Quantum legacies : dispatches from an uncertain world / David Kaiser ; with a foreword by Alan Lightman

Author:: Kaiser, David
Published:: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Copyright Date:: ©2020
Physical Description:: xiii, 342 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Additional Creators:: Lightman, Alan P., 1948-

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Contents:

Quanta. All quantum, no solace -- Life-and-death: when nature refuses to select -- Operation: neutrino -- Quantum theory by starlight -- Calculating. From blackboards to bombs -- Boiling electrons -- Lies, damn lies, and statistics -- Training quantum mechanics -- Zen and the art of textbook publishing -- Matter. Pipe dreams -- Something for nothing -- Higgs hunting -- When fields collide -- Cosmos. Guess who's coming to dinner -- Gaga for Gravitation -- The other evolution wars -- No more lonely hearts -- Learning from gravitational waves -- A farewell to Stephen Hawking.

Summary:

"Physicists have grappled with quantum theory for over a century. They have learned to wring precise answers from the theory's governing equations, and no experiment to date has found compelling evidence to contradict it. Even so, the conceptual apparatus remains stubbornly, famously bizarre. Physicists have tackled these conceptual uncertainties while navigating still larger ones: the rise of fascism, cataclysmic world wars and a new nuclear age, an unsteady Cold War stand-off and its unexpected end. Quantum Legacies introduces readers to physics' still-unfolding quest by treating iconic moments of discovery and debate among well-known figures like Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, and Stephen Hawking, and many others whose contributions have indelibly shaped our understanding of nature"--

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ISBN:

9780226698052 hardcover
022669805X hardcover

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

View MARC record | catkey: 33179015