nobel prize – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

By Scott J. Pearson | May 7, 2024May 7, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Dick Feynman was a Nobel laureate and professor of theoretical physics at Cornell and Cal Tech. Like many accomplished people, he had a unique reputation and a magnanimous spirit. In the classroom, his students revered him for his interesting stories. This memoir, written towards the end of his life, records his reflections on his life with the same zeal that won his students’ hearts. To be frank, some of his stories tend towards the anti-feminist…

Madame Curie: A Biography

By Scott J. Pearson | December 12, 2021December 12, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

A pioneer of radioactivity and radiation therapy, Marie Curie has an assured place in scientific history. Untold numbers have benefitted from her discovery – especially cancer patients. Further accolades upon accolades follow her name: two-time winner of a Nobel Prize (jointly in physics and alone in chemistry), first female Nobel laureate, wife and daughter of two other Nobel laureates, tireless supporter of her country in World War I, first female professor at Paris’ elite Sorbonne,…

Fiction-Stories Religion-Philosophy

The First Man by Albert Camus

By Scott J. Pearson | February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

When he died in a tragic and unforeseen car crash in 1960, novelist and existentialist Albert Camus had a draft of this work in his briefcase. It was not published until the 1990s, but is the most autobiographical of Camus’ works. The main character, like the author, grew up impoverished in Algeria and escaped a life of the same through education. This tale, properly characterized as a coming-of-age novel, shares how the great writer and…

Economics

Thinking, Fast and Slow

By Scott J. Pearson | January 21, 2020January 21, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

In this book, the author Kahneman shares with us his essential philosophical insights which propelled him to a Nobel Prize. He describes the foundation in neuroscience and psychology which changed his view of how we ascertain something’s value to us. This changed the way that many economists see how the public chooses one choice over another. Traditional economic theory places a dollar value on an economic choice. So for instance, would you rather have $45…

History Poetry

Murder in the Cathedral

By Scott J. Pearson | January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The greatest work of verse by the great American/English poet T.S. Eliot was not in a poem (though some readers of The Waste Land might disagree). It is surely Murder in the Cathedral. In a short play, Eliot shows his mastery of the British form of Church and State. In so doing, he sends a message that those who do not practice justice shall some day receive vengeance. The story of the 12th-century Archbishop of…