Where Does The Weirdness Go?
Where Does The Weirdness Go?

Author: David Lindley

Publisher:

Published: 2008-08-06

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0786725877

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Few revolutions in science have been more far-reaching--but less understood--than the quantum revolution in physics. Everyday experience cannot prepare us for the sub-atomic world, where quantum effects become all-important. Here, particles can look like waves, and vice versa; electrons seem to lose their identity and instead take on a shifting, unpredictable appearance that depends on how they are being observed; and a single photon may sometimes behave as if it could be in two places at once. In the world of quantum mechanics, uncertainty and ambiguity become not just unavoidable, but essential ingredients of science--a development so disturbing that to Einstein "it was as if God were playing dice with the universe." And there is no one better able to explain the quantum revolution as it approaches the century mark than David Lindley. He brings the quantum revolution full circle, showing how the familiar and trustworthy reality of the world around us is actually a consequence of the ineffable uncertainty of the subatomic quantum world--the world we can't see.

Helgoland
Helgoland

Author: Carlo Rovelli

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0593328906

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian “Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” ―Neil Gaiman “One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Anaximander. One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious. As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness. Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.

The Weirdness
The Weirdness

Author: Jeremy P. Bushnell

Publisher: Melville House

Published: 2014-03-04

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1612193161

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Literary fiction meets the otherworldly in this “wonderfully weird and entertaining” urban fantasy for Millennial fans of Victor LaValle (Esquire). “An utterly charming, silly, and heartily entertaining coming-of-age story about a man-boy who learns to believe in himself by reckoning with evil.” —Boston Globe What do you do when you wake up hung over and late for work only to find a stranger on your couch? And what if that stranger turns out to be an Adversarial Manifestation—like Satan, say—who has brewed you a fresh cup of fair-trade coffee? And what if he offers you your life’s goal of making the bestseller list if only you find his missing Lucky Cat and, you know, sign over your soul? If you’re Billy Ridgeway, you take the coffee.

Beyond Weird
Beyond Weird

Author: Philip Ball

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 022655838X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” 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.

What Is Real?
What Is Real?

Author: Adam Becker

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2018-03-20

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0465096069

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book Review An Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Longlisted for Goodreads Choice Award Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett, persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth. "An excellent, accessible account." --Wall Street Journal "Splendid. . . . Deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists." --Washington Post

Quantum Aspects of Life
Quantum Aspects of Life

Author: Derek Abbott

Publisher: Imperial College Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 1848162537

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents the hotly debated question of whether quantum mechanics plays a non-trivial role in biology. In a timely way, it sets out a distinct quantum biology agenda. The burgeoning fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum technology, and quantum information processing are now strongly converging. The acronym BINS, for Bio-Info-Nano-Systems, has been coined to describe the synergetic interface of these several disciplines. The living cell is an information replicating and processing system that is replete with naturally-evolved nanomachines, which at some level require a quantum mechanical description. As quantum engineering and nanotechnology meet, increasing use will be made of biological structures, or hybrids of biological and fabricated systems, for producing novel devices for information storage and processing and other tasks. An understanding of these systems at a quantum mechanical level will be indispensable.

Quantum Weirdness
Quantum Weirdness

Author: William J. Mullin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-03-09

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0192514342

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Quantum mechanics allows a remarkably accurate description of nature and powerful predictive capabilities. The analyses of quantum systems and their interpretation lead to many surprises, for example, the ability to detect the characteristics of an object without ever touching it in any way, via "interaction-free measurement," or the teleportation of an atomic state over large distances. The results can become downright bizarre. Quantum mechanics is a subtle subject that usually involves complicated mathematics — calculus, partial differential equations, etc., for complete understanding. Most texts for general audiences avoid all mathematics. The result is that the reader misses almost all deep understanding of the subject, much of which can be probed with just high-school level algebra and trigonometry. Thus, readers with that level of mathematics can learn so much more about this fundamental science. The book starts with a discussion of the basic physics of waves (an appendix reviews some necessary classical physics concepts) and then introduces the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, including the wave function, superposition, entanglement, Bell's theorem, etc., and applications to Bose—Einstein condensation, quantum computing, and much more. The interpretation of the mathematics of quantum mechanics into a world view has been the subject of much controversy. The result is a variety of conflicting interpretations, from the famous Copenhagen view of Bohr to the multiple universes of Everett. We discuss these interpretations in the chapter "What is a wave function?" and include some very recent advances, for example, quantum Bayesianism, and measurements of the reality of the wave function.

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss
The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss

Author: Amy Noelle Parks

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2021-01-05

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1683357159

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Now in paperback, a heartfelt YA rom-com about smart girls, love-struck boys, and quantum theory Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has never been interested in dating. She’s fully occupied by her love of math and her frequent battles with anxiety. Besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be kind of weird and pretty unsanitary, when you think about it. But with the help of her therapist and her support system, she’s feeling braver. Maybe even brave enough to enter a prestigious physics competition or to say yes to the new boy who’s been flirting with her. Evie’s best friend, Caleb, has always been a little in love with Evie, and though he knows she isn’t ready for romance, he hopes that when she is, she’ll choose him. So Caleb is horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet-cute with a floppy-haired, mathematically gifted transfer student. In desperation, Caleb decides to use an online forum to capture Evie’s interest. When it goes better than he could’ve wished for, he wonders if it’s possible to be jealous of himself. And Evie wonders how she went from eschewing romance to having to choose between two—or is it three?—boys.

Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful
Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful

Author: Laurie Wallin

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1426787022

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What if who you are right now is exactly who God meant you to be? What if the weirdest, most annoying things about you are actually—for a purpose? Often we lament about how we relate to God and to the world. We over-think things, worry too much, put things off, argue too much, talk too much, or any number of other griefs. We fight who we are and beg God to make us different. But what if our greatest strength, biggest gift, and most potential is hidden in the very thing we seek to hide from the rest of the world: our weirdness? In Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful, author and certified life coach Laurie Wallin reveals strategies for anyone struggling to find a calling or to find and live their dream. It teaches us to stop fighting ourselves and start following God, not just in spite of, but by embracing our “weirdness.

Let's Be Weird Together
Let's Be Weird Together

Author: Brooke Barker

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company

Published: 2019-12-10

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 152350773X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Weird meets weird—and the rest is history! This is a book about weird couples and the tiny two-person universes they create. It’s about accidentally wearing the exact same outfit. It’s about made-up songs. It’s about your rules for the thermostat. It’s about breakfast rituals, and funny nicknames, and long hugs, and that voice you pretend the cat has. If you’re half of a weird couple, or if you have a favorite weird couple, or if you just love love, this book is for you. Includes 1 sheet of temporary tattoos!