Editing Alan Lightman (section)

== Literary work ==
Lightman's essays, articles, and stories have appeared in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', ''[[Nautilus (science magazine)|Nautilus]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other publications.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/Casting-Announced-For-EINSTEINS-DREAMS-A-New-Musical-Based-On-Alan-Lightmans-Novel-at-59E59-Theaters-20190906|title=Casting Announced For Einstein's Dreams, A New Musical Based On Alan Lightman's Novel, at 59E59 Theaters|website=Broadway World|language=en|access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref> His books include:

===Fiction===

*''[[Einstein's Dreams]]'' (1993)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/physicist-explores-mystical-experience|title=A physicist explores mystical experience|website=The Christian Century|language=en|access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref>
*''Good Benito'' (1995)
*''The Diagnosis'' (2000)
*''Reunion'' (2003)
*''Ghost'' (2007)
*''Song of Two Worlds (poetry)'' (2009)
*''Mr g'' (2012)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2012/02/07/theoretical-physicist-lightman|title=Theoretical Physicist Alan Lightman On 'Mr. G.'|website=www.wbur.org|date=February 7, 2012 |language=en|access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref>
*''Three Flames'' (2019)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chron.com/entertainment/books/article/Alan-Lightman-s-Three-Flames-examines-the-14492886.php|title=Alan Lightman's 'Three Flames' examines the long shadow of Cambodia's civil war|last1=Bruno|first1=Debra|last2=Post|first2=The Washington|date=2019-09-17|website=Houston Chronicle|access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref>

===Memoir===

*''Screening Room'' (2015)<ref name="singer" />

===Collections of essays and fables===

*''Time Travel and Papa Joe’s Pipe'' (1984)
*''A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court'' (1986)
*''Dance for Two'' (1996)
*''Best American Essays 2000'', (Guest Editor) (2000)
*''Living with the Genie'', (coedited with Christina Desser, and Daniel Sarewitz) (2003)
*''Heart of the Horse'' (with Juliet von Otteren) (2004)
*''A Sense of the Mysterious'' (2005)
*''[[The Accidental Universe]]'' (2014)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/why-do-get-so-much-pleasure-from-symmetry.htm|title=Why Do We Get So Much Pleasure From Symmetry?|date=2017-11-06|website=HowStuffWorks|language=en|access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref>
*''Probable Impossibilities''  (2021)

===Books on science===

*''Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation'' (with W. H. Press, R. H. Price, and S. A. Teukolsky) (1975)
*''Radiative Processes in Astrophysics'' (with G. B. Rybicki) (1979)
*''Origins: the Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists'' (with R. Brawer) (1990)
*''Ancient Light. Our Changing View of the Universe'' (1991)
*''Great Ideas in Physics'' (1992, new edition in 2000)
*''Time for the Stars. Astronomy for the 1990s'' (1992)
*''The Discoveries: Great Breakthroughs in 20th Century Science'' (2005)
*''The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science'' (2023)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greenawalt |first=Marc |date=2022-12-02 |title=Spring 2023 Announcements: Science |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/91035-spring-2023-announcements-science.html |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref>

===General nonfiction===

*''Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine'' (2018)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ananthaswamy|first=Anil|date=2018-04-11|title=A physicist probes the metaphysical|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=556|issue=7700|pages=172–173|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-04159-4|bibcode=2018Natur.556..172A|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*''In Praise of Wasting Time'' (2018)<ref name="foster" />

===Selected articles and essays===
[https://cmsw.mit.edu/alan-lightman/ A more complete list of Lightman's essays and articles can be found at his MIT faculty page]

*[https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.8.364 “Restricted Proof That the Weak Equivalence Principle Implies the Einstein Equivalence Principle”] (with D. L. Lee), ''Physical Review D'', vol. 8, pg. 364 (1973)
*[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1974ApJ...187L...1L  “Black Holes in Binary Systems: Instability of Disk Accretion”] (with D. M. Eardley), ''Astrophysical Journal Letters'', vol. 187, pg. L1 (1974)
*[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977ApJ...211..244L/abstract “The Distribution and Consumption Rate of Stars Around a Massive Collapsed Object] (with S. L. Shapiro), ''Astrophysical Journal'', vol. 211, pg. 244 (1977)
*[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1982ApJ...253..842L “Relativistic Plasmas: Pair Processes and Equilibria,”] ''Astrophysical Journal'', vol. 253, pg. 842 (1982)
*[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19830034432 “What’s Happening in the Cores of Globular Clusters?”] ''Astrophysical Journal Letters'', vol. 263, pg. L19 (1982)
*[https://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tim/introframe/GingerichAnomalies.pdf "When Do Anomalies Begin?"] (with [[Owen Gingerich]]), ''Science'', February 7, 1992
*[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1997/04/10/the-contradictory-genius/ “The Contradictory Genius,”] ''The New York Review of Books'', March 20, 1997.
*[http://www.mit.edu/~saleem/ivory/epil.htm  “The Public Intellectual,”] ''MIT Forum'' (1999)
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/opinion/red-white-and-bamboo.html “Red, White, and Bamboo,”] (Letter from Cambodia) ''The New York Times'', July 5, 2005
*[https://www.salon.com/2011/10/02/how_science_and_faith_coexist/ “Does God Exist?”] ''Salon'', October 2, 2011
*[https://harpers.org/archive/2011/12/the-accidental-universe/ “The Accidental Universe”] ''Harper's'', December 2011, 
*[https://tinhouse.com/product/the-science-fair/ “The Temporary Universe] ''Tin House'', issue 51, Spring 2012
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/opinion/our-lonely-home-in-nature.html “Our Lonely Home in Nature”], ''The New York Times'', May 2, 2014
*[https://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/what-came-before-the-big-bang/ “What Came Before the Big Bang?”] ''Harpers'', January 2016 
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180804005709/http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/mind/fact-and-faith-why-science-and-spirituality-are-not-incompatible “Fact and Faith: Why Science and Spirituality are not Incompatible,”] ''BBC Focus'', 5, April 2018
*[https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-is-changing-habits-of-mind/609181/ “The Coronavirus is a Reminder of Something Lost Long Ago,”] ''The Atlantic'', April 1, 2020
*[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/02/to-infinity-and-beyond/617965/ "It Seems that I Know How the Universe Originated,"] ''The Atlantic'', February 8, 2021
*[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/03/miracles-and-multiverses/618349/ "Where Science and Miracles Meet,"] ''The Atlantic'', March 22, 2021
*[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/04/trump-academic-freedom/682648/ "The Dark Ages are Back"] ''The Atlantic'', April 30, 2025