Our understanding of nature's deepest reality has changed radically, but almost without our noticing, over the past twenty-five years. Transcending the clash of older ideas about matter and space, acclaimed physicist Frank Wilczek explains a remarkable new discovery: matter is built from almost weightless units, and pure energy is the ultimate source of mass. He calls it "The Lightness of Being." Space is no mere container, empty and passive. It is a dynamic Grid-a modern ether- and its spontaneous activity creates and destroys particles. This new understanding of mass explains the puzzling feebleness of gravity, and a gorgeous unification of all the forces comes sharply into focus. The Lightness of Being is the first book to explore the implications of these revolutionary ideas about mass, energy, and the nature of "empty space." In it, Wilczek masterfully presents new perspectives on our incredible universe and envisions a new golden age of fundamental physics.
This book introduces the world of antimatter without using technical language or equations. The author shows how the quest for symmetry in physics slowly revealed the properties of antimatter. When large particle accelerators came on line, the antimatter debris of collisions provided new clues on its properties. This is a fast-paced and lucid account of how science fiction became fact.
Gravity is one of the most inexplicable forces of nature, controlling everything, from the expansion of the Universe to the ebb and flow of ocean tides. The search for the laws of motion and gravitation began more than two thousand years ago, a quest that Prabhakar Gondhalekar recounts in The Grip of Gravity. Beginning with Aristotle and concluding with Planck, Gondhalekar outlines a 'genealogy' of gravity and lucidly explains how previous explanations have shaped the most recent development in the field, string theory. In this work, physicist and astronomer Gondhalekar describes experiments, both planned and proposed, and clearly explains natural phenomena like ocean tides, seasons, ice ages, the formation of planets, stars, and exotic objects like black holes and neutron stars, which are all controlled by gravity. Including anecdotes and thumb-nail sketches of the personalities involved, The Grip of Gravity provides an introduction to the foundation of modern physics and shows how the current developments in string theory may lead to a new and radical interpretation of gravity. Prabhakar Gondhalekar is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College, London. Until his retirement in 1998, he was the head of the Space Astronomy Group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, where he had been a researcher for 18 years. His research has included a number of topics in galactic and extragalactic astronomy, with his major work focusing on the interstellar medium and active galactic nuclei. Gondhalekar has been awarded Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, and NATO Research Fellowships to do research in universities in the United States and Israel.
The Holy Grail of modern physics is the search for a ‘quantum gravity’ view of the universe that unites Einstein’s general relativity with quantum theory. Until recently, these two foundational pillars of modern science have seemed incompatible: relativity deals exclusively with the universe at the large scale (planets, solar systems and galaxies), whereas quantum theory is restricted to the domain of the very small (molecules, atoms, electrons). Here, Lee Smolin provides the first accessible overview of current attempts to reconcile these two theories. Some of these approaches view the world as a hologram; others hold that basic particles must be string-like; others still draw on the physics of black holes. Smolin believes that each of these different approaches may be partially right, although he contends that none on its own is likely to be the whole truth. Nevertheless, he says, there are signs that they are beginning to converge on a final theory. Written with wit and style, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity provides a brief introduction to modern concepts of space and time. It touches on some of the deepest questions about the nature of the universe – are space and time continuous or infinitely divisible? Is there a limit to how small things can be? – while speculating on what developments we can expect at the frontiers of physics in the twenty-first century. In Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin provides an accessible overview of the attempts to build a final "theory of everything." He explains in simple terms what scientists are talking about when they say the world is made from exotic entities such as loops, strings, and black holes and tells the fascinating stories behind these discoveries: the rivalries, epiphanies, and intrigues he witnessed first hand.
Reality's Mirror Exploring the Mathematics of Symmetry "Here is a book that explains in laymen language what symmetry is all about, from the lowliest snowflake and flounder to the lofty group structures whose astonishing applications to the Old One are winning Nobel prizes. Bunch's book is a marvel of clear, witty science writing, as delightful to read as it is informative and up-to-date. The author is to be congratulated on a job well done." --Martin Gardner "Bryan Bunch's ambidextrous mind leaps with ease from biology to physics as he explores the question of symmetry and handedness in the universe. An excellent treatment of the pervasiveness of symmetry in nature and an admirable weaving of common threads from many diverse fields." --Dr. Eugene F. Mallove Chief Science Writer Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Reality's Mirror is fascinating. It really is something of a grand tour of symmetry in the universe: why it must be here--and what happens when it isn't." --R. L. Graham Director, Mathematical Sciences Research Center AT&T Bell Laboratories
Richard Feynman once quipped that "Time is what happens when nothing else does." But Julian Barbour disagrees: if nothing happened, if nothing changed, then time would stop. For time is nothing but change. It is change that we perceive occurring all around us, not time. Put simply, time does not exist. In this highly provocative volume, Barbour presents the basic evidence for a timeless universe, and shows why we still experience the world as intensely temporal. It is a book that strikes at the heart of modern physics. It casts doubt on Einstein's greatest contribution, the spacetime continuum, but also points to the solution of one of the great paradoxes of modern science, the chasm between classical and quantum physics. Indeed, Barbour argues that the holy grail of physicists--the unification of Einstein's general relativity with quantum mechanics--may well spell the end of time. Barbour writes with remarkable clarity as he ranges from the ancient philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides, through the giants of science Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, to the work of the contemporary physicists John Wheeler, Roger Penrose, and Steven Hawking. Along the way he treats us to enticing glimpses of some of the mysteries of the universe, and presents intriguing ideas about multiple worlds, time travel, immortality, and, above all, the illusion of motion. The End of Time is a vibrantly written and revolutionary book. It turns our understanding of reality inside-out.
In this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics -- the search for the laws of nature -- losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the public’s imagination -- and the imagination of experts. But these ideas have not been tested experimentally, and some, like string theory, seem to offer no possibility of being tested. Yet these speculations dominate the field, attracting the best talent and much of the funding and creating a climate in which emerging physicists are often penalized for pursuing other avenues. As Smolin points out, the situation threatens to impede the very progress of science. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin offers an unblinking assessment of the troubles that face modern physics -- and an encouraging view of where the search for the next big idea may lead. REMARK; The author discusses this book on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIEorqJCQ2k
Not Even Wrong is a fascinating exploration of our attempts to come to grips with perhaps the most intellectually demanding puzzle of all: how does the universe work at its most fundamental level? The book begins with an historical survey of the experimental and theoretical developments that led to the creation of the phenomenally successful 'Standard Model' of particle physics around 1975. Despite its successes, the Standard Model does not answer all the key questions and physicists continuing search for answers led to the development of superstring theory. However, after twenty years, superstring theory has failed to advance beyond the Standard Model. The absence of experimental evidence is at the core of this controversial situation which means that it is impossible to prove that superstring theory is either right or wrong. To date, only the arguments of the theory's advocates have received much publicity. Not Even Wrong provides readers with another side of the story.
An incisive, richly illustrated history of the evolution of physics over the course of the twentieth century follows the accomplishments of such innovative scientists as Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Bethe, and Feynmann and assesses their contributions in terms of our current knowledge of the universe and its origins. We conventionally think of physics as the source of delights that are at best intellectual: austere, cold, abstract. Science writer Curt Suplee and his colleagues have produced a book that reveals the sensual side of physics. Suplee's text gives an overview of 20th-century physics; he balances chapters on atomic structure, quantum theory, and cosmology with ones on chaos, materials, and light. His writing is clear and nontechnical, giving a well-balanced roller-skate tour of an immense growth in scientific knowledge: "The world as it is now understood differs more dramatically from the Victorian view than the science of Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton differed from that of Aristotle." The true glory of the book, though, is visual. Physicists themselves often think in terms of images or devices rather than words or even equations, and Physics in the 20th Century truly conveys that. The illustrations are lush, abundant, and colourful. From the glowing mist of a planetary nebula and the mesmerizing webs of interference patterns to the spare beauty of a particle accelerator wave guide, they put the "physical" back into physics. This is an excellent choice as a gift for anyone interested in physics, from a bright 12-year-old to your local quantum mechanic
This is the story of light and the people who were determined to unlock the secrets of one of the greatest puzzles of the Universe. The book recounts spiritual interpretations, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Mayans and looks at the first scientific grapplings with light by the ancient Chinese sage Mo Ti, the Greek philosopher Empedocles, Arab genius Alhazen and others. It also explores the contribution of artists such as Brunellschi, Leonardo de Vinci and Durer to our understanding of light and examines the great revolutionaries of light theory including Galileo, Descartes, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein. The text discusses the work of scientists such as Maxwell, Edison and Gould that led to light-driven inventions from the camera to the laser, CD's and optical computers and explains the mind-bending advances of quantum physics.