Adam Becker

Adam Becker (born 1984) is an American astrophysicist and popularizer of science. He is a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley.[1] His book What Is Real? explores the history and personalities of the foundations of quantum physics and reassesses the prominence of the views often grouped together as the Copenhagen Interpretation.

Adam Becker
Born1984
New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materCornell (BA: Philosophy, Physics), University of Michigan (MS: Physics, PhD: Physics)
Known forScience Communication, History of Physics, What is Real (2018)
Scientific career
ThesisIs the Universe Normal? Constraining Scale-Dependent Primordial Non-Gaussianity. (2012)
Doctoral advisorDragan Huterer
Websitefreelanceastrophysicist.com

Life

Born in New Jersey in 1984, Becker received his BA in philosophy and physics from Cornell in 2006, a MS in Physics from University of Michigan in 2007 and a PhD in Physics from University of Michigan with Dragen Huterer as his doctoral advisor in 2012. His thesis was on primordial non-Gaussianity, which he summarized in popular terms as, "I was trying to find out how much we can learn about the way stuff was arranged in the early universe by looking at the way stuff is arranged in the universe right now."[2]

Becker worked at New Scientist magazine, and he was a researcher in the Labs division of the Public Library of Science (PLOS). As of 2018, he was a visiting scholar at the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley.[2]

Becker joined the California Quantum Interpretation Network, "a research collaboration among faculty and staff at multiple UC campuses and other universities across California, focusing on the interpretation of quantum physics."[3]

What is Real?

In 2016, Becker received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to write a book.[4] The resulting work, What is Real? (2018),[3] focused on the question of what exactly quantum physics says about the nature of reality.

Despite the fact that every physicist agrees that quantum physics works, a bitter debate has raged over its meaning for the past ninety years, since the theory was first developed.[5]

The book deals with the personalities behind the competing interpretations of quantum physics as well as the historical factors that influenced the debate—factors such as military spending on physics research due to World War II, the Cold War ethos that caused the eschewing of physicists thought to be Marxist, the assumed infallibility of John von Neumann, the sexism that quashed the work of Grete Hermann the female mathematician who first spotted von Neumann's error, and the sway of prominent philosophical schools of the period, like the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle. Niels Bohr looms large in the book as the charismatic figure whose stature and obtuse writing style made it hard for alternate interpretations to be voiced. The book also challenges the popular portrayal of Albert Einstein as a behind-the-times thinker who couldn't accept the new paradigm. Becker argues that Einstein's thought experiments aimed at quantum dynamics are not stodgy quibbles with the seeming randomness of quantum physics, as characterized by the popularity of the quote that "God does not play dice". Rather, Einstein's thought experiments are apt critiques of action at a distance.

The book was reviewed by the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Science and New Scientist, among others.[6] [7] [8][9][10][11][12] In Physics Today, David Wallace called the book "a superb contribution both to popular understanding of quantum theory and to ongoing debates among experts."[13] In the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Crumey said, "Adam Becker tells a fascinating if complex story of quantum dissidents."[14] And in Nature, Ramin Skibba said "What Is Real? is an argument for keeping an open mind. Becker reminds us that we need humility as we investigate the myriad interpretations and narratives that explain the same data."[15] The book was among the finalists for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and Physics World magazine's Book of the Year.[16][17] Reviews in Science News and the American Journal of Physics were more negative, criticizing the book for historical inaccuracies and philosophical oversimplifications.[18][19] Sheldon Lee Glashow was also critical.[20] In his blog, Peter Woit took issue with what he saw as Becker's vilification of Niels Bohr and endorsement of Hugh Everett's Many-worlds interpretation, to which Becker replied that he intended to do neither.[21]

Selected publications

Books

  • Becker, Adam (March 20, 2018). What is real? : the unfinished quest for the meaning of quantum physics (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3. OCLC 1015259283.

Articles and websites

gollark: What does histodev run on?
gollark: µsecond. python probably supports that.
gollark: Python's datetimes are EXTREMELY HORRIBLE.
gollark: I try and make my programs stateless-ish (i.e. not much state stored in RAM and not elsewhere) to deal with osmarks.tk infrastructure unreliability.
gollark: Although maybe you could do it incrementally.

References
  1. "Adam Becker". Basic Books. Basic Book. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  2. Becker, Adam. "Adam Becker". Freelance Astrophysicist. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  3. "Adam Becker". CSTMS. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  4. "Grants Database". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  5. Becker, Adam (2018). What is Real?. New York: Basic Books. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3.
  6. Gleick, James. "What Does Quantum Physics Actually Tell Us About the World?". Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  7. Albert, David. "Quantum's Leaping Lizards". NYBooks.com. New York Review of Books. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  8. "What is Real?". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  9. Frappier, Melanie. "Questioning quantum mechanics". Science. AAAS. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  10. Brooks, Michael. "What Is Real? A tale of how big egos hijacked quantum physics". New Scientist. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  11. Iain, Dale-Trotter. "The Quantum Heretics". Physics World. IOP Publishing. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  12. Maudlin, Tim. "The Defeat of Reason". Bostonreview.net. Boston Review. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  13. Wallace, David (2018). "Quantum foundations still not cemented". Physics Today. 71 (11): 51–52. doi:10.1063/PT.3.4070.
  14. Crumey, Andrew. "'What Is Real?' Review: Quarks and Quandaries". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  15. Skibba, Ramin. "Einstein, Bohr and the war over quantum theory". Nature. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  16. "2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Longlist Announced". EO Wilson Foundation. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  17. Commissariat, Tushna (April 7, 2019). "Physics World's shortlist for Book of the Year 2018". Physics World.
  18. Siegfried, Tom (January 6, 2019). "'Beyond Weird' and 'What Is Real?' try to make sense of quantum weirdness". Science News. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  19. Fuchs, Christopher A. (2018). "What is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics". American Journal of Physics. 86 (12): 957–959. arXiv:1809.05147. doi:10.1119/1.5053411.
  20. "Not So Real". inference-review.com. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  21. Woit, Peter. "What is Real". Not Even Wrong. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
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