In these selections readers are treated to a rare opportunity to see the
world through the eyes of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant
and sensitive scientists. Conceived by Chandrasekhar as a supplement to
his
Selected Papers, this volume begins with eight papers he
wrote with Valeria Ferrari on the non-radial oscillations of stars. It
then explores some of the themes addressed in
Truth and Beauty,
with meditations on the aesthetics of science and the world it examines.
Highlights include: The Series Paintings of Claude Monet and the
Landscape of General Relativity, The Perception of Beauty and the
Pursuit of Science, On Reading Newton's
Principia at Age Past
Eighty, and personal recollections of Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru,
and others.
Selected Papers, Volume 7 paints a picture of Chandra's universe,
filled with stars and galaxies, but with space for poetics, paintings,
and politics.
The late S. Chandrasekhar was best known for his discovery of the upper
limit to the mass of a white dwarf star, for which he received the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1983. He was the author of many books, including
The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes and, most recently,
Newton's Principia for the Common Reader.
