General

• “What is Life?” E. Schrodinger.   One of the founders of quantum mechanics (Nobel Prize). Very interesting.
• “The meaning of it all” and “The pleasure of finding things out” R. Feynman.   These are really good reads!
• “Essays in Science” A. Einstein.   One of the deepest physicists. Most widely known are his relativity theories.
• “A Brief History of Time” S. Hawking.   A very well known contemporary researcher. A very popular book.
• “The Physics of Star Trek” L. Krauss.   A variety of (interesting!) physics related to the movie.
• “Flying Circus of Physics” Jearl Walker.   A delight! Unexpected and curious examples.
• “Fearful Symmetry” A. Zee.   Symmetry principles in physics. (Knowing some physics helps here.)

Philosophy of Physics

• “Causality & Chance in Modern Physics” David Bohm.   On the conceptual (and philosophical) foundations of physical science.
• “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” Thomas Kuhn.   (By a philosopher.) “Classic” and “landmark,” very well known work.
• “Philosophy of Natural Science” Carl Hempel.   A “classic,” by a philosopher of science. Applies to social sciencies just as well.

People, history of physics

• “Subtle is the Lord” A. Pais.   A widely appreciated biography of A. Einstein.
• “Surely you are joking, Mr. Feynman” About Feynman, by Feynman.   A Nobel Laureate (and a “curious character”). Interesting!
• “The Man Who Changed Everything: Life of James Clerk Maxwell” B. Mahon.   One of the (few) greatest physicists ever, yet not widely known. His contributions are in the very heart of an amazing array of disciplines. (“Maxwell's equations” form the classical theory of electromagnetism. For example.) A nice and very readable book.

Philosophy and Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

• “Physics and Philosophy” W. Heisenberg.   One of the original developers of quantum mechanics (Nobel Prize). Introduced the ‘uncertainty principle.’ Knowing a bit about quantum theory helps. Also see his other two books.

Gravitation, Cosmology, Early Universe (etc)

• “Relativity: The Special and General Theory” A. Einstein.   Einstein's ‘popular account’ of his relativity theories. (Some of it is readable.)
• “The First Three Minutes” S. Weinberg.   Basics of the modern theory of Big Bang. The author received the Nobel Prize for the Standard Model of particle physics (“Weinberg–Salam” model); this is what is used in the Early Universe models.
• “Quintessence: The Mystery of the Missing Mass” L. Krauss   On dark matter (and vacuum energy). “Dense with information.”

String Theory, Extra dimensions and such

• “The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory” B. Greene.   Most excellent!
• “Hiding in the Mirror : The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, from Plato to String Theory and Beyond” L. Krauss   An excellent book.

Comprehensive sites

• Physics 2000   A most excellent site, at just about the right level, and with a spirit very similar to this course. Correct physics, explained simply and well. Well chosen animations.
• Hyperphysics   Probably a bit too technical, precise and concise for us – but then it is complete, rounded and reliable.

General

• Scientific American   Standard, well known, very good.
• PhysOrg   “Science, Technology, Physics, Space news.”
• PhysicsWeb   Very rich! News, overviews, resources.
• PSIgate   Physical Sciences Information Gateway.
• New Scientist   An interesting journal. Online.
• PhysLink   Physics & Astronomy: various news, articles etc.
• WWW Virtual Library – Physics   A portal with many links.
• ScienceIQ.com   Tidbits on physics.
• PhysNet links   Many resources (links).
• Physics & Math section of PBS's “Nova” science site.
• Wikipedia's physics.   Interesting! User contributed.

Animations

• PhET (The Physics Education Technology)   Very good.
• Falstad   Interesting! Ranging over many topics of interest.
• Caltech   ( and another page )   Mostly Electromagnetism.
• Visualizing EM at MIT   ( more )   Excellent simulations.
  • The above are from a full (technical) course at MIT, which
  • is summarized in a visual tour (linking all simulations).
• Acoustics and Vibration   With nice (short) overviews.
• myPhysicsLab.com   Very good simulations on mechanics.
• ParticleWorld   2D motion. Excellent! (when working)

Astronomy, Cosmology, Space travel etc

• NASA's SOHO: our Sun   The image is updated automatically !
• Astronomy Picture of the Day (NASA)   Full archive. Amazing images.
• Science and Space (cnn);   Occasional interesting articles.
• European Space Agency;   News, articles, links.
• JPL space calendar (NASA)   “Space-related activities and anniversaries.”
• Planetary Photojournal (NASA)   A very nice site.
• Constellations   Astronomy texts, tutorials, facts.
• HubbleSite   Various excellent resources.
• Cosmology Tutorial   (UCLA). An excellent, extensive overview.

Technology

• Howstuffworks.com   Many interesting articles. For example:
• How Quantum Computers Will Work
• Technovelgy.com   Some ... (interesting) science fiction!

Nano-science, Bio physics (applications in biology)

• Nanoscience and Nanotechnology   (Sandia National Lab)
• Nanotechnology and Nanoscience   A site in the UK.
• Center for Responsilbe Nanotechnology  
• Building nanomachines out of living bacteria   (on NewScientist.com)

Theoretical physics: Particle Physics, String theory ...

• Particle Adventure   Most excellent, very accessible! An excellent site.
• What is string theory?   Excellent! (And short.) With some great links.
• The Elegant Universe, a PBS site, with three-hour miniseries (movies).
• Hawking's public lectures   ( And a fascinating biography; and more. )

Relativity (mostly General Relativity and Cosmology)

• Popular Science Relativity Websites   A nice listing of many sites.
• Cambridge Relativity: “Public Home Page”   Cambridge University, UK.
• Relativity Visualization Websites   ( From Relativity on WWW )

History, Biographies (with overviews of physics)

• Newton   A nice overview, from a course. It links to Isaac Newton Resources.
• History of Statistical Mechanics   Extensive (and well organized), with excellent links.
• History of Electromagnetism   From the site above; an excellent resource (on physics).
• History of Kinetic Theory   Helpful for understanding the physics of it.
• American Institute of Physics: History   A most excellent resource! See, for example,
    their Exhibits; reviews of periods of pre-1900 and post-1900 physics;
    pages on Heisenberg, Einstein etc.   A lot of physics is here, of course.

Various: sites that don't fit elsewhere, recent news/articles ...

• “A course on Modern Physics”   Introductory. Reasonable text; uses (some) math.
• Interactive Examples   Solve simple problems and get (some) feedback.
• A New York Times article: tricks with light ( pdf )   [Recently posted on our front page.]
• ScienceDaily: Laser surgery on molecules   [Recently posted on our front page.]
• A little Science fiction: go invisible ( pdf ).   [Recently posted on our front page.]
• Fix – without breaking?   Global dimming.   [Recently posted on our front page.]