Alexander Unzicker
Alexander Unzicker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 13, 1965 Munich, Germany |
| Residence | Munich, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
| Known for | Particle Physics; critiques of modern theoretical physics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, neuroscience |
Alexander Unzicker (born 13 March 1965) is a German physicist, teacher, and science author. He is known for popular books that critique modern theoretical physics, including Bankrupting Physics and The Higgs Fake, and for advocating a return to foundational questions in physics and cosmology.
Biography
Unzicker was born in Munich, Germany. From 1985 he studied physics and law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, receiving a diploma in physics and a state examination in law in 1993. In 2000 he passed the state examination qualifying him to teach mathematics and physics at the secondary (high school) level, and in 2001 he was awarded a PhD in neuroscience at the university's Institute for Medical Psychology.
Alongside his writing, Unzicker has taught mathematics and physics at the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium in Munich. He is a son of the German chess grandmaster Wolfgang Unzicker. He has stated that his background in law, neuroscience, and teaching informs his broad, historically minded approach to physics as a whole.
Scientific contributions
Unzicker studies foundational questions in physics and cosmology and is a critic of aspects of the modern standard model of particle physics and of contemporary theoretical approaches such as string theory. He draws heavily on the work of earlier physicists including Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Robert Dicke, and Richard Feynman, and argues that unsolved problems raised by these figures deserve renewed attention.
His work explores ideas including a variable speed of light — which he links to remarks made by Einstein — and Mach's principle, the notion that local inertia is determined by the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. Through these themes he has questioned the interpretation of results such as the discovery of the Higgs boson, a critique presented in his book The Higgs Fake.
Books
- 2016 - "Einstein's Lost Keys" (Read in full)
- 2013 - "Bankrupting Physics" (Read in full)
- 2013 - "The Higgs Fake" (Read in full)
His German-language book Vom Urknall zum Durchknall (2010), published in English as Bankrupting Physics: How Today's Top Scientists are Gambling Away Their Credibility (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), was named "most controversial science book of the year" by the German science magazine Bild der Wissenschaft.
Honors
- "Science book of the year" recognition from the German science magazine Bild der Wissenschaft for Vom Urknall zum Durchknall (English edition: Bankrupting Physics).
External links
- Alexander Unzicker on the German Wikipedia
- Official website