Jim Baggott

Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory. It is also completely mad. Although the theory quite obviously works, it leaves us chasing ghosts and phantoms; particles that are waves and waves that are particles; cats that are at once both alive and dead; and lots of seemingly spooky goings-on. But if we're prepared to be a little more specific about what we mean when we talk about 'reality' and a little more circumspect in the way we think a scientific theory might represent such a reality, then all the mystery goes away. This shows that the choice we face is actually a philosophical one. Here, Jim Baggott provides a quick but comprehensive introduction to quantum mechanics for the general reader, and explains what makes this theory so very different from the rest. He also explores the processes involved in developing scientific theories and explains how these lead to different philosophical positions, essential if we are to understand the nature of the great debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. Moving forwards, Baggott then provides a comprehensive guide to attempts to determine what the theory actually means, from the Copenhagen interpretation to many worlds and the multiverse. Richard Feynman once declared that 'nobody understands quantum mechanics'. This book will tell you why.

The Quest for the Real Meaning of Quantum Mechanics - a Game of Theories

Quantum Reality

A new edition of the account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. This book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's FarmHall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives.

The First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-49

Atomic

Today we are blessed with two extraordinarily successful theories of physics. The first is Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes the large-scale behaviour of matter in a curved spacetime. This theory is the basis for the standard model of big bang cosmology. The discovery of gravitational waves at the LIGO observatory in the US (and then Virgo, in Italy) is only the most recent of this theory's many triumphs. The second is quantum mechanics. This theory describes the properties and behaviour of matter and radiation at their smallest scales. It is the basis for the standard model of particle physics, which builds up all the visible constituents of the universe out of collections of quarks, electrons and force-carrying particles such as photons. The discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN in Geneva is only the most recent of this theory's many triumphs. But, while they are both highly successful, these two structures leave a lot of important questions unanswered. They are also based on two different interpretations of space and time, and are therefore fundamentally incompatible. We have two descriptions but, as far as we know, we've only ever had one universe. What we need is a quantum theory of gravity. Approaches to formulating such a theory have primarily followed two paths. One leads to String Theory, which has for long been fashionable, and about which much has been written. But String Theory has become mired in problems. In this book, Jim Baggott describes "the road less travelled": an approach which takes relativity as its starting point, and leads to a structure called Loop Quantum Gravity. Baggott tells the story through the careers and pioneering work of two of the theory's most prominent contributors, Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli. Combining clear discussions of both quantum theory and general relativity, this book offers one of the first efforts to explain the new quantum theory of space and time.

Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe

Quantum Space

Relates the history of the search for the Higgs boson, also known as the "God" particle.

The Invention and Discovery of the 'God Particle'

Higgs

Mathematical Recipes for the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Cookbook

J. E. Baggott

Environmental Officer Lubricants Marketing Jim Baggott

Quantum theory is one the most important and successful theories of modern physical science. It has been estimated that its principles form the basis for about 30 per cent of the world's manufacturing economy. This is all the more remarkable because quantum theory is a theory that nobody understands. The meaning of Quantum Theory introduces science students to the theory's fundamental conceptual and philosophical problems, and the basis of its non-understandability. It does this with the barest minimum of jargon and very little mathematics in the main text. Readers wishing to delve more deeply into the theory's mathematical subtleties can do so in an extended series of appendices. The book brings the reader up to date with the results of new experimental tests of quantum weirdness and reviews the latest thinking on alternative interpretations, the frontiers of quantum cosmology, quantum gravity and potential application of this weirdness in computing, cryptography and teleportation.

Modern Physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory

Beyond Measure

The twentieth century was defined by physics. From the minds of the world's leading physicists there flowed a river of ideas that would transport mankind to the pinnacle of wonderment and to the very depths of human despair. This was a century that began with the certainties of absolute knowledge and ended with the knowledge of absolute uncertainty. It was a century in which physicists developed weapons with the capacity to destroy our reality, whilst at the same time denying us the possibility that we can ever properly comprehend it. Almost everything we think we know about the nature of our world comes from one theory of physics. This theory was discovered and refined in the first thirty years of the twentieth century and went on to become quite simply the most successful theory of physics ever devised. Its concepts underpin much of the twenty-first century technology that we have learned to take for granted. But its success has come at a price, for it has at the same time completely undermined our ability to make sense of the world at the level of its most fundamental constituents. Rejecting the fundamental elements of uncertainty and chance implied by quantum theory, Albert Einstein once famously declared that 'God does not play dice'. Niels Bohr claimed that anybody who is not shocked by the theory has not understood it. The charismatic American physicist Richard Feynman went further: he claimed that nobody understands it. This is quantum theory, and this book tells its story. Jim Baggott presents a celebration of this wonderful yet wholly disconcerting theory, with a history told in forty episodes -- significant moments of truth or turning points in the theory's development. From its birth in the porcelain furnaces used to study black body radiation in 1900, to the promise of stimulating new quantum phenomena to be revealed by CERN's Large Hadron Collider over a hundred years later, this is the extraordinary story of the quantum world. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.

A History in 40 Moments

The Quantum Story

Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents. Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass. How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass.

The Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields

Mass

In this stunning new volume, Jim Baggott argues that there is no observational or experimental evidence for many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics: super-symmetric particles, superstrings, the multiverse, the holographic principle, or the anthropic cosmological principle. These theories are not only untrue, it is not even science. It is fairy-tale physics: fantastical, bizarre and often outrageous, perhaps even confidence-trickery. This book provides a much-needed antidote. Informed, comprehensive, and balanced, it offers lay readers the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy. With its engaging portraits of many central figures of modern physics, including Paul Davies, John Barrow, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, and Leonard Susskind, it promises to be essential reading for all readers interested in what we know and don''''t know about the nature of the universe and reality itself.

Farewell to Reality

An essential guide to reality, this work examines what it is, what it means and how it has been interpreted through the ages. Jim Baggott takes us through different levels of reality around us, asking: Are the things we take for granted in our everyday lives real, or just elaborate constructions that exist only in our minds?

A Beginner's Guide to Reality

Il suo acronimo (LQG) suona come uno dei tanti, criptici e intimidatori, che gremiscono la fisica contemporanea. In realtà, la «gravità quantistica a loop» – oggetto del nuovo libro di Jim Baggott – è una delle declinazioni più promettenti nell’ambito della «teoria quantistica della gravità». La quale, a sua volta, è uno dei tentativi più accreditati di rispondere a una sfida senza precedenti nella storia della fisica: l’armonizzazione di due teorie di grande successo ma tra loro inconciliabili. La prima è la relatività generale di Einstein, che descrive il comportamento della materia su larga scala in uno spazio-tempo curvo: base del modello standard cosmologico del big bang, ha avuto una delle conferme più spettacolari nella recente scoperta delle onde gravitazionali. La seconda è la meccanica quantistica, che descrive invece le proprietà e il comportamento della materia alle scale più piccole: sotto forma di teoria dei campi, è alla base del modello standard della fisica delle particelle, e in questo ambito l’ultima convalida sperimentale è stata la scoperta del bosone di Higgs. Il punto è che il «doppio trionfo» delle due teorie – costruite su interpretazioni incompatibili dello spazio e del tempo – è servito solo a far apparire l’universo ancora più elusivo e misterioso, se non più bizzarro. Compito della LQG è dunque inventare un nuovo, comune tessuto teorico. Ricostruendo i termini della sfida, Baggott si sofferma a lungo sugli scienziati che più si sono adoperati (e continuano ad adoperarsi) per vincerla, come Lee Smolin e Carlo Rovelli; e, pur senza nascondere fino a che punto sia ardua, ne sottolinea l’importanza fondamentale grazie a un pensiero di Laozi: «Anche un viaggio di mille miglia comincia con un primo passo».

La gravità quantistica a loop e la ricerca della struttura dello spazio, del tempo e dell’universo

Quanti di spazio

Today we are blessed with two extraordinarily successful theories of physics. The first is Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes the large-scale behaviour of matter in a curved spacetime. This theory is the basis for the standard model of big bang cosmology. The discovery of gravitational waves at the LIGO observatory in the US (and then Virgo, in Italy) is only the most recent of this theory's many triumphs. The second is quantum mechanics. This theory describes the properties and behaviour of matter and radiation at their smallest scales. It is the basis for the standard model of particle physics, which builds up all the visible constituents of the universe out of collections of quarks, electrons and force-carrying particles such as photons. The discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN in Geneva is only the most recent of this theory's many triumphs. But, while they are both highly successful, these two structures leave a lot of important questions unanswered. They are also based on two different interpretations of space and time, and are therefore fundamentally incompatible. We have two descriptions but, as far as we know, we've only ever had one universe. What we need is a quantum theory of gravity. Approaches to formulating such a theory have primarily followed two paths. One leads to String Theory, which has for long been fashionable, and about which much has been written. But String Theory has become mired in problems. In this book, Jim Baggott describes ": an approach which takes relativity as its starting point, and leads to a structure called Loop Quantum Gravity. Baggott tells the story through the careers and pioneering work of two of the theory's most prominent contributors, Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli. Combining clear discussions of both quantum theory and general relativity, this book offers one of the first efforts to explain the new quantum theory of space and time.

A Beginner's Guide to Reality is an introduction to philosophy for people who don't read philosophy. Jim Baggott's sources range from Aristotle to The Matrix. He examines the major developments in Western philosophical thought on the nature of reality, at each of three levels - social, perceptual and physical. (Do money, colour, or photons exist?) The book systematically investigates these levels, peeling away the assumptions we make about those parts of reality that we take for granted.

From acclaimed science author Jim Baggot, a lively, provocative, and “intellectually gratifying” critique of modern theoretical physics (The Economist). In this stunning new volume, Jim Baggott argues that there is no observational or experimental evidence for many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics: super-symmetric particles, superstrings, the multiverse, the holographic principle, or the anthropic cosmological principle. These theories are not only untrue, it is not even science. It is fairy-tale physics: fantastical, bizarre and often outrageous, perhaps even confidence-trickery. This book provides a much-needed antidote. Informed, comprehensive, and balanced, it offers lay readers the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy. With its engaging portraits of many central figures of modern physics, including Paul Davies, John Barrow, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, and Leonard Susskind, it promises to be essential reading for all readers interested in what we know and don''''t know about the nature of the universe and reality itself.

Spanning ten historic years, from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 to ‘Joe-1’, the first Soviet atomic bomb test in August 1949, Atomic is the first fully realised popular account of the race between Nazi Germany, Britain, America and the Soviet Union to build atomic weapons. Rich in personality, action, confrontation and deception, Jim Baggott’s book tells an epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding.

John Sutherland

Manjit Kumar

Patricia Fara

Cordelia Fine

Greg Grandin

Stephen Fender

John Waller

Michael Steen

Mark Hughes

James Hannam

Tommy Byrne

Maryanne Woolf

Icon Books is an independent British publisher which publishes popular and engaging non-fiction for adults. We’re proud to be part of the Independent Alliance in the UK, publishing companies who share a common vision of editorial excellence and original, diverse publishing. This ebook sampler – available free on Kindle, in EPUB and as a PDF download from our website – covers subjects from popular science to sports biography to philosophy. The sampler includes extracts from: Atomic by Jim Baggott; Crashed & Byrned by Tommy Byrne; Fordlandia by Greg Grandin; God’s Philosophers by James Hannam; The Lives and Times of the Great Composers by Michael Steen; Love, Sex, Death and Words by John Sutherland and Stephen Fender; A Mind of Its Own by Cordelia Fine; Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Woolf; Quantum by Manjit Kumar; Sex, Botany and Empire by Patricia Fara; The Real Oliver Twist and A Time to Dance, A Time to Die by John Waller. From Proust and the Squid, a fascinating exploration of the science of the reading brain – ‘We were never born to read,’ begins Maryanne Wolf – to Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia, the riveting story of the American town Henry Ford tried to build in the Brazilian Amazon and Manjit Kumar’s BBC Samuel Johnson prizewinning Quantum, these books represent the best of over 20 years of non‐fiction publishing from Icon Books.

FREE Icon Books eBook Sampler

Tra i tanti oggetti pervasivi ed elusivi che affollano la dimensione invisibile del mondo subatomico, il "bosone di Higgs» è stato il più pervasivo ed elusivo: quella particella era l'elemento cruciale che mancava a completare il puzzle del Modello Standard, perché conferiva massa a tutte le altre particelle elementari, un enigma rimasto altrimenti insoluto. Quando finalmente il 4 luglio 2012 il CERN ne ha annunciato la verifica sperimentale, la "particella di Dio» (come un fisico l’ha temerariamente denominata) ha atti­rato su di sé i riflettori dell'attenzione mediatica mondiale. Affrontando l'intera questione con un rigore che ne acuisce la densità intellettuale e la vertigine tecnologica, Jim Baggott segue due percorsi paralleli. Non solo, infatti, ne ricostruisce la genesi teorica, ma ripercorre tutte le stazioni di avvicinamento al­l'e­clatante risultato di Ginevra: il legame tra i primi acceleratori degli anni Venti e le collisioni di particelle nei raggi cosmici; la messa a punto del ciclotrone da parte di Lawrence; il contributo di Van der Meer, il cui metodo di «raffreddamento stocastico» ha permesso al gruppo di Rubbia l'individuazione dei bosoni W e Z, decisivi per arrivare alla scoperta del bosone di Higgs; e le svolte successive del LEP (Large Electron-Positron Collider) e dell'or­mai leggendario LHC (Large Hadron Collid­er), che con i suoi 1600 magneti superconduttori ha permesso di sviluppare energie senza precedenti. Presentandoci via via gli snodi più sofisticati del mondo delle particelle, Baggott ci accompagna, attraverso una narrazione serrata e avvincente, in un viaggio che ci costringe a ripensare tutte le categorie abituali della fi­sica, fino a convincerci di come un famoso aforisma di Einstein – «Dio è sottile, ma non malizioso» – possa essere a volte smentito.

Il bosone di Higgs

What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later. Chapter by chapter, it sets out the current state of scientific knowledge: the origins of space and time; energy, mass, and light; galaxies, stars, and our sun; the habitable earth, and complex life itself. Drawing together the physical and biological sciences, Baggott recounts what we currently know of our history, highlighting the questions science has yet to answer.

The Scientific Story of Creation

Origins

È possibile tracciare in un'unica, serrata narrazione la «storia materiale» dell'universo dal big bang all'evoluzione della coscienza di Homo sapiens? Sì, lo è, se al compito – ambizioso ai limiti dell'azzardo – provvede uno scienziato come Jim Baggott, con il suo approccio al contempo rigoroso e affascinante. Ricorrendo alle più recenti acquisizioni di tutte le discipline funzionali all'impresa – astrofisica e biologia evoluzionistica, cosmologia e genetica –, Baggott risale infatti, in puntuale successione cronologica, a tante «origini» correlate e distinte, ognuna inquadrata come una sequenza chiave: dalla formazione dello spaziotempo e della massa-energia, pochi istanti dopo il big bang, all'apparizione della luce, dalla genesi delle galassie fino al progressivo delinearsi della «nostra» porzione di universo con la nascita del sistema solare e della Terra. Nell'ambiente caldo e umido di quest'ultima si creeranno le condizioni per l'origine forse più misteriosa e imperscrutabile, quella della vita. Il manifestarsi dei primi organismi terrestri unicellulari, circa quattro miliardi di anni fa, innesca quel processo evolutivo che culminerà nell'emersione di Homo sapiens: un percorso lungo e tormentato, «interrotto a più riprese dalle imprevedibili brutalità del caso» – ere glaciali, eruzioni vulcaniche, impatti con asteroidi –, responsabili di periodiche estinzioni di massa. Non c'è romanzo di avventura più imprevedibile.

Jim Baggott

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