Cosmic anger: Abdus Salam – the first Muslim Nobel scientist

Gordon Fraser0199208468, 9780199208463, 9780191549090

This book presents a biography of Abdus Salam, the first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize for Science (Physics 1979), who was nevertheless excommunicated and branded as a heretic in his own country. His achievements are often overlooked, even besmirched. Realizing that the whole world had to be his stage, he pioneered the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, a vital focus of Third World science which remains as his monument. A staunch Muslim, he was ashamed of the decline of science in the heritage of Islam, and struggled doggedly to restore it to its former glory. Undermined by his excommunication, these valiant efforts were doomed.

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Table of contents :
Contents……Page 6
List of illustrations……Page 7
Introduction……Page 8
Acknowledgements and sources……Page 10
Author’s note……Page 13
1. A turban in Stockholm……Page 16
2. The tapestry of a subcontinent……Page 32
3. Messiahs, Mahdis and Ahmadis……Page 44
4. A mathematical childhood……Page 61
5. From mathematics to physics……Page 80
6. The men who knew infinities……Page 101
7. Not so splendid isolation……Page 118
8. ‘Think of something better’……Page 136
9. The arrogant theory……Page 156
10. Uniting nations of science……Page 171
11. Trieste……Page 193
12. Electroweak……Page 218
13. Quark Liberation Front……Page 248
14. Demise……Page 262
15. Prejudice and pride……Page 281
Bibliography……Page 306
B……Page 310
E……Page 311
I……Page 312
L……Page 313
P……Page 314
S……Page 315
T……Page 318
W……Page 319
Z……Page 320