Fear of Physics

This post is a brief review of the book Don't Be Afraid of Physics by Ross Barett and Pier Paolo Delsanto. The subtitle is Quantum Mechanics, Relativity and Cosmology for Everyone. In the introduction, Nicola Maria Pugno suggests that the book is appropriate as a textbook for courses of science for college students majoring in a non-scientific field.

I agree, with the perhaps obvious observation that the audience can be extended to people who have ever been to college. There is one formula in the whole book, keeping in mind the warning Stephen Hawking had received when he was writing a Brief History of Time: every formula would reduce book sales by half.

First third: I found it interesting that a substantial part of the book (the initial third) is occupied by what science is, rather than starting with the historical recounting of inventions and discoveries. The discussion starts with the use of some optical illusions to show that our senses cannot be fully trusted, and we need science to takes us beyond what our senses reveal to us about the world. The steps then take us from Aristotle to Galileo to Planck (a lovely rant from him about how his work on quantum mechanics was initially ignored by the scientific community).

This is followed by a chapter discussing the issues of intelligence, logic, understanding, complexity (with some jokes about mathematicians, which can be appreciated by physicists); a chapter discussing truth (including Occam's razor), beauty and the role of faith in the scientific endeavor. The last chapter in this section addresses Godel's theorem and Hawking's work on black holes.

Second Third: This was the more expected part of the narrative for me. The first chapter in this section focuses on quantum mechanics, the Hesienberg Uncertainty Principle, the collapse of the wavefunction, interference, entanglement, Schrodinger's cat. The next two chapters deal with special (simultaneity, length contraction) and general (the principle of equivalence, gravitational lensing, black holes) relativity.

The following chapters expose particle physics (as revealed by accelerators) and modern cosmology (as revealed by modern telescopes). The last chapter contains more modern concerns in cosmology, such as dark matter and energy, hyperspace, wormholes, and inflation.

Third third: This part deals with open questions at the frontier of science. There are discussions about larger quantum mechanical superpositions involving living organisms (at the interface of physics and biology), the multiverse, and the ultimate nature of space and time.

Summary: This is an informative, entertaining and accessible book. The physical and philosophical details are interlaced with lots of anecdotes, asides, and images. I would recommend it for both scientists (they might enjoy learning about the Monty Hall problem, as I did ) and non-scientists.

Caveat: The topics selected probably reflect the author's concerns as researchers. There is nothing about lasers, semiconductors or superconductors in the book. Or much of any applications of physics.