Science History in English

Monday 1:30pm --> 3:30pm, B124, note the new time!

Thursday 8:15am --> 10:15am, B124, (classroom uncertain)

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Principal Texts

Third Thoughts by Steven Weinberg, 2018. Kindle and (free) audio book versions available on Amazon.fr

Inward Bound by Abraham Pais.

Week One

In M1, we listened to George Smoot's Nobel lecture describing his work related to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Our focus will be mostly his development of scientific career, the general advice and observations he makes about the workings of science.
The science itself, the discoveries in cosmology are interesting, and I'm happy to take questions about this, but it is not our main focus.
In M2, we listened to (thanks to Estelle for finding the online version): Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos, Episode 10: The edge of forever, Scene 2: The Universe using first the French subtitles to get the main ideas, then English subtitles to follow all the sentences in detail.

Week Two: September 24 and 27

Assigned reading:

Steven Weinberg, "Keeping an Eye on the Present-Whig History", Chapter 7 of Third Thoughts.
Aurther Silverstein, "The Whig History of Science: An exchange", NY Review of Books, Feb 25, 2016.
Steven Weinberg, "The Whig History of Science: An exchange", Chapter 8 of Third Thoughts. Also published in, NY Review of Books, Feb 25, 2016.

Assigned writing: Please write on the course blog ; or prepare an oral presentation to give to the class this week. Please chose one of the following, or create your own assignement in the spirit of these:

Described something about the video we watched together, your impressions of the presentation, the science you learned, the ideas presented.
Write a paragraph about the reading for this week (the Weinberg and/or Silverstein articles).

Please write your text in the course blog or be prepared to read it in class.

Week Three: October 1 and 4

Assigned reading:

Abraham Pais, pp. 1 to 7 of Inward Bound, Chapter 1 "Purpose and Plan" (a) From X to Z.
Steven Weinberg, "The Uses of Astronomy", Chapter 1 of Third Thoughts.

Week Four: October 8 and 15

Assigned reading:

Steven Weinberg NY Review of Books, 2013, November 7 or Third Thoughts, Chapter 5
Steven Weinberg, "The Uses of Astronomy", Chapter 1 of Third Thoughts.

Week Five: October 15 and/or 18

Assigned reading and listening:

Steven Weinberg NY Review of Books, 2013, November 7 or Third Thoughts, Chapter 5
Sagan, Hawking, Clarke interview from 1988, available on YouTube here .
BBC 6-minute English: Find an interesting episode amoung those available here.