The stories in this new collection from Tom Noyes show us everyday characters weighing the evidence of their circumstances and seeking ways to understand more fully the mysteries that define their lives. The beauty of each story comes from the reckless hope of these characters, their sometimes blind faith in the possibilities of human connection. "Stories that follow truly human characters as they deal with the common problems of life, such as the death of a father and the relationship with his son, a boy struggling with illiteracy, the suicide of a loved one- all things that everyday people may deal with, but all written intriguingly to glue readers to the page. 'Spooky Action at a Distance' is deftly written and highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review "Humor, surprise, and eminently engaging narrators." NewPages.com "His command of craft allows him to unfold characters in a way that moves past mere cleverness and down into emotional tectonics of faith, affection, loyalty, and grief." Image Magazine
Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "An important book that provides insight into key new developments in our understanding of the nature of space, time and the universe. It will repay careful study." --John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal "An endlessly surprising foray into the current mother of physics' many knotty mysteries, the solving of which may unveil the weirdness of quantum particles, black holes, and the essential unity of nature." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time: nonlocality-the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. It appears to be almost magical. Einstein grappled with this oddity and couldn't come to terms with it, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." More recently, the mystery has deepened as other forms of nonlocality have been uncovered. This strange occurrence, which has direct connections to black holes, particle collisions, and even the workings of gravity, holds the potential to undermine our most basic understandings of physical reality. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it? In Spooky Action at a Distance, George Musser sets out to answer that question, offering a provocative exploration of nonlocality and a celebration of the scientists who are trying to explain it. Musser guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the often contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of not only space and time but also the origins of the universe-and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics. Delightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.
A concise, non-technical exploration of quantum entanglement—the enigma Albert Einstein called ‘spooky action at a distance’—and how it contradicts our assumptions about the ultimate nature of reality. Quantum physics is notable for its brazen defiance of common sense. (Think of Schrödinger's Cat, famously both dead and alive.) An especially rigorous form of quantum contradiction occurs in experiments with entangled particles. Our common assumption is that objects have properties whether or not anyone is observing them, and the measurement of one can’t affect the other. Quantum entanglement—called by Einstein “spooky action at a distance”—rejects this assumption, offering impeccable reasoning and irrefutable evidence of the opposite. Is quantum entanglement mystical, or just mystifying? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Jed Brody equips readers to decide for themselves. He explains how our commonsense assumptions impose constraints—from which entangled particles break free. Brody explores such concepts as local realism, Bell’s inequality, polarization, time dilation, and special relativity. He introduces readers to imaginary physicists Alice and Bob and their photon analyses; points out that it's easier to reject falsehood than establish the truth; and reports that some physicists explain entanglement by arguing that we live in a cross-section of a higher-dimensional reality. He examines a variety of viewpoints held by physicists, including quantum decoherence, Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation, genuine fortuitousness, and QBism. This relatively recent interpretation, an abbreviation of “quantum Bayesianism,” holds that there's no such thing as an absolutely accurate, objective probability “out there,” that quantum mechanical probabilities are subjective judgments, and there's no “action at a distance,” spooky or otherwise.
David Alpaugh’s Spooky Action at a Distance—a collection of double-title poems—include irreverent, insightful commentary on subjects both current and timeless. The poetic form is Alpaugh's invention. Masterfully versified with taut control of form and content, on topics ranging from the high precision of science and mathematics to the vagaries and subjectivity of art, this unique collection contains a seemingly endless supply of wit, witticism, wonders, and revelations. PRAISE FOR SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE: I can’t count how many times I laughed out loud while reading David Alpaugh’s Spooky Action at a Distance. Alpaugh’s wit is so original, so outlandish, so outrageous, that at first it’s hard to believe he’s pulling off one after another of these double-title poems, a form he invented and one that could not be better suited to his brilliant, iconoclastic mind. As impressive as Alpaugh’s poetic skill—his dexterity, musical ear and gift for turning clichés on their heads—is his range of reference. From childhood to history to mythology to politics to literature and back, Alpaugh takes us on a magical mystery tour through a universe of his own making. — Lynne Knight, author of The Persistence of Longing For me, Alpaugh’s wit—in the old high metaphysical sense of that word—is the primary source of his power and virtue. He is an insatiably curious man who somehow manages to get everything into his poems. In Spooky Action at a Distance, Alpaugh is all about serious play and endlessly capable of surprise. Tracking the moves he makes connecting double-title after double-title is its own reward, a pleasure so pure as not to be missed. — William Slaughter, editor of Mudlark David Alpaugh’s Spooky Action at a Distance offers readers a cornucopia of delights, complications, and some truly moving insights—all in an intriguing new form of his own invention. Alpaugh’s double-title form shows how two titles can be separate, like two photons miles apart, yet “entangled” in meaning and intent. Alpaugh is an excellent poetic space travel guide. This collection reminds me of the language used to describe properties of quarks—strangeness and charm. Alpaugh’s poems are structured, but still filled with plenty of actual strangeness and charm. And one need not enter a particle accelerator to discover these surprises. Just get this book! — Kathleen Lynch, author of Lucky Witness ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Alpaugh holds degrees in English from Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley, where he was both a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Fellow. His poems have appeared in more than a hundred literary journals from Able Muse to Poetry to ZYZZYVA, and his first collection, Counterpoint, won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press. David Alpaugh’s essays, “The Professionalization of Poetry” (Poets & Writers Magazine), “What’s Really Wrong With Poetry Book Contests” (Rattle), and “The New Math of Poetry” (Chronicle of Higher Education)—have been widely discussed online. His musical play, Yesteryear: 3 Days in Paris with François Villon, was recently published by Scene4. Since he debuted the double-title poem in Mudlark in 2016, more than a hundred have appeared in journals and anthologies. He currently teaches literature for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at their UC Berkeley and Cal State East Bay campuses.
We’re living in the midst of a scientific revolution that’s captured the general public’s attention and imagination. The aim of this new revolution is to develop a “theory of everything”—a set of laws of physics that will explain all that can be explained, ranging from the tiniest subatomic particle to the universe as a whole. Here, readers will learn the ideas behind the theories, and their effects upon our world, our civilization, and ourselves. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® String Theory explains how this exciting idea holds up against competing theories. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: • Clear explanation of quantum mechanics, Einstein’s theories of relativity, and how string theory unites them. • A quick, easy-to-understand overview of competing theories and how they might be tested. • Fast facts about black holes, what’s inside them, how they’re made, and why they’re so paradoxical. • Simple, smart tips to help you visualize extra dimensions.
All modern books on Einstein emphasize the genius of his relativity theory and the corresponding corrections and extensions of the ancient space-time concept. However, Einstein's opposition to the use of probability in the laws of nature and particularly in the laws of quantum mechanics is criticized and often portrayed as outdated. The author of E
A remarkable concept known as "entanglement" in quantum physics requires an incredibly bizarre link between subatomic particles. When one such particle is observed, quantum entanglement demands the rest of them to be affected instantaneously, even if they are universes apart. Einstein called this "spooky actions at a distance," and argued that such bizarre predictions of quantum theory show that it is an incomplete theory of nature. In 1964, however, John Bell proposed a theorem which seemed to prove that such spooky actions at a distance are inevitable for any physical theory, not just quantum theory. Since then many experiments have confirmed these long-distance correlations. But now, in this groundbreaking collection of papers, the author exposes a fatal flaw in the logic and mathematics of Bell's theorem, thus undermining its main conclusion, and proves that---as suspected by Einstein all along---there are no spooky actions at a distance in nature. The observed long-distance correlations among subatomic particles are dictated by a garden-variety "common cause," encoded within the topological structure of our ordinary physical space itself.
In The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder brings to life one of the pivotal debates in twentieth century physics. In 1935, Albert Einstein famously showed that, according to the quantum theory, separated particles could act as if intimately connected–a phenomenon which he derisively described as “spooky action at a distance.” In that same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this correlation “entanglement.” Yet its existence was mostly ignored until 1964, when the Irish physicist John Bell demonstrated just how strange this entanglement really was. Drawing on the papers, letters, and memoirs of the twentieth century’s greatest physicists, Gilder both humanizes and dramatizes the story by employing the scientists’ own words in imagined face-to-face dialogues. The result is a richly illuminating exploration of one of the most exciting concepts of quantum physics.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: VOGUE • FRESH AIR As a professor of physics at MIT, Helen Clapp disdains notions of the supernatural in favor of rational thought and proven ideas. So it’s perhaps especially vexing when, on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday in June, she gets a phone call from a friend who has just died. That friend was Charlotte Boyce, Helen’s roommate at Harvard. The two women once confided in each other about everything: Helen’s struggles as a young woman in science, Charlie’s as a black screenwriter in Hollywood, their shared challenges as parents. But as the years passed, they gradually grew apart. And now Charlie is permanently, tragically gone. Drawn back into her friend’s orbit, Helen is forced to question the laws of the universe that have always steadied her mind and heart. Suspenseful, perceptive, deeply affecting, Lost and Wanted is a story of friends and lovers, lost and found, at the most defining moments of their lives.
For a brief time in mid-nineteenth century Oneida, New York, two of the most eccentric and fascinating figures in American history crossed paths when troubled soul and soon-to-be presidential assassin Charles Guiteau threw in his lot with John Humphrey Noyes's utopian community of "free love" believers. In The Substance of Things Hoped For, Tom Noyes--a distant relative of John Humphrey Noyes--renders this historical intersection by deftly imagining the dynamics and consequences of an ominous and unusual relationship. As Guiteau stumbles further into madness and eventually achieves infamy for his murder of President Garfield, John Humphrey Noyes is left to face the consequences of his own missteps and misunderstandings as he's forced to make a hasty exit from Oneida. Joining Noyes and Guiteau in their parallel narratives is a chorus of other characters--family members, lovers, rivals, notable historical figures--whose haunting voices complement, undermine, complicate, and enhance Noyes's and Guiteau's versions of events, while also homing in on the novel's most pressing questions, including those related to revelation, delusion, loyalty, and love.
