Adam Becker

American astrophysicist, author, and scientific philosopher

Adam Becker
Born	1984 New Jersey, United States
Alma mater	Cornell University, University of Michigan
Known for	What Is Real (2018)
Awards	Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics and Philosophy
Thesis	Is the Universe Normal? Constraining Scale-Dependent Primordial Non-Gaussianity. (2012)
Doctoral advisor	Dragan Huterer

Website	freelanceastrophysicist.com

Adam Michael Becker (born 1984) is an American astrophysicist, author, and scientific philosopher. His works include the book What Is Real?, published by Basic Books, which explores the history and personalities surrounding the development and evolution of quantum physics, and includes a modern assessment of the Copenhagen Interpretation.

Academic background

In 2006, Becker received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in philosophy and physics from Cornell University only to earn a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Michigan a year later.^[1] In 2012, Becker would go on to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in physics from the University of Michigan with the physicist Dragan Huterer as his doctoral advisor. His doctoral thesis concerned primordial non-Gaussianity^[2]^[3], which he would later summarize in lay terms for his readers, declaring "I was trying to find out how much we can learn about the way stuff was arranged in the early universe by looking at the way stuff is arranged in the universe right now."^[3]

Career

After completing his doctoral program, Becker wrote and lectured on scientific concepts, providing lay-friendly professional commentary on science.^[3]^[4]

Becker has written for several news and periodicals concerning science for the interested layperson, including the BBC^[5] (which culminated in a video series), NPR^[6], New Scientist Magazine ^[7], Scientific American^[8], the New York Times^[9], Aeon^[10], and the global educational program NOVA on the American PBS.^[11]

In 2014, while employed at the Public Library of Science, Becker was a lead developer in a project that produced Rich Citations, which were an extensive expansion to the capabilities of digital cross-referencing across the PLOS platform.^[12]. In 2018, after publishing What Is Real?, Becker was appointed as a visiting scholar at the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley^[13]. In 2020 he accepted a position as a visiting researcher in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, at University of California, Irvine^[14].^[3]

Becker has also been a member of the California Quantum Interpretation Network, "a research collaboration among faculty and staff at multiple UC campuses and other universities across California, focusing on the interpretation of quantum physics."^[13]

Becker has announced ongoing work on a new publication that takes a step away from the controversy of his first book, What Is Real?, and instead explores the relationship between science and the Consumer Tech Industry that has evolved and been promulgated across the world from the Silicon Valley of California. This new project has an estimated publication date of "late 2023".^[3]

Selected publications

Books

Becker, Adam (March 20, 2018). What is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3. OCLC 1015259283.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Articles and websites

Becker, Adam (February 5, 2019). "From Black Holes to Breakfast, Three Books Show How Einstein's Legacy Lives On". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
Becker, Adam, "The Big Questions", BBC Reel, BBC, retrieved November 30, 2019 (BBC animated video series)
Becker, Adam. "Why does time always run forwards and never backwards?". BBC. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
Becker, Adam. "'Light Of The Stars' Looks To Other Planets To Illuminate Climate Change On Earth". NPR.org. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
Becker, Adam. "The Difficult Birth of the "Many Worlds" Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
Becker, Adam (March 28, 2018). "Quantum Gambling and the Nature of Reality". www.pbs.org. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
Becker, Adam (January 28, 2019). "Junk Science or the Real Thing? 'Inference' Publishes Both". Undark Magazine. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
Becker, Adam (July 21, 2021). "One Lab's Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles". Quanta Magazine.
Becker, Adam (February 1, 2022). "What Is Spacetime Really Made Of?". Scientific American.

References

^ "Adam Becker :: Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society". Retrieved April 15, 2023.
^ Becker, Adam; Huterer, Dragan (2012). "First Constraints on the Running of Non-Gaussianity". Physical Review Letters. 109 (12). Cornell University: 121302. arXiv:1207.5788. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.109l1302B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.121302. PMID 23005935. S2CID 10108151.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Becker, Adam. "Adam Becker". Freelance Astrophysicist. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
^ Albert, David. "Quantum's Leaping Lizards". NYBooks.com. New York Review of Books. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
^ "Why Does Time Always Run Forwards and Never Backwards?". bbc.com. The British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ Becker, Adam (March 20, 2018). "The Puzzle Of Quantum Reality". npr.org. National Public Radio. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ "Quantum Time Machine: How the Future Can Change What Happens Now". newscientist.com. New Scientist Magazine. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ "Physicists Criticize Stephen Wolfram's 'Theory of Everything'". scientificamerican.com. Scientific American. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ Becker, Adam (February 5, 2019). "From Black Holes to Breakfast, Three Books Show How Einstein's Legacy Lives On". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ "What is good science?". aeon.co. Aeon. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ "Quantum Gambling and the Nature of Reality". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ "Rich Citations: Open Data about the Network of Research". plos.org. The Public Library of Science. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Adam Becker". CSTMS. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
^ "Past Visiting Scholars". uci.edu. University of California at Irvine. Retrieved December 3, 2021.