Total Number of Books in Collection Library : 127

 

Page number: 18
 

Mr Tompkins in Paperback : Comprising 'Mr Tompkins in Wonderland' and 'Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom'

Author: George Gamow
ISBN: 0521447712
Publisher: Cambridge University Press         Place:
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Format: Paperback         # Pages: 202
Reader Rating: 5.0 (15 votes)
Release: 1993
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Summary: Mr Tompkins has become known and loved by many thousands of readers (since his first appearance over fifty years ago) as the bank clerk whose fantastic dreams and adventures lead him into a world inside the atom. George Gamow's classic provides a delightful explanation of the central concepts in modern physics, from atomic structure to relativity, and quantum theory to fusion and fission. Roger Penrose's new foreword introduces Mr Tompkins to a new generation of readers, and reviews his adventures in the light of current developments in physics today.


 

Nature Loves to Hide : Quantum Physics and Reality, a Western Perspective

Author: Shimon Malin
ISBN: 0195161092
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA         Place:
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Format: Paperback         # Pages: 304
Reader Rating: 4.0 (12 votes)
Release: 2003
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Summary: God, Albert Einstein famously observed, does not play dice with the universe. Much of quantum physics, a field of study that Einstein helped initiate and that has extended his theories into the oddest of corners, is so materialistic that it can find little room for speculation about the role of chance in the universe--and, indeed, for a supreme being at all.
Shimon Malin, a professor of physics at Colgate University, notes that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our thinking about the universe and our place in it. With its "principle of objectivation" and its positing of a mysterious "collapse of quantum states" and multiple realities, among other theses, the new physics suggests that "nature is an organism whose functioning cannot be reduced to a set of mechanisms." The resultant uncertainty has undermined traditional views of religion and human purpose, and philosophy has only begun to account for it. But, Malin suggests, that uncertainty need not lead to meaninglessness or nihilism. If we consider the universe to be alive and intelligent, and if we nurture "conscious attention" to it, then we become witnesses to and participants in its order and completion, even if we do not completely understand it.
Confused? It's easy to be confounded, for lines of thought in modern science and philosophy alike can be difficult to follow. Malin writes lucidly about the new physics, the quest for an overarching "theory of everything," and the search for meaning in an apparently inanimate creation. If his discussions sometimes get a little tangled, well, that's the nature of the subject itself. Whatever the case, there is much to ponder in his well-written book, and much to learn. "--Gregory McNamee"


 

Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World

Author: David Berlinski
ISBN: 0743217764
Publisher: Free Press         Place:
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Format: Paperback         # Pages: 240
Reader Rating: 3.5 (16 votes)
Release: 2002
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Summary: Who else could have constructed the basis for modern science out of an apple? Sir Isaac Newton, the celebrated genius behind the "Principia Mathematica", lived inside his head--but not so much as to make his story dull. Mathematician and writer David Berlinski takes a new tack on the man's biography by approaching it through his work. "Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World" does explore Newton's strange childhood and eventual career in government, but it stays largely focused on the Cambridge years and especially on the development of the "Principia".
Berlinski's uniquely impressionistic prose is perfect for his subject, whose penchant for withdrawal, depression, and misanthropy has driven many writers to despair. He instead fills the reader with visceral revulsion for the plague and ecstatic delight in a perfect English summer day before turning to intellectual matters. The author's knack for explaining tricky matters of mechanics is awe-inspiring; he moves with ease between captivating metaphor and precise mathematical language. Reading the "Principia", even in English translation, is more of a chore than a delight, but "Newton's Gift" is precisely the opposite. "--Rob Lightner"


 

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