Graham Farmelo in Nature:
‘Big Steve,’ his students called him. Steven Weinberg was not physically imposing, but was an intellectually dominant and much-revered figure in the scientific community and on the public stage. One of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of the past 75 years, Weinberg dedicated his professional life to leading what he described as the ‘grand enterprise’ of seeking the bedrock laws of nature that underpin the workings of the Universe. He looked the part, too — at physics conferences, he was often the only participant wearing a suit and tie.
When he died in 2021, he was only a few months away from completing his memoir, a roughly chronological account of his life up to the 1990s, with his perspective on the development of fundamental physics over the past century. Cambridge University Press has now published the book, which is written for a wide audience, featuring neither unexplained jargon nor even a single equation.
His account of his formative years as a boy from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, is a fascinating glimpse into the influences that shaped him.
More here.
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