Veteran AF: Aug 23, 2022

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman Book 30 of 2022

At the beginning of his third lecture/chapter in the book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Richard Feynman says: 

Most of the phenomena you are familiar involve the interaction of light and electrons--all of chemistry and biology for example.The only phenomena not covered by this theory (QED or Quantum ElectroDynamics) are phenomena of gravitation and nuclear phenomena; everything else is contained in this theory.

And QED is a theory because it predicts the behavior of light and electrons better than any other theory.  That's how a conjecture becomes a Theory.  

Everything about science is contingent.  A new discovery submitted to rigorous testing can and will replace the previous understanding.

In his inimitable way, Feynman walks the reader through adding arrows of probability and showing how these probabilities are behind all of matter, everything we see and touch and all the processes that keep living beings alive.  

The final chapter of the book is about nuclear physics--the particles inside atoms surrounded by clouds of electrons and photons that hold atoms together and give them their chemical character.  And in one last paragraph, Feynman says gravity is something else entirely, vastly weaker the electromagnetic forces which are vastly weaker than nuclear forces.  

By then end of the book, I could see the oak table next to me as swarming with energy and activity.  Uncountable electrons around and between and among billions of nucleii. And these hard, heavy centers of atoms, while held in a rigid grid also vibrate with activity, exchanging baryons, muons, mesons, and other particles while held rigidly together.

Even a glimpse into the mind of Feynman is as exciting as a story of discovering a new world.





First 29 books of 2022:
Spirits in Bondage by C.S. Lewis
Reflections on the Psalms by  C.S. Lewis
The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer
The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah ArendtGalapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton
If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut
The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins
Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt
Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
First Principles by Thomas Ricks
Political Tribes by Amy Chua 
Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen
A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson
1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
Unflattening by Nick Sousanis
Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)
The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche
Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen

Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis. Book 28 of 2022

I re-read this book as a break from reading the intensely analytical translation of the Psalms by Robert Alter. All of Alter's work translating the Hebrew Bible brings the latest and best scholarship and Hebrew source material together to make a translation focused on meaning and clarity.

Lewis reads the Psalms as a lay person (he always denies being a theologian since he had no formal theological training) so he uses the Anglican Prayer Book version of the Psalter with occasional reference to the more recent Moffat translation.

Lewis begins the book with a chapter on "Judgement." The Christian links judgement first to the final judgement of each believer, standing before God. Judgement in the Psalms is in many cases more like the accused standing before a judge declaring her innocence, or in a civil suit saying, "Defend me, I was wronged!"

In Chapter 2 "The Cursings" Lewis deals with how he as a Christian reads passages recommending "snatch up a Babylonian baby and beat its brains out against the pavement." Lewis explains the Christian view, but in explaining how difficult these passages are for him, he makes a case for just how sadly horrible Christian Nationalism really is.

Israel is a nation. Defending the Land of Israel is intrinsic to Judaism. There are many arguments among Jews about how to defend Israel, but Jews prayed for two millennia return to the land and celebrated when Israel became a sovereign nation.

Christianity, to the extent it claims territory and wealth and power, is always wrong. Always. Worse, it is using the Hebrew Bible to justify its claims. Because there is not a word of Jesus that is anything more than tolerant of taking power and riches.

The rest of the book moves through the use of the Psalms. Lewis quotes more than half of the 150 psalms in his exposition. It is a perspective I found nowhere else.

First 27 books of 2022:

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer