FANTASTIC REALITIES: 49 MIND JOURNEYS AND A TRIP TO STOCKHOLM 1st Edition by Frank Wilczek (PDF)

Description

With a contribution from Betsy DevineThe fantastic reality that is modern physics is open for your exploration, guided by one of its primary architects and interpreters, Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek.Some jokes, some poems, and extracts from wife Betsy Devine’s sparkling chronicle of what it’s like to live through a Nobel Prize provide easy entertainment. There’s also some history, some philosophy, some exposition of frontier science, and some frontier science, for your lasting edification.49 pieces, including many from Wilczek’s award-winning Reference Frame columns in Physics Today, and some never before published, are gathered by style and subject into a dozen chapters, each with a revealing, witty introduction.Profound ideas, presented with style: What could be better? Enjoy.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The writing is exceptionally well-informed, elegant, lucid, and thought-provoking.? About the Author Frank Wilczek has received many prizes for his work in physics, including the Nobel Prize of 2004 for work he did as a graduate student at Princeton University, when he was only 21 years old. He is known, among other things, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, axions, and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). Frank is also known for his ability to communicate successfully with a wide range of audiences. Much in demand for public lectures, he has been anthologized in the Norton Anthology of Light Verse and twice in Best American Science Writing (2003, 2005). Together with his wife Betsy Devine, he wrote a beautiful book, Longing for the Harmonies. Frank is currently the Herman Feshbach professor of physics at MIT. Betsy Devine, who blogs at “Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar”, rejoices at being the fourth “Betsy” in Google.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Frank Wilczek’s book opens your mind to new frontiers. I was particularly shocked to learn that the components of protons and neutrons, the building blocks of all atom nuclei, where the mass of atoms is concentrated, have very small rest mass so that practically all proton mass comes from Einstein’s formula E/c2=m. In a sense we are all ethereal criatures. The other shocking idea regarding the Higgs particle, hopefully soon to be discovered at CERN, is that the Universe acts as a superconductor.However, the book is a collection of articles written, if not for experts, for scientifically sophisticated readers and laymen will find it hard to read.

⭐I was interested in Professor Wilczek’s work on artificial intelligence interfacing with humans for good and bad.”Fantastic Realities” is primarily about quantum physics. The tell of this book is in the “Acknowledgments” at the end of the book, which contains well over 50 entries. The fact is this book just contains numerous reprints of published work from other sources written by Wilczek. And from the front cover information:”Some jokes, some poems, and extracts from wife Betsy Devine’s sparking chronicle of what it’s like to live through a Nobel Prize provide easy entertainment,” which Wilczek had received two years before writing this book in 2006.

⭐Frank is one of the most engaging, thoughtful scientist living today. His scholarship is impeccable. His insights are deep but penetrable. He defines the questions at the edge of reality and knowingness in a most helpful way. You will enjoy the read!

⭐I saw the book in a book fair: “Fantastic realities” and “mind journeys” sounded like fun and interesting adventures at the same time… I skimmed through the pages and the title of one chapter scared me off: “QED Exposed!” What on earth is QED? If I don’t even understand the titles, what can I expect…?To my surprise, the book was autographed by the author . “mmhh…It will most probably be the only book that I have autographed by a Nobel Prize winner, and if I do not understand a word of it, I can still enjoy the trip to Stockholm by Betsy Devine…” I read

⭐first (excellent book by the way), it seems that “fearful” was less frightening than the QED thing.The mind journeys are independent essays on different topics in quantum physics and the standard model (everything quite understandable except for two chapters that according to the author were meant for scientists or students in this field; these chapters were a one-way trip, definitely not for anyone with weak notions of the Greek alphabet). Since the articles compiled in this book were originally written for different audiences and occasions, sometimes information is repeated in different essays.I gained new insight on the unification of the known forces at high energy states, but also on the shortcomings of all known theories until now. The section on Planck’s constant is excellent. I also found it interesting how new particles and their masses can be predicted and how we are hoping for new results from the large accelerators since the deep philosophical question now seems to be: to Higgs or not to Higgs or does nature abhor vaccum after all? I still find the terminology for all the flavoured and coloured particles difficult and confusing.I loved the article written as a tribute to Dirac, here Mr. Wilczec shows that he not only masters “asymptotic freedom”, but that he is also an extremely skilled writer. While reading this chapter, I felt as if a mystery was being unveiled. I admired the beauty in Dirac’s equations, how he solved the problem of the results of the equations showing both positive and negative charges for the same particle and how he simply stated that the negative results must be “antimatter”. What a journey! By the way, years later I found out that I was not the only one liking this article, it was chosen by Mr Farmelo as one of the most beautiful essays of modern science compiled in his book

⭐, which is also highly recommended.

⭐I am not sure what kind of reader the author has targeted here. Physics Graduate students taking their first course in quantum field theory (QTF)? Laymen who read Scientific American articles? As for me, I am an engineering Ph.D. with a B.S. in physics who had taken the standard two-semester graduate level quantum mechanics sequence almost 40 years ago, but not courses on QTF or high-energy/particle physics. I have been reading books on QTF off and on for the past ten years or more, but have not taken a serious stab at understanding renormalization. Reading this series of articles by Wilczek, however, seems to have given me the push to take a fresh look at QTF–especially the sections on renormalization in Ryder’s

⭐and Zee’s

⭐.

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