Gerald Feinberg (27 May 1933 – 21 April 1992) was a Columbia University physicist, futurist and popular science author. He spent a year as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, and two years at the Brookhaven Laboratories.[ "Gerald Feinberg, 58, Physicist; Taught at Columbia University". Retrieved 2015-03-28.] Feinberg went to Bronx High School of Science with Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow and obtained his bachelor's and graduate degrees from Columbia University.[The Second Creation, Crease & Mann, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986]
Research
He coined the term
tachyon for hypothetical faster-than-light particles and analysed their quantum field properties,
[
] predicted the existence of the
muon neutrino[
] and advocated
cryonics as a public service.
[
] He was a member of the Foresight Institute's advisory panel.
Parapsychology
Feinberg wrote a foreword to
Edgar Mitchell's book
Psychic Explorations (1974) in which he endorsed
psychic. His concept of a tachyon, a theoretical particle that travels faster than the speed of light has been advocated by some parapsychologists who claim that it could explain
precognition or
psychokinesis. However, there is no scientific evidence tachyon particles exist and such paranormal claims have been described as pseudoscientific.
[Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003). . Wiley. pp. 370-371. ]
Publications
Books
-
Cosmological Constants (with co-editor Jeremy Bernstein, 1986).
-
Solid Clues: Quantum Physics, Molecular Biology, and the Future of Science, Simon & Schuster, 1985.
-
Life Beyond Earth: The Intelligent Earthling's Guide to Extraterrestrial Life (with Robert Shapiro), Morrow, 1980.
-
What is the world made of? : Atoms, leptons, quarks, and other tantalizing particles, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977. &
-
Consequences of Growth: The Prospects for a Limitless Future, Seabury Press, New York, 1977. Review
-
The Prometheus Project, Mankind's Search for Long-Range Goals, Anchor Books, 1969.
Papers
External links
