globe. How Realistic are Movies set in Space? Hollywood Science: Good for Hollywood, Bad for Science? Turing and Hawking, Typical Nerds? Boldly Going for 50 Years Abstract Theory has Real Consequences, in the Past and Today.

Sidney Perkowitz is Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of Physics at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He earned his PhD in solid-state physics from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has written over 100 research papers, 10 books, and over 160 articles about science and culture and has appeared on CNN, NPR, the BBC, and at many other venues. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts. Prof. Perkowitz’s research interests are infrared, Raman, synchrotron, and picosecond spectroscopy; biological materials; optical properties of condensed matter, including semiconductors and superconductors; and characterization of technological materials. http://sidneyperkowitz.net/, @physp.