The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens

In this thoughtful book, Gerald Holton considers both blades of our sword of Damocles, the thoughtprovoking advancements and the concomitant burdens of science. Holton, a renowned historian of science, takes the philosophical and historical high road on his trip from the past glories of Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and Robert Oppenheimer to the burdens of the broader societal implications that scientists must consider – the bad along with the good. It is pedagogically wise for our graduate students to have this book to bridge the river of human events from those glorious achievements to the other side of burdens, at once less precise and less logical. Holton's approach works extremely well when addressing the "achievements" side of the coin, but is less satisfactory for the flip side because the burdens are more complicated than nature itself.