author
P. W. (Percy Williams) Bridgman
1882–1961
A Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he transformed the study of matter under extreme pressure and helped open up an entirely new branch of experimental physics. He also wrote thoughtful, influential books about what science can and cannot claim to know.
1 Audiobook
The logic of modern physics
by P. W. (Percy Williams) Bridgman
About the author
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1882, Percy Williams Bridgman spent nearly his entire academic life at Harvard, where he earned his degrees and later joined the faculty. He became one of the leading experimental physicists of the 20th century through his ingenious work on creating and measuring very high pressures in the laboratory.
Bridgman received the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing apparatus to produce extremely high pressures and for the discoveries he made with it. His research changed scientists' understanding of how materials behave under extreme conditions, and his name remains attached to important ideas and techniques in physics and materials science.
Beyond the lab, he was known for writing clearly about the scientific method and the meaning of scientific concepts, making him an important voice in the philosophy of science as well as in physics. His career joined hands-on experimentation with big questions about how knowledge is built, which gives his work an appeal far beyond specialist readers.