Dance for Two: Essays

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Dance for Two: Essays (eBook) Pub. Date: 3/9/2011 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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Dance for Two: Essays (1ST) Pub. Date: 3/28/1996 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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Overview

The author of Einstein's Dreams now presents a collection of essays, written over the past 20 years, that displays his genius for bringing literary and scientific concerns into ringing harmony. Sometimes provocative, sometimes fanciful, always elegantly conceived and written, these meditations offer readers a fascinating look into the creative compulsions shared by the scientist and the artist. Reading tour.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Physicist and novelist (Good Benito) Lightman brings his characteristic sense of wonder and awe to these concise discussions of the origins of the universe. Previously published in two collections of the 1980s (Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe and A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court), these 21 graceful essays combine examinations of how birds fly, theoretical underpinnings of time travel and the gravitational forces impinging on a ballerina, as well as snippets of scientific history-a profile of atomic physicist Niels Bohr, imaginary encounters with Isaac Newton and Thomas Edison-and autobiographical glimpses of Lightman's own scientific career. Several selections are parables or fables, for instance, his whimsical adventures in Ironland, where everything is made of iron, and an evocation of a Persian city whose denizens are unable to leave-a metaphor for how scientists construct or abandon theories. On a more serious note, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Lightman calls for more funding of pure research and explores how we blind ourselves to the dangers nuclear weapons pose to the Earth's survival. (Apr.)

Library Journal

First, the good news. This book contains some of the best essays from one of the hottest science writers today. Astrophysicist Lightman writes with a fluid, minimalist style that hits home for many readers. His topics are personal and familiar: e.g., how he chose a career in science; the relationship between student and teacher; and the intuitive nature of scientific discovery. It's quality material. The bad news is that all but one of these essays have been published before-twice. They appeared first as magazine pieces and were then anthologized in two books, Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe (1984) and A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court (1986). Lightman's recent novels, Einstein's Dreams (LJ 11/15/92) and Good Benito (LJ 2/1/95), were surprise best sellers, and this book seems like an attempt to cash in on the author's popularity by recycling old material. His newer fans might be interested, but many public libraries already own the material in one form or another. If so, there is no compelling reason to purchase this book. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/95.]-Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables, Fla.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780679758778
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 3/28/1996
Edition description: 1ST
Pages: 192
Sales rank: 614,884
Product dimensions: 5.20 (w) x 7.90 (h) x 0.70 (d)

	Foreword
	Pas de Deux	3
	A Flash of Light	6
	Smile	12
	Is the Earth Round or Flat?	17
	If Birds Can Fly, Why, Oh Why, Can't I?	22
	Students and Teachers	29
	Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe	39
	In His Image	45
	Mirage	54
	To Cleave an Atom	58
	Elapsed Expectations	68
	A Visit by Mr. Newton	73
	Origins	79
	A Day in December	84
	Progress	87
	I = V/R	94
	Nothing but the Truth	100
	Time for the Stars	107
	A Modern-Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court	117
	The Origin of the Universe	133
	How the Camel Got His Hump	142
	Ironland	145
	Other Rooms	151
	Seasons	159

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Anonymous

Posted February 4, 2012

A spellbinding look at the art & humanity in science

When I was a junior undergrad, a fellow student-a physics major-recommended Alan Lightman's _Einstein's Dreams_ as one of his favorite books. Having had a small taste of physics in a mechanics course that fall, I was hungry for more-especially since we stopped just short of an introduction to relativity. I picked up a copy to read over winter break, and that novel became one of my favorites, as well. Five years later, I've finally gotten around to reading more of Lightman's work. _Dance for Two_ is a collection of essays centered around the interplay, differences, and similarities between science and art. "It seems to me," Lightman observes, "that in both science and art we are trying desperately to connect with something-this is how we achieve universality. In art, that something is people, their experiences and sensitivities. In science, that something is nature, the physical world and physical laws." And pure science, he believes, offers a kind of immortality akin to that of great art: "Hundreds of years from now, when automobiles bore us, we will still treasure the discoveries of Kepler and Einstein, along with the plays of Shakespeare and the symphonies of Beethoven." The essays are themselves artfully written, sometimes vividly poetic, sometimes almost musical in their composition. The opening piece, "Pas de Deux," describes the physical forces acting opposite a ballerina with no less delicacy than we imagine of the dance itself. It is as if she dances not alone on stage, but with all of nature as her partner, each move paired in exquisite synchrony. Lightman balances fictional narratives and beautifully detailed explorations of natural processes with autobiographical essays on his own journey as a scientist. These latter range from a humorous tale about a semester-long lab project gone awry (Lightman, as he learned, was destined for theory, not the lab) to a poignant reflection on the early age at which scientists reach their peak. Above all, he brings a beauty and a human touch to science prose that I can recall seeing in no other author save Carl Sagan. There are occasional digressions from the main science versus art theme. In one, "Progress," Lightman expresses his concern about society's headlong rush to assimilate every new technology we create; he cautions that "we cannot have advances in technology without an accompanying consideration of human values and quality of life." In another he advocates the pursuit of pure science-science for science's sake-arguing that what may seem useless entertains, changes our worldview, deals in truth ("there is no greater gift we can pass to our descendants"), and more practically, paves the way for uses we cannot predict. "If we stop paying for pure science today," he argues, "there will be no applied science tomorrow." In all, _Dance for Two_ is a pretty easy read, though the essays do sometimes show their age, as when Lightman writes that the universe is approximately 10 billion years old instead of the current estimate of about 13.7 billion years. Regardless, it is a delight to read, offering interesting comparisons to art and an engaging reminder of what drives us to do science. I would recommend it as readily as any science book I've read, and I plan to pick up another of his books soon, myself.
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Anonymous

Posted December 14, 2000

Prepare to have your entire perception of the world totally screwed up.

No matter what your worldveiw was before you read this book, it will be completely changed by Alan Lightman. With a beautiful combination of scientific objectivity and real human poetry reminiscient of Oliver Sacks, Lightman simply takes you on a tour through the peculiar nauture of things as seen by a human and a physicist.
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