Beyond Weird by Philip Ball

Beyond Weird by Philip Ball

'This is the book I wish I could have written but am very glad I've read' Jim Al-Khalili

‘I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.’
Richard Feynman wrote this in 1965 – the year he was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his work on quantum mechanics.

Quantum physics is regarded as one of the most obscure and impenetrable subjects in all of science. But when Feynman said he didn’t understand quantum mechanics, he didn’t mean that he couldn’t do it – he meant that’s all he could do. He didn’t understand what the maths was saying: what quantum mechanics tells us about reality.

Over the past decade or so, the enigma of quantum mechanics has come into sharper focus. We now realise that quantum mechanics is less about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information: about what can be known and how.

This is more disturbing than our bad habit of describing the quantum world as ‘things behaving weirdly’ suggests. It calls into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and knowledge itself.

The quantum world isn’t a different world: it is our world, and if anything deserves to be called ‘weird’, it’s us. This exhilarating book is about what quantum maths really means – and what it doesn’t mean.

This is the book I wish I could have written, but am very glad I've readIt's an accessible, persuasive and thorough appraisal of what the most important theory in all of science actually means. -- Jim Al-Khalili
Excellent. -- Andrew Crumey * Spectator *
Ball is an exceptionally talented writer who manages to combine accessibility and thoroughness in razor-sharp prose -- Philip Moriarty * Physics World *
Riveting ... Ball is an intelligent guide -- Natalie Wolchover * Nature *
A deeply fascinating book … Philip Ball is a rare writer in having such depth of knowledge of a difficult field, yet retaining the critical eye of an observer. Highly recommended. -- Jon Butterworth, Professor of Physics at UCL and author of SMASHING PHYSICS
A laudable achievement. -- Rob Kingston * The Sunday Times *
Ball, a gifted and prolific science writer familiar to Prospect readers, is a demanding but engaging guide to this daunting terrain. -- Anjana Ahuja * Prospect *
A subtle unpacking of Heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle… is alone worth the price of the book... Ball takes us on a whirlwind tour through the quantum realm -- Manjit Kumar * New Statesman *
Perfect. It is engaging and clear without feeling dumbed down. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in really understanding what quantum physics is all about -- Kathryn Gempf * RSC *
This author explains his subject simply and thoughtfully * Economist, **Books of the Year** *

Philip Ball writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and worked for many years as an editor for physical sciences at Nature. His books cover a wide range of scientific and cultural phenomena, and include Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another (winner of the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books), The Music Instinct, Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything, Serving The Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Science Under Hitler, Invisible: The History of the Unseen from Plato to Particle Physics and The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781847924575
ISBN 10	1847924573
Title	Beyond Weird
Author	Philip Ball
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2018-03-22
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.