Book review: Steven Weinberg: A Life in Physics

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Steven Weinberg: A Life in Physics

Steven Weinberg. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. 2025. 264 pages.

Index terms — cosmology, theoretical physics

Reviewed by Julie Kinyoun (jjshamon@gmail.com)

To an outside observer, the world of physics might seem mathematical, complex, dry, and dull. That view will quickly change upon reading Steven Weinberg’s memoir of his early education, research in quantum physics, committee work on military defense, and his political advocacy for the Superconducting Super Collider. Interspersed in his description of this period of his life are his anecdotal observations about people, places, and events that are unique to his perspective as a physicist. He also includes in this memoir his witty and ironic side observations that show an astute sense of humor. It is only unfortunate that he passed away shortly after writing this first installment of his life, missing the last twenty plus years before his death in 2021. Thus, this volume was compiled and finished by his wife and other experts; she/they added editorial final touches and photos, where appropriate.

Among other early influencing factors in his decision to study physics as a career was a book about Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos atom-bomb scientist, in which Weinberg realized that Oppenheimer was a well-rounded man as well as an accomplished physicist. “I saw that you didn’t have to renounce the world when you took on the vocation of theoretical physics” (p 5.)

Somewhere in Weinstein’s work teaching general relativity and struggling with questions in quantum mechanics, he started writing up his course notes for textbooks first geared for scientists and then later for laypeople. He also became involved in work advising the United States government on issues related to military defense.

He humbly suggested that his invitation to join the JASON group of defense consultants was due to his existing security clearance (given to all employees at his work) and his residence in Berkeley, California, but it is obvious that the overarching reason for his involvement was his academic background and qualifications. He stayed part of this group for about ten years advising different administrations on issues like submarine warfare, methods to block supplies for the Vietnam War, and strategic balance with the Soviets.

In the fall of 1967, he completed the work that would later earn him the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics. Ironically what eventually led him to his Nobel Prize winning discovery was his realization that “I was working on the wrong problem” (p. 99). Ultimately, he compiled a theory of elementary particles that turned out to be the “key to formulation of the modern Standard Model of elementary particles and would gain me the Nobel Prize” (p. 99).

His complex theory is best summarized by this statement, given as the introductory remark for his physics talk at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, two days before he accepted the Nobel Prize. “Our task in physics is to see things simply, to understand a great many complicated things in a unified way, in terms of a few simple principles” (p. 168). He then explained that the Standard Model can be “seen as a consequence of the symmetries of the theory, together with the requirements of simplicity that is necessary for infinities to be eliminated by renormalization of a limited number of numerical constants, including masses and couplings” (p. ??).

In the 1980s and 1990s, Weinberg was heavily involved in the unsuccessful attempt to build a high energy particle accelerator in the United States that would confirm some of the predictions of the Standard Model and answer other questions about dark matter, signs of super symmetry, or other unexpected results. The project was successful in obtaining initial support from politicians and even spent about a billion dollars on digging a tunnel in Texas and preparing magnets. Congress pulled the funding in favor of other scientific projects. Weinberg diplomatically explains his disappointment with the events leading up to the project’s demise, but even with his polite excuses for the failings of it, he is obviously dismayed and a bit concerned about the future of physics research in the United States. “As an American, I am sorry nevertheless to see that our country is no longer in the forefront of experimental research on elementary particles. One consequence is that American students will either not work on experimental high-energy physics or, if they do, will tend to study and work abroad….The good theorists were here for our country when the national defense required them to be at Los Alamos. Will they be here, or abroad, should the national defense again have need of them?” (p. 226).

Throughout the book, Weinberg reflects on many fulfilling personal relationships both in physics and in his social life. A notable one that seems to cross into both arenas is with his wife who was truly his companion, both socially and professionally. Although she appears in his memoir throughout the entirety of the book, he comments specifically on a professional contribution she made early to his career. “At this time, Louise literally saved my life….She advised me to have nothing further to do with Bernie’s world, if I wanted to get anything done in physics” (p. 112).

This memoir, a review of the life and work of Steven Weinberg, is not only a review of twentieth-century physics and its struggles, triumphs and discoveries, it is a work that reflects a man of humility, integrity, fierce hard work, and struggle to discover the mystery of life through the study of physics.

Madeleine L'Engle: A New Interest in a familiar topic

Until the beginning of last summer my knowledge and interest in Madeleine L'Engle was pretty much just "A Wrinkle in Time" in book form. We also watched the movie but the book is much better and I am not sure I ever finished the whole movie. (This seems to be a symptom of middle age- I watch part of something and then realize how much work I need to get done and evaluate whether it is worth the sacrifice of my time to watch the rest of it.) I am well acquainted with the name Madeleine L'Engle as she was often credited during my childhood as the first female science writer. She was also known as a renaissance woman who could play the piano, write, teach, and was able to balance this with her family life. Since I grew up in the era where my mother and grandmother were either a nurse or a teacher (or neither if college was too expensive), a married woman of that generation with an alternative career was unusual- L'Engle was the same age as my grandparents. Her books were read as required reading in class. At the library, she was often featured the way we currently feature JK Rowling- she was somewhat of a celebrity for kids of my generation. And this is why I book-ordered a copy of her quartet "Wrinkle in Time" from a catalogue long before Amazon and kept it on my shelf for the last twenty-five years. It was at the top of my "these are really worthwhile classics that I should read and appreciate" pile. That pile includes other classics like "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" and the Charles Dickens titles like "Hard Times" and "Oliver Twist."

It is often fun to find a photo of a successful person as a young person. This reminds us that everybody started somewhere. This is Madeleine L'Engle's yearbook photo

Last year that all changed when I attended my own club of musical and literary buffs and someone did a presentation about music in literature. On the list was the book "A Severed Wasp," an adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. My interest piqued- could I dare venture into the world of the intellectual elite and stretch myself to read such a book? Yes, I did. And it was disturbing. One thing I appreciate about children's literature is that there is an absence of upsetting relationships- the step brother who turns out to be an uncle, the friend who turns out to really have been the main character's father all along. This kind of thing appears in adult literature- and was present in "A Severed Wasp." The tale of a retired classical pianist who reflects on her life and significant relationships and discovers some things about her past that might be better undiscovered. This was my first adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle.

So I meandered into my 14-year-old's bedroom (how is she that old?) and found the quartet of "A Wrinkle in Time" and vowed to read the series. And Wow! What a trip.

If you are familiar with the Magic Treehouse or Whatever After series written for children you are well aware that time travel and "going into" another time period or story is not an original idea. Maybe these authors got it from Madeleine L'Engle. All of her books involve some kind of teleporting from one world to another. Aside from all being a story about the Murry family, these books are all rather independent plots- assuming you read the first one you could read them in any order. My favorite by far was the fourth book called “Many Waters” because of its recount of the story of Noah’s Ark. (My crib set was a Noah’s Ark theme when my girls were babies so I’ve always liked that Bible story). In this story, the twin brothers of the Murry family erroneously get mixed up with an experiment in their parents’ laboratory and end up waking up in the events leading up to the flood. Madeleine L’Engle demonstrates an impressive knowledge of Bible history that only someone with years of study might know. She draws parallels with characters like Enoch, one of only two men to be “taken up to heaven” with God. If a reader doesn’t know Bible history it might not be obvious that her fictional account so closely parallels the events of Genesis but I recently did an in-depth year-long study of the book of Genesis and was impressed with how much she incorporated into her children’s version of Noah’s ark that included the Murry twins!

In the process of checking out audio versions of the Wrinkle in Time books from the online version of the library’s catalogue I ran across Madeleine L’Engle’s adult, nonfiction narrative about her forty year marriage to actor Hugh Franklin and his early, untimely, painful death from cancer. The title is so appropriate for her “Two-Part Invention.” The two of them are an unusual matchup for such a long partnership- she being a (failed) novelist (for many years she could get nothing published) and he being an actor. Yet, her morals and resolve to make it work- and beyond that to make her marriage thrive are very moving for the reader. When she describes his diagnosis and decline (and then death) from his illness she is very effective at communicating her pain and the injustice of it all. The reader doesn’t feel sorry for her- she tells it in a way that is honest and moving and very heart wrenching- in a very appropriate way. She is a professional at her craft and well skilled to write about such a difficult topic. As is typical of all of her work both fiction and nonfiction, she intersperses comments that are insightful and often profound- worthy of extracting as featured quotations in a book or devotional- which is where I have found several before I actually read the book.

And from this book I discovered her entire series of “Crosswicks” journals- of which “Two-Part Invention” is the fourth and final installment. She wrote four books from journals she compiled while she and Hugh were living in a farmhouse called Crosswicks in Connecticut. I am now reading the first one called “A Circle of Quiet.”

Madeleine L’Engle is my new love. It is so much fun to fall in love with an author. First it was LM Montgomery and now Madeleine L’Engle. Both are dead- but I am in love.

Here are a few good quotations by her:

If we commit ourselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection offreedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation.

Madeleine L'Engle

No long-term marriage is made easily, and there have been times when I've been so angry or so hurt that I thought my love would never recover. And then, in the midst of near despair, something has happened beneath the surface. A bright little flashing fish of hope has flicked silver fins and the water is bright and suddenly I am returned to a state of love again — till next time. I've learned that there will always be a next time, and that I will submerge in darkness and misery, but that I won't stay submerged. And each time something has been learned under the waters; something has been gained; and a new kind of love has grown. The best I can ask for is that this love, which has been built on countless failures, will continue to grow. I can say no more than that this is mystery, and gift, and that somehow or other, through grace, our failures can be redeemed and blessed.

Madeleine L'Engle

Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people; political opinions that are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of the universe - these are what build a marriage. And it is never to be taken for granted.

Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (Crosswicks Journals, #4)

In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there's no danger that we will confuse God's work with our own, or God's glory with our own.

Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.

Madeleine L'Engle

 

Space Rover

Stewart Lawrence Sinclair. 2024. Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. [ISBN 978-1-5013-9995-4 159 pages, including index. US$14.95 (softcover).]

What are space rovers and what can they do for us? We generally think of a “space rover” as a machine to explore matter in outer space, but space rovers are also used to clean up nuclear waste like the 1986 Soviet Chernobyl site or serve as search and rescue vehicles for wreckage underwater like that of the Titanic or the more recent Oceangate Titan submersible. In the fictitious world of Disney, a space rover is a humanized robot “Wall-E” (Waste Allocation Load Lifter–Earth class) designed to manage collective waste on a dead Earth. Stewart Lawrence Sinclair does not open Space Rover with any mention of these topics. He does open the book with a description of the wreckage left on his step-grandfather’s ranch from the 2017 Ventura Thomas fire. While the book is dense with the history of planet exploration and details about all outer space rovers on both Mars and the Moon, Sinclair introduces the topic with a description of photos from of his step- grandfather. The photos include early equipment from NASA; original prototypes of lunar roving vehicles; and platforms that conveyed spacecrafts to the launch tower from the vehicle assembly building.

Sinclair recounts the history of space rovers through anecdotal stories from his life. In the first half of the book, he focuses on his father’s blended family’s work on moon rovers. The second half of the book focuses on information about Mars rovers and Sinclair’s relationship with Mr. Cooper, his mother’s childhood neighbor, who became a brilliant mentor and inspiration to Sinclair. The book is dedicated to him at the front.

One main function of a space rover is to collect samples of terrain for analysis on earth. These samples can provide geological information about the physical environment being explored. This can result in a theory of creation like that of the moon by the crew of the Apollo 15. Besides contributing to this discovery, lunar vehicles on the Apollo 15 mission also expanded the area they were able to explore, and the complexity of scientific equipment and communication they were able to employ.

With the utilitarian function of space rovers as scientific instruments, their use introduces philosophical and ethical questions about our role as humans in the universe. These questions are not new: Sinclair reviews the book “On the Silver Globe” (1903) by Jerszy Zulawski about adventurers on a quest to the Moon in search of Utopia (p. 21). Although this book was published over a hundred years ago, the questions it explores foreshadow current issues in exploration and astronomy.

Sinclair concludes his historical and factual recount of space rovers with a summary of the current philosophical issues with rovers. Humans yearn for something beyond us.

Julie Kinyoun

Julie Kinyoun is an on-call chemistry instructor at various community colleges in Southern California. An avid reader, she enjoys reviewing books that help her become a better educator.