Jeremy Bernstein (born December 31, 1929) is an American
theoretical physicist and popular science writer.
Early life
Bernstein's parents, Philip S. Bernstein, a
Reform rabbi, and Sophie Rubin Bernstein named him after the biblical
Jeremiah, the subject of his father's
masters thesis. Philip's parents were immigrants from
Lithuania, while Sophie was of Russian-Jewish descent. The family moved from
Rochester to
New York City during
World War II, when his father became head of all the Jewish
chaplains in the
armed forces.[1]
Bernstein is a popular science writer and profiler of scientists. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1961 to 1995, authoring scores of articles.[6] He has also written regularly for
The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Review of Books, and Scientific American, among others. Bernstein's biographical profiles of physicists, including
Robert Oppenheimer,
Hans Bethe,
Albert Einstein,
John Stewart Bell and others, are able to draw on the experiences of personal acquaintance.[3][4] Bernstein's latest publication was in 2018 with A Bouquet of Dyson: and Other Reflections on Science and Scientists[7]
Books
Analytical Engine – Computers Past, Present and Future, Random House, 1964
A Comprehensible World: On Modern Science and its Origin, Random House, 1967[8][9]
Elementary Particles and Their Currents, Freeman, 1968
Einstein, Viking Press 1973, Penguin Books, 1976
Experiencing Science, Basic Books, 1978
Hans Bethe – Prophet of Energy, Basic Books, 1980
Science Observed – Essays Out of My Mind, Basic Books, 1982
Three Degrees Above Zero – Bell Labs in the Information Age, Scribners, 1984[10]
^Ellis Jr., R. Hobart (1967). "Review of A Comprehensible World: On Modern Science and its Origin by Jeremy Bernstein". Physics Today. 20 (10): 90–91.
doi:
10.1063/1.3033988.
^Wheaton, Bruce R. (1985). "Review of Three Degrees Above Zero: Bell Labs in the Information Age by Jeremy Bernstein". Physics Today. 38 (5): 84.
Bibcode:
1985PhT....38e..84B.
doi:
10.1063/1.2814565.