Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe

by Alan Lightman

The science consultant and columnist lucidly establishes the connections between the farther reaches of scientific theory and research and everyday life

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1984

About the author

Alan Lightman is an American writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. Born in 1948, he was educated at Princeton and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a PhD in theoretical physics. He has received five honorary doctoral degrees. Lightman has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was the first person at MIT to receive dual faculty appointments in science and in the humanities. He is currently professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. His scientific research in astrophysics has concerned
black holes, relativity theory, radiative processes, and the dynamics of systems of stars. His essays and articles have appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Salon, and many other publications. His essays are often chosen by the New York Times as among the best essays of the year. He is the author of 6 novels, several collections of essays, a memoir, and a book-length narrative poem, as well as several books on science. His novel Einstein’s Dreams was an international bestseller and has been the basis for dozens of independent theatrical and musical adaptations around the world. His novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent books are The Accidental Universe, which was chosen by Brain Pickings as one of the 10 best books of 2014, his memoir Screening Room, which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year for 2016,
and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (2018), an extended meditation on science and religion – which was the basis for an essay
on PBS Newshour. Lightman is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to advance a new generation of women leaders in Southeast Asia.” He has received the gold medal for humanitarian service from the government of Cambodia.

Reviews

[Marcus Gasques · Rating 5 out of 5]

O conhecimento cientifico avança num período de 25 anos, mas essa obra de Alan Lightman continua valendo a leitura. O autor já havia mostrado seu talento em "Os sonhos de Einstein", e volta a oferecer seu texto agradável. Físico de formação, Lightman escreve como poucos. E nesses 26 textos curtos traduz conceitos de ciência para experiências do cotidiano a fim de tornar compreensíveis desde as infinitesimais partículas do átomo aos profundos mistérios do universo.
A tradução de Carlos Afonso Malferrari fez a curiosa opção do título original - "Dance for two" - para o escolhido pela Companhia das Letras no lançamento da obra, em 1996.

[Zack Hinckley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This egghead book was written before Lightman wrote Einstein's Dreams. He was obviously trying for a popular/scientific book, sort of like Carl Sagan's stuff. But he missed it. He got it right in Einstein's Dreams. Skip this one (unless you're an egghead and like pain.)

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of scientific essays for the layperson which were mostly published in various periodicals in the early 1980s. As such, they bear the mark of age, which, in some cases, diminishes their relevance slightly (e.g., the Hubble Telescope is referred to as simply the "Space Telescope"), but for the most part this material remains relevant. Lightman is an imaginative and skilled writer, although on occasion even these brief forays can wander into the weeds, and there is little by way of overall structure to this more or less scattershot collection. However, by focusing more on broad philosophical issues rather than contemporary, then-cutting-edge developments, he crafted a book which still retains much of its original appeal.

Special mention goes to "Ironland," a clever riff off of Abbott's well-known novella "Flatland." Among the better quotes are: "A few years ago some guys invented a perpetual motion machine called supply-side economics." Lightman also presciently foresees our current ecological emergency in his essay "Cosmic Natural Selection?" in which he states: "We may have something less than a century to become independent of the limitations of our planet," although he is overly optimistic, in the extreme, about the ability of science to address the global threats he clearly perceives. In fact, Lightman unwittingly illustrates the myopic problems at the core of all modern science and technology: By positing scientific knowledge and rational thought as the sine qua non of human survival, its proponents are painfully blind to the fact that such knowledge and thought has created most of the very problems they are purported to be the solution to! In that sense, Lightman's book is an ironic and cautionary tale of its own, however unintended.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, I didn't understand it all, but Lightman is such a precise writer, that I got most of it!

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snippets of various scientific driven perspectives. Each though provoking and worthy of time and reflection.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightman's biographical blurb on Goodreads:
"Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist born in Memphis, Tennessee. He is an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams."

The full title of this book is "Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe - Essays on the Human Side of Science". His novel, "Reunion", is one of the two or three best books I've read this year, so I was eager to read this book of essays. It was all right, but not as rich or rewarding as I had hoped.