Robert Ehrlich (physicist)

Other scholars have cited Ehrlich's published books (12 authored, 10 edited) and over 100 articles approximately 800 times. These citations are available via his Google Scholar page (see below under External Links). The list of books and articles can be found here.{{Cite web|url=https://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu/index.php/publications/|title=all publications – The Tachyon Nexus}} The books mainly deal with science for the general public, physics education, energy and the environment, and nuclear arms control, and most of them are listed below by category.

Turning the World Inside Out and 174 Other Simple Physics Demonstrations. Princeton University Press, 1991. Reviewed by Stewart E. Brekke.{{cite journal |last1=Brekke |first1=Stewart E. |title=Review of TURNING THE WORLD INSIDE OUT AND 174 OTHER SIMPLE PHYSICS DEMONSTRATIONS |journal=The Science Teacher |date=1991 |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=71–72 |jstor=24145614 }} Also available in Japanese and Portuguese translations.

The cosmological milkshake: a semi-serious look at the size of things. New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, 1994. Also available in Finnish and Japanese translations.

What if you could unscramble an egg?. Rutgers University Press, 1998. Reviewed by Brooke Ignatowski.American Scientist 84, 6, (1996): p. 588.{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A537267005}} {{ProQuest|215268761}} |last1=Ignatowski |first1=Brooke |title=What If You Could Unscramble an Egg? |journal=American Scientist |date=1 November 1996 |volume=84 |issue=6 |pages=588–589 }}

What If?: Mind-Boggling Science Questions for Kids. John Wiley & Sons, 1998. Also available in a Japanese translation.

Nine Crazy Ideas in Science: A Few Might Even Be True. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002. Reviewed by Andrzej Stasiak.{{cite journal |last1=Stasiak |first1=Andrzej |title=Crazy ideas? |journal=EMBO Reports |date=November 2001 |volume=2 |issue=11 |pages=978 |pmc=1084140 | doi=10.1093/embo-reports/kve241 }} Also available in Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, and Portuguese translations.

Eight Preposterous Propositions: from The Genetics of Homosexuality to The Benefits of Global Warming. Princeton University Press, 2003. Reviewed by Andrzej Stasiak{{cite journal |last1=Stasiak |first1=Andrzej |title=Eight controversies |journal=EMBO Reports |date=March 2004 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=239 |doi=10.1038/sj.embor.7400102 |pmc=1299013 }} and by Walter Gratzer.{{cite journal |title=Let it snow |journal=Nature |date=December 2003 |volume=426 |issue=6968 |pages=766 |doi=10.1038/426766b |bibcode=2003Natur.426..766. |s2cid=205031576 |doi-access=free }} Also available in a Japanese translation.

Why Toast Lands Jelly-side Down: Zen and the Art of Physics Demonstrations.

Princeton University Press, 1977. Review by Jim Jardine.{{cite journal |last1=Jardine |first1=Jim |title=Why Toast Lands Jelly-side Down |journal=Physics Education |date=September 1997 |volume=32 |issue=5 |doi=10.1088/0031-9120/32/5/025 |s2cid=250815783 }}

Physics and Computers: Problems, Simulation and Data Analysis. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Reviewed by Harwood G. Kolsky.{{cite journal |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Robert |last2=Kolsky |first2=Harwood G. |title=Physics and Computers: Problems, Simulation and Data Analysis |journal=Physics Today |date=October 1973 |volume=26 |issue=10 |pages=59–61 |doi=10.1063/1.3128284 |bibcode=1973PhT....26j..59E }}

Together with his Mason colleague Maria Dworzecka and William M. MacDonald{{Cite web|url=https://www.physics.umd.edu/rgroups/ripe/wmm/wmm.html|title = WMM Home Page}} of the University of Maryland, Ehrlich was a director of the NSF-funded "Consortium for Upper-Level Physics Software (CUPS)"{{cite journal |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Robert |last2=Dworzecka |first2=Maria |last3=MacDonald |first3=William M. |title=Software Consortium Develops Simulations for Nine Physics Courses |journal=Computers in Physics |date=1992 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=90 |doi=10.1063/1.4823049 |bibcode=1992ComPh...6...90E }} The project involved an international team of 29 physicists. It generated nine books published by John Wiley & Sons and 27 simulations covering many of the areas of junior-senior courses for undergraduate physics majors. All nine of the books have been translated into Japanese, and one has been translated into Italian. Three of the simulations have won awards.{{cite journal |last1=Donnelly |first1=Denis |title=CIP's Fourth Annual Software Contest |journal=Computers in Physics |date=1993 |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=647–654 |doi=10.1063/1.4823240 |bibcode=1993ComPh...7..647D }}{{cite journal |last1=Donnelly |first1=Denis |title=CIP's Sixth Annual Software Contest: The Winners |journal=Computers in Physics |date=1995 |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=594 |doi=10.1063/1.4823449 |bibcode=1995ComPh...9..594D }}{{cite journal |last1=Donnelly |first1=Denis |title=CIP's Seventh Annual Educational Software Contest: The Winners |journal=Computers in Physics |date=1996 |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=532–541 |doi=10.1063/1.4822497 |bibcode=1996ComPh..10..532D |doi-access=free }} All the programs have now been placed on the Internet Archive Software Collection and can be run from that site.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/software?query=Consortium+for+Upper-level+Physics+Software|title=Download & Streaming : The Internet Archive Software Collection : Internet Archive}} At the invitation of UNESCO, workshops on the CUPS software were conducted in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.{{cite journal |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Robert |last2=Dworzecka |first2=Maria |title=On the Road to Damascus—Technology, Fear, and Fear of Technology |journal=Journal of College Science Teaching |date=1997 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=179–182 |jstor=42993513 }}

Renewable Energy: A First Course. Boca Raton: CRC Press: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. Reviewed by Cameron Reed.{{cite journal |last1=Reed |first1=Cameron |title=Renewable Energy: A First Course. Renewable Energy: A First Course.RobertEhrlich461 pp. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2013. Price $79.96 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4398-6115-8 |journal=American Journal of Physics |date=June 2014 |volume=82 |issue=6 |pages=625–626 |doi=10.1119/1.4863493 }} Also available in a second edition (jointly with Harold Geller), 2018, and a third edition (with Harold Geller and J. Robert Cressman) 2022.

Perspectives on Nuclear War And Peace Education. New York : Greenwood Press, 1987.

Waging Nuclear Peace: The Technology and Politics of Nuclear Weapons. SUNY Press, 1985.

Reviewed by Rick SincereWashington Times (May 2, 1985), with versions republished in the New York City Tribune (September 3, 1986) and in Strategic Review (spring 1985) http://rickreviewsbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/waging-nuclear-peace-technology-and.html Also reviewed by John D. Constable{{cite journal |last1=Constable |first1=John D. |title=Book Review Waging Nuclear Peace: The technology and politics of nuclear weapons |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=6 June 1985 |volume=312 |issue=23 |pages=1527 |doi=10.1056/NEJM198506063122326 }}{{cite journal |last1=Orient |first1=Jane M. |title=Waging Nuclear Peace: The Technology and Politics of Nuclear Weapons |journal=JAMA |date=2 August 1985 |volume=254 |issue=5 |pages=682–683 |doi=10.1001/jama.1985.03360050120041 }}

Since the 1990s, Ehrlich has investigated the possible existence of tachyons, that is, hypothetical subatomic particles that travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum, especially tachyonic or superluminal neutrinos, about which much has been written.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nu.to.infn.it/Neutrino_Velocity/|title = SuperLuminal Neutrino page (INFN)}} He has published extensively in this area,{{Cite web|url=http://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu/index.php/tachyon-papers|title = list of tachyon papers}} including a 2022 review of all searches for evidence of tachyons.{{cite journal | doi=10.3390/sym14061198 | doi-access=free | title=A Review of Searches for Evidence of Tachyons | year=2022 | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Robert | journal=Symmetry | volume=14 | issue=6 | page=1198 | arxiv=2204.12017 | bibcode=2022Symm...14.1198E }} Ehrlich is awaiting final results from the KATRIN experiment, whose 2019 and 2021 results agree with both the standard neutrino mass hierarchy having three nearly equal mass neutrinos and his exotic 3 + 3 model. That model, based on an analysis of supernova SN 1987A postulates three doublets of active and sterile neutrinos, having specific masses, one of which is tachyonic having m² ~ -0.2 keV²{{cite journal|last1=Ehrlich|first1=Robert|title=First results of the KATRIN neutrino mass experiment and their consistency with an exotic 3+3 model|journal=Letters in High Energy Physics|date=31 December 2019|volume=2|issue=4|page=139|doi=10.31526/lhep.4.2019.139|arxiv=1910.06158|bibcode=2019LHEP....2..139E|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last1=Ehrlich|first1=Robert|title=The KATRIN neutrino mass results: An alternative interpretation|date=1 September 2021|arxiv=2106.00681}}{{Cite journal|arxiv=2204.12017 |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Robert |title=A Review of Searches for Evidence of Tachyons |journal=Symmetry |year=2022 |volume=14 |issue=6 |page=1198 |doi=10.3390/sym14061198 |bibcode=2022Symm...14.1198E |doi-access=free }} Ehrlich's model would also be proven right or wrong if a new supernova were to be observed in our galaxy, but these occur only two or three times per century. Supernovae have been observed in other galaxies, but they are so distant that no neutrinos have yet been detected from them. Nevertheless, Ehrlich's model has predicted a day-long emission of monochromatic 8 MeV neutrinos from extragalactic supernovae that might show up using the current generation of detectors. Ehrlich has written a book on tachyons intended for both the general reader and physicists: Hunting the Faster than Light Tachyon, and Finding Three Unicorns and a Herd of Elephants, published by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group in 2022.{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1286422704|title= Hunting the Faster Than Light Tachyon, and Finding Three Unicorns and a Herd of Elephants|first=Robert|last=Ehrlich|date=2022|publisher=CRC Press|oclc= 1286422704|via=Open WorldCat}} The book describes the half-century-long search by the author and others for evidence of the reality of tachyons, and more specifically the notion that some neutrinos are tachyons. Among all the known particles, only neutrinos might be tachyons, because neither their m² nor their dv = c - v has ever been definitively observed to be positive. Ehrlich has also created educational videos about tachyons and time travel, which can be found on his web site "The Tachyon Nexus."{{Cite web|url=https://ehrlich.physics.gmu.edu/|title=Home page|date=August 21, 2022|website=The Tachyon Nexus}}

Ehrlich has been married to his wife Elaine since 1961. They have two sons and two grandchildren. He is a founding member and Past President of George Mason University's Retired Faculty Association,{{Cite web|url=http://rfa.gmu.edu/|title=Home page|date=August 21, 2022|website=Retired Faculty Association}} and currently serves as their Webmaster and Program Planning Chair.{{Cite web|url=https://rfa.gmu.edu/about/officers/|title=Officers|date=August 21, 2022|website=Retired Faculty Association}}

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Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Category:Rutgers University faculty

Category:State University of New York at New Paltz faculty

Category:Brooklyn College alumni

Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:American particle physicists

Category:20th-century American physicists

Category:George Mason University faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society