How the Hippies Saved Physics
Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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David Kaiser
About this listen
The surprising story of eccentric young scientists who stood up to convention—and changed the face of modern physics.
In the 1970s, amid severe cutbacks in physics funding, a small group of underemployed physicists in Berkeley decided to throw off the constraints of academia and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued a freewheeling, speculative approach to physics. Some dabbled with LSD while conducting experiments. They studied quantum theory alongside Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading, discussing the latest developments while lounging in hot tubs. Unlikely as it may seem, this quirky band of misfits altered the course of modern physics, forcing mainstream physicists to pay attention to the strange but exciting underpinnings of quantum theory. Their work on Bell’s theorem and quantum entanglement helped pave the way for today’s advances in quantum information science.
A lively and entertaining Cinderella story, How the Hippies Saved Physics takes us to a time when only the unlikeliest heroes could break the science world out of its rut.
©2011 David Kaiser (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. The birth of Big Science can be traced to Berkeley, California, nearly nine decades ago, when a resourceful young scientist pondered his new invention and declared, "I'm going to be famous!" Ernest Orlando Lawrence's cyclotron would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.This is the incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it all. Michael Hiltzik tells the riveting full story here for the first time.
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An informative and thought-provoking book
- By Jean on 08-23-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
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The Day We Found the Universe
- By: Marcia Bartusiak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of our most acclaimed science writers: a dramatic narrative of the discovery of the true nature and startling size of the universe, delving back past the moment of revelation to trace the decades of work--by a select group of scientists--that made it possible.
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Worth the Effort
- By Roy on 08-13-09
By: Marcia Bartusiak
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Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
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educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
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The Idea Factory
- Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.
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Great story -- horrible pauses
- By Rodney on 01-29-13
By: Jon Gertner
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When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
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The Strangest Man
- The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
- By: Graham Farmelo
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. One of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century, his contributions had a unique insight, eloquence, clarity, and mathematical power. His prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics.
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Excellent biography of great physicist
- By Eileen on 05-09-13
By: Graham Farmelo
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The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved
- How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. The first popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.
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Historical Perspective Appreciated
- By Michael Hanrahan on 01-22-20
By: Mario Livio
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Significant Figures
- The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart introduces the visionaries of mathematics throughout history. Delving into the lives of twenty-five great mathematicians, Stewart examines the roles they played in creating, inventing, and discovering the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics.
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Beware
- By Anton Kurtz on 12-08-18
By: Ian Stewart
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The Upright Thinkers
- The Human Journey From Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
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10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Austin on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
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American Sketches
- Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Cotter Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this collection of essays, Walter Isaacson reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success.
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Not Really Sketches
- By DAVID on 11-04-11
By: Walter Isaacson
What listeners say about How the Hippies Saved Physics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Keith
- 03-27-21
For the title
or shall we say "How Physics Saved Hippies" ?
nice listening and review of weirdness of quantum physics
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- Borgman
- 11-12-20
Quantum entanglement meets LSD
Fascinating history of 1960s to 1980s physics, where counterculture meets theory. Well written by physicist and social scientist. Performance is weakest part. Narrator does not know his physics well enough to get the cadence right, and sometimes mis pronounces important terms. Still worth a read or a listen.
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- Gary
- 05-27-12
Finally, I understand entanglement
Tells a great story about entanglement or as Einstein would say "spooky action at a distance". The people involved in proving Bells theorem and its significance are discussed at length. "The Dance of the Photon" tells a better story about the science of entanglement while this book tells a better story about the people involved and the significance of the science.
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5 people found this helpful
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- ittysbittsy
- 05-03-21
I can’t stand his voice
I feel like I’m in a 1970s lecture hall. No intonation. Not even a feigning of interest. Just a professor droning on endlessly, uncaring about the level of interest of his audience.
I’ll buy the book, because it seems interesting, but the narrator makes me fall asleep.
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- kieron t.
- 02-11-20
Where's the physics?
Well narrated, and a somewhat interesting story that should have been told in a third of the time. It could have been titled "what little good came from crackpot science"
The main emphasis was on the crackpot science, not the little good that came indirectly from it.
A tad disappointing for my taste.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-18-23
Fascinating and fun
So glad this story is being told. It engages so many important questions about academics, the evolution of knowledge, search for truth, culture and creativity within scientific pursuits. I have no background in physics but found the debates engaging and the story exceptionally well told!
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- John M.
- 12-14-11
All physicists should take LSD & cut to the chase.
An interesting enough story about brilliant minds, some of which were opened to inner dimensions by psychedelics, others of which were influenced by their proximity, and some which were simply a product of their time and space. Like the similarly themed "A Quantum Story", it traces the intellectual path from linear (and arbitrarily constructed) Newtonian physics and its pompous 19th century presumption to know and explain everything to the 20th century realization we don't know much about anything and probably never will. (How big is infinity anyway?) It also reveals the practical application of sciences both in its references to Cold War weapons development and, more interestingly to me, the discovery of quantum encryption which makes it possible for us to buy things and bank online reasonably safely. My only gripe is that I'm not a physicist and, as with "A Quantum Story", I could have done without the tedious blackboard formula reading. This much shorter version of the story is a better choice for the layman, and even then you had better be really interested.
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4 people found this helpful
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- ron
- 12-26-11
fills in blanks that point to the future
If you could sum up How the Hippies Saved Physics in three words, what would they be?
necessary
What other book might you compare How the Hippies Saved Physics to and why?
decoding the universe
What does Sean Runnette bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
he takes you for a pleasant ride
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yes
Any additional comments?
it tells a story, that had to be told.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ESB
- 03-01-23
Important story for us old hippies
I did like finding out what was going on during those years. Especially interesting, is his description of the personalities of the movers and shakers.
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- Garrett
- 02-03-21
Interesting if you can look thru idolization
The material is interesting, but the author’s idolizing writing style often becomes stifling and moves away from objective reporting. The members of the Fundamental Physics Group are presented like supernatural Davids against the conservative mainstream science Goliaths, which devoid them of humanity.
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1 person found this helpful