Foreword ix
Pas de Deux 3
A Flash of Light 6
Smile 12
Is the Earth Round or Flat? 17
If Birds Can Fly, Why, Oh Why, Can't I? 22
Students and Teachers 29
Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe 39
In His Image 45
Mirage 54
To Cleave an Atom 58
Elapsed Expectations 68
A Visit by Mr. Newton 73
Origins 79
A Day in December 84
Progress 87
I=V/R 94
Nothing but the Truth 100
Time for the Stars 107
A Modern-Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court 117
The Origin of the Universe 133
How the Camel Got His Hump 142
Ironland 145
Other Rooms 151
Seasons 159
ALAN LIGHTMAN is the author of seven novels, including the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams and The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He is the host of the public television series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. He is a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT.
“Alan Lightman is one of our most consistently fascinating
writers.”
—Annie Dillard
“Lightman has an uncanny way of presenting complex concepts with
familiar examples and analogies—so that readers will both deepen
their appreciation of science and their love of fine
literature.”
—Stephen Jay Gould
“Novelist, essayist, physicist, and master of prose style, Alan
Lightman continues his extraordinary voyage into unexplored regions
of life, time, and the imagination. Dance for Two is a compelling
book of flawless prose from a unique mind.”
—Richard Preston
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