Third Thoughts: The Universe We Still Don’t Know

by Steven Weinberg

A Forbes Holiday Gift Guide Selection

One of the most captivating science communicators of our time challenges us to reconsider the entanglement of science and society. From the cosmological to the personal, from astronomy and quantum physics to the folly of manned spaceflight and the rewards of getting things wrong, Steven Weinberg shares his views on the workings of the universe and our aspirations and limitations. Third Thoughts aims to provoke and inform and never loses sight of the human dimension of scientific discovery and its consequences for our drive to probe the workings of the cosmos.

"One of the 20th century's greatest physicists...shares his strongly-held opinions on everything from the Higgs boson to the state of theoretical physics and the problems of science and society."
--Forbes

"Weinberg has a knack for capturing a complex concept in a succinct, unforgettable image...One of the smartest and most diligent scientists around."
--Nature

"The phrase 'public intellectual' is much bandied about. Just a few real heavyweights in the world merit the title, and Steven Weinberg is preeminent among them. His collection ranges from deep science on the very frontier of human comprehension, through his trenchant views on public policy, to history and the arts. Compelling reading."
--Richard Dawkins

"A stimulating and admirable book."
--Physics Today

Genres: Science, Physics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Essays, History

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2019

About the author

Steven Weinberg (1933-2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.

He held the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research on elementary particles and physical cosmology was honored with numerous prizes and awards, including in 1979 the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1991 the National Medal of Science. In 2004 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, with a citation that said he was "considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today." He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society, as well as to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Weinberg's articles on various subjects occasionally appeared in The New York Review of Books and other periodicals. He served as consultant at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, President of the Philosophical Society of Texas, and member of the Board of Editors of Daedalus magazine, the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress, the JASON group of defense consultants, and many other boards and committees.

Reviews

[Dan Graser · Rating 4 out of 5]

In any collection of essays on a variety of subjects you will always find a great deal of unevenness not only because the subject matter is changing, but also because you will hear the same ideas discussed in greater/less depth or the author is much more informed on certain issues and veers into superficiality elsewhere. Thankfully, when a series of essays is collected from a Nobel Prize theoretical physicist like Steven Weinberg, most of these issues go away.

This latest book is divided into four principal parts:
1) Science History
2) Physics and Cosmology
3) Public Matters
4) Personal Matters

Always brilliant and always very opinionated, Weinberg is the finest science writer you likely haven't heard of, equally brilliant and just as eloquent some of his famous colleagues. There are some contentious issues discussed here both from scientific and public policy points of view and he deftly supports what are considered minority positions (i.e. being against the funding of manned space expeditions in favor of the much more cost-effective robotic missions). Some standouts in the collection, at least for me, would be:
"The Whig History of Science: An Exchange"
"The Trouble with Quantum Mechanics"
"Against Manned Space Flight"
"On Being Wrong"
"The Craft of Science, and the Craft of Art"

Some of these have already been published and are accessible in the New York Review of Books and elsewhere, however, many are new transcripts of speeches and addresses he has made recently. After a fine article dealing with how art and science are done and sometimes intermingle, he closes with, "In the kind of fundamental physics that my colleagues and I do, we are trying to put ourselves out of business by discovering a final theory. But the arts will continue as long as civilizations does. That is the one thing in this talk about which I am quite certain, because without the arts there is no civilization."

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasional essays. Weinberg writes well on science. His personal and public musings are more mundane.

[Hind · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd collection of essays. Nice to listen to but nothing particularly profound, lots of repeated thoughts. The narrator mispronounced a few physics jargon words which really got on my nerves (the words came up frequently..)

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pieces are too short to be meaningful.

[Finja Kemski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abgebrochen.

[Galen Weitkamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third Thoughts by Steven Weinberg.
Review by Galen Weitkamp.

Third Thoughts is Steven Weinberg’s third collection of talks and essays, this one published in 2018. It is divided into four parts: Science History, Physics and Cosmology, Public Matters, and Personal Matters.

Weinberg connects the current concepts, directions and goals of science to past practices, understandings and misunderstandings. Making such connections is essential to the proper understanding of the history of science. This view of science history informs his current practice and vision of science; he writes,

“The task of physics is not to answer a set of fixed questions about nature, such as deciding which particles are elementary. We do not know in advance what are the right questions to ask, and we often do not find out until we are close to an answer.”

The essays in Public Matters discuss science funding, big science, manned space-flight (why he’s against it), and public skepticism about “establishment science”.

He also touches upon this latter topic in the section on Personal Matters. In the essay On Being Wrong he writes,

“Over the centuries the world has been greatly damaged by political and religious leaders who were sure they knew the truth, or behaved as if they did, and were able to pass on this certainty to their followers...my message to graduating students, for the worlds’ sake as well as for your own, is that when you go forth and get things wrong, as you inevitably will, that you be willing to recognize that you have been wrong, and even be a little proud that as scientists or engineers or architects you are able to know that you were wrong.”

To this reviewer the willingness to test one’s hypotheses and the capacity to admit and correct them when they prove wrong is the main strength of science. It is what distinguishes reason from ideology and faith.

[Set · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book as a physics student who was familiar with the concepts presented in the book. It's a collection of several talks by Weinberg. That's why many of the ideas were repeated. But it didn't bother me reading repeated concepts, it rather helped me to find a better understanding of them. It's good to know what Weinberg talks about in his lectures and talks, but if you have no idea you "might" get bored.

[Ailith Twinning · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has so few reviews I'll write a little something -- Short essays from a scientist, of which my favourite was a period where he discusses the need for a, let's call it 'more generous', society. Stringing these essays together kinda of felt like just listening to someone think out loud for a bit, I enjoyed it well enough.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I mostly got this because it was included in my Audible membership, so it was free.

I knew who he was but I had never read any book by Weinberg, so this was a good introduction to his thinking:

(1) He really, really hates manned space flight.

(2) He is super passionate about public funding for science, (especially physics)

(3) He is still angry about the cancellation of the Superconducting Supercollider in 1993 (this book was published in 2018)

Now as far as the science part, I definitely did not understand most of it but I most enjoyed his discussion of
(1) What is an elementary particle (essay 9) - apparently it's not as obvious as I thought!
(2) The Trouble with Quantum Physics (essay 14) - physicists are even more confused than I thought!

Actually that whole section ("Part 2: Physics and Cosmology", essays 9-14) was the most interesting to me even though I understood it the least. I guess I enjoyed him talking about physics more than politics, even though I completely agree with his politics (but I mostly disagree with his dislike of modern art - stick to physics Steve!).

Also on a larger note I found myself being impressed with how active and engaged he is not only with physics but with public affairs even though he is almost 90 now.

[Davidcharlesbowmangmail.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coolly and powerfully rational, but also strident and persuasive, Weinberg presses his realist, historicist take on science and the history and philosophy of science. Mainly the essays present lucid exposés of some key moments and debates in cosmology and fundamental physics, and these are fascinating enough; but his forthright views on the reality of man-made climate change, and the hubristic expenditure on manned spaceflight rather than the more scientifically efficient unmanned exploration, are made warmly and with the conviction and wisdom appropriate to a Nobel laureate and grandee of physics.

[Jc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weinberg, Nobel-winning physicist and author of the amazing and widely read “The First Three Minutes,” here presents a remarkable collection of essays he wrote over the past 20 or so years, most previously published in The New York Review of Books or elsewhere. As with any collection, some of the essays are not as good as others, but they all are worth a read. A few may require some familiarity with the language and ideas of physics to fully appreciate, and a few are just wonders of science writing. His enthusiasm not just for physics, but for science in the broadest sense, and for philosophy and the humanities, and mostly for life itself, shines through in all 25 articles.

[فرهاد ذکاوت · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگر کتابهای قبلی مجموعه مقالات عمومی واینبرگ رو خوانده باشید این کتاب چندان جدید نیست. در نتیجه چیزی از دست نداده اید. ولی خوانش عمق مفاهیم فیزیک به قلم یکی از مهمترین چهره های فیزیک نظری همواره آموزنده هست (بخصوص برای دانشجویان فیزیک). در واقع این مدل کتابهای واینبرگ باید عنوان بهتری برایش انتخاب میشد: نوشته های پراکنده. هرچند وایبنرگ آرزو میکنه که این آخرین مجموعه نباشد ولی در سال ۲۰۲۰ فوت میکنه.

بطور خاص به دانشجویان تمام مقاطع بخصوص ارشد و دکترا پیشنهاد میکنم درسهای واینبرگ رو در موضوعهای مختلف که کتابهای متعددی شده بخوانند و فرمولها رو همراه با روند اثبات خودشون یکبار استنتاج کنند. البته واینبرگ نوتاسیون خاص خودش رو داشت. این کتاب البته عمومی ست ولی مطالب علمی تخصصی هستند ولو در قالب کلمات به زبان ساده بیان شده باشند.

[مريم القحطاني]

Notice that most people rating this book didn’t write a single word, because they didn’t get a single thing. Why write as if you’re speaking to a certain segment in coded language and excluding the rest? Believe me, the complexity of the topic is irrelevant, and not a good excuse. It’s not about complexity, it’s about not being able to communicate your ideas clearly with examples easily understood. Albert Einstein once said “if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This is very true in the case of this book.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collections of essays by the author or given as speeches. The writing is uneven which is what one would expect for a collection like this: Different times, different writing skills, different audiences. The author does address ideas in quantum mechanics which is why I wanted to read/listen to this book. I was satisfied with that. He also made some political commentary that was reasonable and balanced and unconvincing. But I wasn't reading the book for that.

Over all I'd probably read this book again but only the articles that interested me.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steven Weinberg is a good popular science writer. He isn't afraid to present complex ideas as long as he is able to get them across without higher math. Some of the more social essays in this book were less interesting that the science ones, but I do like Weinberg's general idea that we need to find and nurture intersections between science and social concerns and between science and the arts

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steven Weinberg was one of the great physicists of the late 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st. He writes well thought out well written essays as are in this book. He has thought deeply about some of the most important and basic aspects of physics and science society. Well worth the read.

[Arno Mosikyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish we were a society where Steven Weinberg type people were the socialites and social media stars to follow and "mimic" as a role model. Our dear Planet Earth would have been a completely different spot to live.

[Kunal Sen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful set of essays and lectures by this giant of modern theoretical physics. Though intended for the general audience, some of them may be a little tough to appreciate unless you are already familiar with some of the underlying concepts.

[Emil Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not know of Steven Weinberg before reading this book. What a guy! This is a collection of his various letters and public engagements, making it a bit of a mixed bag. But the part concerning physics is incredible, and I love the historic take that he mixes with absolute expertise.

[Ziyue Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for physics grads

[Matt Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of lectures on physics and opinions on myriad issues. I enjoyed the read but won't reach for it again quickly.

[Nancie Lafferty · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Thoughtful essays from a Nobel winning scientist on far-ranging, sometimes controversial issues.

[Kaddour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science is never the solution, power and money.

[Superconformal Hassaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good read. I will write rest of the review after I get free.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe I am feeling jaded today but my feeling is meh.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable look at the shortcomings in quantum and standard theory of physics and cosmology.

[Paul Triller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plugged in the ear buds whilst on a 20km hike and rambled through the world of quantam physics, quarks, dark matter, and various other things of physics.

[Naaman Otmani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading it was merely a pleasure!