{{short description|American astrophysicist, author, and scientific philosopher}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Adam Becker |image = |image_size = |caption = Adam Becker (c. 2018) |birth_date = 1984 |birth_place = New Jersey, United States |death_date = |death_place = |fields = Astrophysics and Philosophy |workplaces = |alma_mater = Cornell University, University of Michigan |thesis_title = Is the Universe Normal? Constraining Scale-Dependent Primordial Non-Gaussianity. |thesis_url = https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/93893 |thesis_year = 2012 |doctoral_advisor = Dragan Huterer |academic_advisors = |doctoral_students = |notable_students = |known_for = ''What Is Real'' (2018) |influences = |influenced = |awards = Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant |spouse = |signature = |website = {{URL|http://freelanceastrophysicist.com}} | module = | filename = | title = | type = | description = }}
'''Adam Michael Becker''' (born 1984) is an American astrophysicist, author, and scientific philosopher. His works include the book ''What Is Real?'', published by Basic Books, which explores the history and personalities surrounding the development and evolution of quantum physics, and includes a modern assessment of the Copenhagen Interpretation.
== Academic background == In 2006, Becker received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in philosophy and physics from Cornell University and earned a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Michigan a year later.<ref name="Center for Science" /> In 2012, Becker would go on to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in physics from the University of Michigan with the physicist Dragan Huterer as his doctoral advisor. His doctoral thesis concerned primordial non-Gaussianity{{R|"Becker Thesis"}}{{R|"Freelance"}}, which he would later summarize in lay terms for his readers, declaring "I was trying to find out how much we can learn about the way stuff was arranged in the early universe by looking at the way stuff is arranged in the universe right now."{{R|"Freelance"}}
== Career == After completing his doctoral program, Becker wrote and lectured on scientific concepts, providing lay-friendly professional commentary on science.{{R|"Freelance"}}{{R|"NYREVIEW"}}
Becker has written for several news and periodicals concerning science for the interested layperson, including the BBC{{R|"Becker BBC"}} (which culminated in a video series), NPR{{R|"Becker NPR"}}, ''New Scientist'' {{R|"Becker NSci"}}, ''Scientific American''{{R|"Becker SciAm"}}, ''The New York Times''{{R|Becker NYT}}, ''Aeon''{{R|"Becker Aeon"}}, and the global educational program ''NOVA'' on PBS.{{R|"Becker NOVA"}}
In 2014, while employed at the Public Library of Science, Becker was a lead developer in a project that produced ''Rich Citations'', which were an extensive expansion to the capabilities of digital cross-referencing across the PLOS platform.{{R|"Becker PLOS"}}. In 2018, after publishing ''What Is Real?'', Becker was appointed as a visiting scholar at the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley{{R|"Center for Science"}}. In 2020 he accepted a position as a visiting researcher in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, at University of California, Irvine{{R|"Irvine Scholars"}}.{{R|"Freelance"}}
Becker has also been a member of the California Quantum Interpretation Network, "a research collaboration among faculty and staff at multiple UC campuses and other universities across California, focusing on the interpretation of quantum physics."{{R|"Center for Science"}}
Becker's second book, ''More Everything Forever'', moves away from the controversy surrounding his earlier work, ''What Is Real?'', and instead examines the relationship between science and the consumer technology industry that has developed and spread globally from California's Silicon Valley.{{R|Freelance}} In her review for ''The New York Times,'' Jennifer Szalai called the book "smart and wonderfully readable".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Szalai |first=Jennifer |author-link=Jennifer Szalai |date=2025-04-23 |title=Go to Mars, Never Die and Other Big Tech Pipe Dreams |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/books/review/more-everything-forever-adam-becker.html |access-date=2025-05-09 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>
== Selected publications == '''Books'''
* {{Cite book|title=What is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics|isbn=978-0-465-09605-3|location=New York, NY|publisher=Basic Books|oclc=1015259283|date=March 20, 2018}}
* {{Cite book|title=More Everything Forever|isbn=978-1-541-61959-3|location=New York, NY|publisher=Basic Books|date=April 22, 2025}}
'''Articles and websites'''
* {{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/books/review/einsteins-shadow-seth-fletcher-albert-einstein.html|title=From Black Holes to Breakfast, Three Books Show How Einstein's Legacy Lives On|last=Becker|first=Adam|date=2019-02-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-11-30|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} * {{Citation|last=Becker|first=Adam|url=https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/the-big-questions|title=The Big Questions|work=BBC Reel|publisher=BBC|language=en|access-date=2019-11-30}} (BBC animated video series) * {{Cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150309-why-does-time-only-run-forwards|title=Why does time always run forwards and never backwards?|last=Becker|first=Adam|work=BBC|language=en|access-date=2019-11-30}} * {{Cite news|last=Becker|first=Adam|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/06/14/619979605/light-of-the-stars-looks-to-other-planets-to-illuminate-climate-change-on-earth|title='Light Of The Stars' Looks To Other Planets To Illuminate Climate Change On Earth|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=2019-11-30}} * {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |title=The Difficult Birth of the "Many Worlds" Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-difficult-birth-of-the-many-worlds-interpretation-of-quantum-mechanics/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=Scientific American Blog Network |language=en}} * {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2018-03-28 |title=Quantum Gambling and the Nature of Reality |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/quantum-gambling-and-the-nature-of-reality/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en-US}} * {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2019-01-28 |title=Junk Science or the Real Thing? 'Inference' Publishes Both. |url=https://undark.org/2019/01/28/junk-science-or-real-thing-inference/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=Undark Magazine |language=en-US}} * {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2021-07-21 |title=One Lab's Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/one-labs-quest-to-build-space-time-out-of-quantum-particles-20210907/ |website=Quanta Magazine}} * {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2022-02-01 |title=What Is Spacetime Really Made Of? |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-spacetime-really-made-of/ |website=Scientific American}}
== References == <references>
<ref name="NYREVIEW"> {{cite magazine |last1=Albert |first1=David Z.|author-link= David Albert |date=2018-04-19 |title=Quantum's Leaping Lizards |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/04/19/quantums-leaping-lizards/ |magazine=The New York Review of Books |access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref> <ref name="Freelance"> {{cite web |last1=Becker |first1=Adam |title=Adam Becker |url=http://freelanceastrophysicist.com/ |website=Freelance Astrophysicist |access-date=14 April 2019}}</ref> <ref name="Center for Science"> {{cite web |title=Adam Becker |url=http://cstms.berkeley.edu/people/adam-becker/ |website=Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=4 April 2019}}</ref> <ref name="Becker Thesis"> {{cite journal |title=First Constraints on the Running of Non-Gaussianity |journal=Physical Review Letters |year=2012 |publisher=Cornell University |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.121302 |arxiv=1207.5788 |last1=Becker |first1=Adam |last2=Huterer |first2=Dragan |volume=109 |issue=12 |article-number=121302 |pmid=23005935 |bibcode=2012PhRvL.109l1302B |s2cid=10108151 }} </ref> <ref name="Becker NYT"> {{cite news |title=From Black Holes to Breakfast, Three Books Show How Einstein's Legacy Lives On |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/books/review/einsteins-shadow-seth-fletcher-albert-einstein.html |website=The New York Times |date=February 5, 2019 |access-date=3 December 2021|last1=Becker |first1=Adam }} </ref> <ref name="Becker BBC"> {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2015-03-09 |title=Why Does Time Always Run Forwards and Never Backwards? |url=http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150309-why-does-time-only-run-forwards |website=BBC Earth |publisher=The British Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=3 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818143934/http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150309-why-does-time-only-run-forwards |archive-date=2021-08-18 |url-status=dead}} </ref> <ref name="Becker NPR"> {{Cite news |title=The Puzzle Of Quantum Reality |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2018/03/20/595286482/the-puzzle-of-quantum-reality |work=Cosmos & Culture |date=March 20, 2018 |publisher=NPR |access-date=3 December 2021|last1=Becker |first1=Adam }} </ref> <ref name="Becker NSci"> {{Cite magazine |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2018-02-14 |title=Quantum Time Machine: How the Future Can Change What Happens Now |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731652-800-quantum-time-machine-how-the-future-can-change-what-happens-now/ |magazine=New Scientist |access-date=3 December 2021}} </ref> <ref name="Becker SciAm"> {{Cite magazine |last=Becker |first=Adam |editor-last=Billings |editor-first=Lee |date=2020-05-06 |title=Physicists Criticize Stephen Wolfram's 'Theory of Everything' |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-criticize-stephen-wolframs-theory-of-everything/ |magazine=Scientific American |access-date=3 December 2021}} </ref> <ref name="Becker Aeon"> {{Cite magazine |last=Becker |first=Adam |editor-last=Davies |editor-first=Sally |date=2018-04-05 |title=What is good science? |url=https://aeon.co/essays/a-fetish-for-falsification-and-observation-holds-back-science |magazine=Aeon |access-date=3 December 2021}} </ref> <ref name="Becker NOVA"> {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2018-03-28 |title=Quantum Gambling and the Nature of Reality |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/quantum-gambling-and-the-nature-of-reality/ |work=Nova |publisher=PBS |access-date=3 December 2021}} </ref> <ref name="Becker PLOS"> {{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Adam |date=2014-10-22 |title=Rich Citations: Open Data about the Network of Research |url=http://blogs.plos.org/tech/rich-citations/ |website=PLOS |publisher=The Public Library of Science |access-date=3 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025181951/http://blogs.plos.org/tech/rich-citations/ |archive-date=25 October 2014 }}</ref> <ref name="Irvine Scholars"> {{Cite web |title=Past Visiting Scholars |url=https://www.lps.uci.edu/people/visiting.php |website=Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science |publisher=University of California, Irvine |access-date=3 December 2021}}</ref>
</references>
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Adam}} Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American physicists Category:American astrophysicists Category:Cornell University alumni Category:American science communicators Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Scientists from New Jersey