Pedro Lilienfeld

In doing some research on Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) I became aware of a remarkable constellation of rationalistic thinkers who flourished during the 17th century in and around Amsterdam. Some preceded, others were contemporaneous and some followed that influential philosopher of Portuguese-Sephardic origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. The roster of intellectuals whose common…

Second Edition (2026) Background At least 35 years ago I started to speculate about the idea that our universe, the one we know about and to which we belong, is only one of many. I was driven to that concept by the extant growing consensus about the Big Bang genesis of the universe. It meant…

Recently I came across the following quote by the famous German physicist Werner Heisenberg: “We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning”. This statement provokedmy thinking because I found it quite profound and all-encompassing and yet, potentially subject itself, to questioning. First…

The current immigration upheavals in the U.S. has gotten me thinking about the image that Latin America presents to a large fraction of the population of our country. That view is being distorted by the relentless focus on illegal immigration, ICE roundups, Venezuela’s oil exploitation issues, Cuba’s travails, El Salvador hellish dictatorship, Mexicos’ and Colombia’s…

I have a problem with Islam, actually, several problems. It would appear that these are predominantly associated and caused by the total dependence on religious dominance of all Muslim societal facets. I became aware of this pervasive influence during our (my spouse and I) travels thorough several Muslim countries: Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan. I will…

Once upon a time, half a century ago, I had a colleague, a collaborator, with whom I had the pleasure of working on various interesting projects. He was very bright and knowledgable. He had a physics PhD from one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Our interactions were very constructive and rewarding.…

My early reading years were spent in Quito, the capital of Ecuador on the northwest of South America. I devoured books, all of them in Spanish, starting at age 9. Four authors predominated thereafter during my adolescence: Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Karl May. The former three, French, and the latter, German. All…

Early on in my professional career, perhaps in the 1960s, I became aware of a characteristic effect of lightning discharges on AM band radio reception: these discharges caused distinctively explosive crackling or crashing noises, when a radio set was tuned between stations on the AM band. I thought of a very simple “transistor radio” type…

Deutsche Physik? A new branch of science? Physics in German? Well, let me explain. It was a pseudo-scientific concoction that sprouted together with the rise of nazism in Germany. It was supported, principally but not exclusively, by two German Nobel Prize winner physicists: Johannes Stark and Philipp Lenard. They attempted to “arianize” physics in order…