Margaret Wertheim

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Margaret Wertheim at the 2009 TED conference

Margaret Wertheim (* 1958 in Brisbane , Australia ) is a science journalist and author of books on the cultural history of physics .

In her books she describes the role of theoretical physics in the cultural landscape of modern society. In the first book Pythagoras' Trousers (The Pants of Pythagoras), she deals historically with the relationship between physics and religion. In the second book, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace (The pearl gates of cyberspace) it traces the history of the scientific way of thinking about the space of Dante to the Internet on. The third book in the trilogy, Physics on the Fringe , looks at the idiosyncratic world of "outsider physicists," like Jim Carter develop their own alternative theories of the universe with little or no scientific training.

As a journalist, Wertheim has published in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, as well as Cabinet magazine . From 2001 to 2005 she wrote the Quark Soup scientific column for LA Weekly . In 2006 she was awarded the Prize for Journalism American Institute of Biological Sciences and in 2004 she attended as a journalist for the National Science Foundation , the Antarctic . Her work was published by Oliver Sacks as part of Best American Science Writing 2003 .

Hyperbolic crocheted coral reef ( Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef )

The Föhr Reef as part of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project exhibited in Tübingen 2013

In 2003, twin sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim founded the Institute For Figuring in Los Angeles, which promotes public understanding of the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics. The sisters have been the curators of exhibitions on scientific and mathematical subjects in art galleries and museums worldwide including the Santa Monica Museum of Art , the Art Center College of Design , the Machine Project , the Museum of Jurassic Technology , the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC the project of hyperbolic crochet coral reef ( hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef ) more than 5000 volunteers participated, among others, from New York, London, Riga, Cape Town and the German island of Foehr in part by Have crocheted parts of the reef for exhibitions. By 2011, more than three million visitors viewed these exhibitions. The hyperbolic crocheted coral reef is an intersection of mathematics, science, handicraft, environmental protection and community work.

Books

  • Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars. 1995.
  • The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. 1999. German: The Heavenly Door to Cyberspace: A History of Dante's Space to the Internet. Ammann, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-250-10417-5 .
  • A Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space. 2005.
  • A Field Guide to the Menger Sponge Business Card. 2006.
  • Physics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons and Alternative Theories of Everything. 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jascha Hoffman: Q&A: The outsider insider. In: Nature. Volume 479, No. 7371, March 11, 2011, p. 40.
  2. ^ Photo from the exhibition "How beautiful creates knowledge" in Tübingen
personal data
SURNAME Wertheim, Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian science journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Brisbane , Australia