Ocean State Libraries

Entertaining, rigorous introduction to the development of quantum theory traces the subject's history, from Max Planck's revolutionary discovery of quanta and Niels Bohr's model of the atom to anti-particles, mesons, and Enrico Fermi's nuclear research. Numerous line drawings. 1966 edition.

"At the start of the twentieth century, our knowledge of science appeared complete and it seemed that the laws of nature were almost all discovered, but then we woke a sleeping giant--we discovered quantum mechanics. In the quantum realm, objects can be in two places at once. It's a place where time travel is not only possible, but necessary. It's a place where cause and effect can happen in reverse and observing something changes its state. From...

"Critical acclaim for John Gribbin "The master of popular science." --Sunday Times (London) "Gribbin explains things very well indeed, and there's not an equation in sight." --David Goodstein, The New York Times Book Review (on Almost Everyone's Guide to Science) "Gribbin breathes life into the core ideas of complexity science, and argues convincingly that the basic laws, even in biology, will ultimately turn out to be simple." --Nature...

In the pulp magazines and comics of the 1950s, it was predicted that the future would be one of gleaming utopias, with flying cars, jetpacks, and robotic personal assistants. Obviously, things didn't turn out that way. But the world we do have is actually more fantastic than the most outlandish predictions of the science fiction of the mid-twentieth century. The World Wide Web, pocket-sized computers, mobile phones, and MRI machines have changed the...

"One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, Rovelli examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the 21-year-old Werner Heisenberg first developed quantum theory, setting off a century of scientific revolution....

"In this landmark book, John Gribbinone of the best-known science writers of the past thirty yearspresents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified Theory of Everything that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything." --

The Quantum Universe brings together two authors on a brilliantly ambitious mission to show that everyone can understand the deepest questions of science. But just what is quantum physics? How does it help us understand the universe? Where does it leave Newton and Einstein? And how - for all its apparently counter-intuitive ideas - can we be sure that the theory is good? The bizarre behaviour of the atoms and energy that make up the universe has lead...

An exploration of the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles--one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics. In 1935, Einstein showed that quantum mechanics predicted such a correlation, which he dubbed "spooky action at a distance." That same year, Erwin Schrodïnger christened this correlation "entanglement." Yet its existence wasn't firmly established until 1964, in a groundbreaking paper by Irish physicist John...

"A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that...

"Quantum Theory is the most revolutionary discovery in physics since Newton. This book gives a lucid, exciting, and accessible account of the surprising and counterintuitive ideas that shape our understanding of the sub-atomic world. It does not disguise the problems of interpretation that still remain unsettled 75 years after the initial discoveries. The main text makes no use of equations, but there is a Mathematical Appendix for those desiring...