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Von Neumann, Einstein, Morgenstern, Morse and Lefschetz (1952)

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Re: Von Neumann, Einstein, Morgenstern, Morse and Lefschetz (1952)

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post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read a handful of biographies of 20th century physicists recently, which I enjoyed for the same reasons. Ulam was a Los Alamos mathematician (and a great friend of Von Neumann). Anderson discovered the meson, which Yukawa had predicted. Fritzsche named nuclear fission (after doing important work on it). Elasser was a wandering scientist, who (to me) seemed to be "on the outside of the inside"; he gives accounts…

If you are also a little bit interested in philosophy, Heisenberg's "Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations" is a wonderful recommendation.

Forgot to mention another book: Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science.

A really beautiful book with lots of photographies of all members of the Vienna circle and what happened to them. Some parts, of course, are also about Gödel.

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