A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics
Today is the final class, and we are talking about twentieth-century science. By “the twentieth century,” our main focus is on the scientific revolution in physics in the early twentieth century—that is, the rise of relativity and quantum mechanics. As for the scientific frontiers of the second half of the twentieth century and even the twenty-first century, we will not be dealing with them in this course. History can never be exhausted; any narrative strategy is, in the phrase, “to miss much while touching on little” (挂一漏万). The issue is not how to avoid omissions, but rather what manner of omission one adopts. The choices I have made in this…
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