What is Biography: Definition and 19 Discussions

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.
Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.
An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter.

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  1. sbrothy

    Is N. David Mermin's Autobiography Relevant for Today's STEM Scholars?

    [rant clipped] I digress, meander even...I found this: Autobiographical Notes of a Physicist under physics.hist.ph. A place I suspect not many of you look regularly ;) Which sounds pretty prejudiced I'm aware. :) ) This guy's experiences may well be out of date for the need of todays STEM...
  2. sbrothy

    Biography of Marie Curie as Graphic Novel

    Just stumbled over this one: https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Marie-Curie-A-Quest-For-Light I know I'm one out of around only ~7 people who can stomach the amount of ads on these sites. It helps to set it to "low quality" and "show all pages" though. Anyway, the thing *can* be bought the old...
  3. S

    Did John von Neumann ever go to Oslo or any other part of Norway?

    I do not know exactly where to ask this. I do not even know if I can. I chose the General Discussion forum since it seems to me the best place to ask this within this site. Having said this, Did John von Neumann ever go to Oslo or any other part of Norway? It is known that he traveled at least...
  4. DarMM

    Other David Bohm: Biography of a Revolutionary Physicist

    Title says it all. There's a new biography of David Bohm from Springer: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030227142 I thought some here might be interested in it.
  5. multivac42

    Admissions A gap in biography in application

    I am the second year Master student and I'm planning to apply for PhD this fall. My goal are top schools in the USA and my chances l seem to be pretty good overall (6 published articles, 4 of which are in decent international physics journals like PRB/APL; excellent pGRE and GRE scores, four+...
  6. ISamson

    Who is Stephen Hawking? Discover his captivating story in this biography.

    I have found this engaging biography on Stephen Hawking. Interesting information: https://www.space.com/15923-stephen-hawking.html
  7. V

    B Error in Einstein's Biography on Twin Paradox?

    Hi, I am reading the biography "Einstein's greatest mistake" from David Bodanis. On page 39 the author explains some of the consequences of relativity by referring to (although he doesn't mention it by name) the twin paradox. He explains that someone accelerating at high speed away from Earth...
  8. jedishrfu

    Einstein Biography on National Geographic Channel

    For those of you interested in the racier side of Albert Einstein National Geographic Channel has started a series on it: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/24/genius-review-geoffrey-rush-impresses-as-an-unexpectedly-racy-Albert-einstein I've yet to see it but would be...
  9. M

    What is the best biography of Boltzmann?

    Hi everyone! Could you suggest a good biographic book about Boltzmann?
  10. E

    John Wheeler Biography: A Comprehensive Look

    [mentor's note: moved here from the Quantum Physics forum] Can anybody recommend a good bio of John Wheeler? I'd especially like to read one that tracks his thoughts and theories, rather than one focusing on his personal life. Any suggestions for non-biographical treatment of his work would...
  11. H

    All Great Minds Think Alike?

    Hello fellow thinkers, my name is Sofa King (haha). I'm looking forward to being apart of this community. They say that all great minds think alike, but why are we all so different? In terms of physics, and math in general, there are so many ways of getting an answer that it proves a form of...
  12. J

    The Strangest Man: A Biography of Paul Dirac

    Good book, The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo a biography of Paul Dirac man into antimatter, not just physics but also generally how things were in the 1900`s including the wars and politics
  13. Astronuc

    Biography: Maverick Mathematician Joe Moyal

    I stumbled across this biography while reading about Graham Farmelo's biography of Paul Dirac. http://epress.anu.edu.au/maverick/html/prelims.html Maverick Mathematician The Life and Science of J.E. Moyal It's interesting because there is an appendix with correspondence between Moyal...
  14. S

    I've just finished reading Einstein's Biography by Walter Isaacson.

    I've just finished reading Einstein's Biography by Walter Isaacson. There is a pasage that got me thinking about the way Einstein observed the universe and his distaste for quantum mechanics. Einstein is famous for declaring that God dose not play dice, basically what he was saying is that, even...
  15. H

    I would like your opinions please: the best biography of Einstein?

    Light on math, heavy on the man. Strangely, a search of these forums revealed no topics dedicated to this question. It would be swell to put yer thoughts in one place for me or anyone. What would you recommend? THANKS!
  16. N

    Who is Albert Messiah? Exploring the Life of the Author of Quantum Mechanics

    Has anybody ever come across a biography of the author Albert Messiah, of "Quantum Mechanics" reknown. His textbook is still being widely used (after half a century of its first appearance), but I wonder how many actually know some interesting thing about him :rolleyes: . I would be grateful if...
  17. T

    E=mc2 A biography of the world's most famous equation By Bodanis

    I haven't had any luck in the books I've read lately. this is another book that is a nice try, but doesn't quite make it. Maybe I choose minutae on which to base my critiques, but sometimes the little things bother me the most. To start with this guy mentions his webpage at least 3 times in the...
  18. F

    Who is Dr. Kaku? A Biography of a Fascinating Scientist

    Hi, I'm an engineering student at UW Madison. For one of my classes we have to write about a scientist and their accomplishments. I chose Dr. Kaku because he is very interesting to me. While doing my research I found plenty of his work but not much for a biography, I was wondering if there...
  19. Saint

    Why not Jesus wrote his own biography ?

    Just wonder, if Jesus was Son of God (equivalent to God), he must be very very or infinitely wiser than anyone of us, correct? Surely he wanted all of us to know him well Without any Doubt, since he is an omnipotent God, this shouldn't be too difficult for him to achieve! However, he did...
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