No Wonder You Wonder!

Back in 1961, I decided on a career in science rather than history after hearing President Kennedy announce that we were going to the Moon. I am fascinated by all aspects of science, and a specialist in optics, plasma physics and laser-produced plasmas. I have B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. from Stanford in electrical engineering, have worked in various National Labs for many years, and later formed my own company, Photonic Associates, in Santa Fe. While I am actually a “rocket scientist,” having designed and built laser driven plasma engines for spacecraft, I firmly believe that you don’t have to complete Grade 24 to understand how things work. Ernest Rutherford said “if you can’t explain your physics to a barmaid, it’s probably not very good physics,” and I agree with that sentiment. I want to help you get over your fear of numbers and science. Read this book and see if I’ve been successful!.

• Section I – Basics.- Preface.- Einstein Said.- Numbers.- Magic numbers.- Intro: Weird.- Metric system.- Exponentials.- Section II – Who Did it First?.- Preface.- China.- Greece.- Rome.- Islamic Science.- Section III – Modern Science and Engineering.- Preface.- Modern Science.- Blue/black sky .- Machines.- Lighter than Air Flight.- Electricity.- Robot Flight.- Jet Planes.- Rockets and Satellites.- Electromagnetic waves.- Electronics and Computers.- Biology.- Optics.- Lasers.- Nucleonics.- Section IV – Odds and Ends.- Religion.- Everything Else.

"Phipps' new book is kind of a rarity in the Springer list, which specializes in very academic and technical subjects ... . In the 331 pages, chock full of historical and contemporary prints, cartoons, photographs and charts and a number of illustrations by Friedelwolf Wicke, an Austrian collaborator, I could not find a dull moment in this compendium of instructive blurbs, insights, digressions and hard-won historical truths." (Roger Snodgrass, Los Alamos Daily Post, ladailypost.com, October, 2016)