Beyond Weird
Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different
by Philip Ball
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Pub Date Oct 18 2018 | Archive Date Oct 22 2018
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Description
Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it’s not really telling us that “weird” things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don’t seem obvious or right at all—or even possible.
An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means—and what it doesn’t. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience. Over the past decade it has become clear that quantum physics is less a theory about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information and knowledge—about what can be known, and how we can know it. Discoveries and experiments over the past few decades have called into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and, ultimately, of knowledge itself. The quantum world Ball shows us isn’t a different world. It is our world, and if anything deserves to be called “weird,” it’s us.
Advance Praise
Sunday Times
"The intention of Beyond Weird, though, is not simply to provide a dummy’s guide to the theory, but to explore its underlying meaning. We know that the equations work, but what sort of world do they really represent? To tackle the question, he weighs up the competing interpretations, and the misconceptions, that have attached themselves to quantum theory in its 100-year history, finishing with more recent attempts to rebuild the theory 'from scratch', and new ideas that offer tantalising glimpses beyond. . . . [A] laudable achievement."
Nature“[A] clear and deeply researched account of what’s known about the quantum laws of nature, and how to think about what they might really mean.”
The Spectator“An excellent account of modern quantum theory and the efforts being made to harness its effects.”
PopScience Books“It would be easy to think 'Surely we don't need another book on quantum physics.' There are loads of them. . . . Don't be fooled, though - because in Beyond Weird, Philip Ball has done something rare in my experience. . .it makes an attempt not to describe quantum physics, but to explain why it is the way it is.”
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780226558387 |
| PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 384 |
Featured Reviews
Lisa N, Reviewer
I am not gifted mathematically. It confounds me. Always has. Always will. However, that doesn't diminish my fascination with some theories. Which annoys me to no end! I don't understand quantum physics on a level that smarty pants folk do...;-) but from just my own little perspective it makes sense to me. I actually sometimes use it as a mind game "when I'm bored." It's probable possibilities are astounding to me. I remember when I first heard about the string theory, and I thought "well, let's check this out." Took me about 6 month's to decide it was B.S. Ah, but the quantum thing...It's possibilities are mind boggling, "to me anyway." This book is definitely readable. By that, I mean it's readable for those of us who aren't scientists, or mathematically inclined. See, I'm not religious, but I like to think that there's "something." This works well for me. My thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for letting me read and review this fairly awesome book! I greatly enjoyed it.
Angela R, Reviewer
This is simply the best book in the interpretation of quantum mechanics I've ever read. And I've read many, from popular science books to physics textbooks. Ball has a take-down of the many worlds interpretation, for which he has little patience, but that isn't the main focus of the book. He starts with the Copenhagen interpretation, but criticizes it as insufficient and unsatisfying, mostly because it states that we are simply not allowed to ask certain questions.
He offers a different, more comprehensive set of answers to the big questions: why isn't the macro world like the quantum world? what is a measurement and how does it affect the system? It's essentially a well-written, well-reasoned examination of the questions that Shroedinger's cat bring up. There's also extensive discussion of quantum entanglement.
And then after most of this is a very good discussion of quantum computing: the status of research, what might be possible, why it might be possible.
I imagine that you'd have to be intrinsically interested in quantum mechanics to stick with a book on a topic that's this complicated, but as long as you have the curiosity, I strongly recommend curling up with this one to ponder the nature of reality.
I got a copy to review from Net Galley.
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