The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin |
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Science fans, hold on to your hats! Lee Smolin, a professor at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University, is about to take you on the ride of your life. Imagine, if you will, the theory of evolution applied to physics. What if our universe is so ideally adapted to life because it developed that way? What if ours is just one among many thousands of universes, all engaged in a cosmic survival-of-the-fittest struggle? These are just two of the wildly original theories Smolin posits in The Life of the Cosmos, in which Alice in Wonderland meets quantum physics. According to Smolin, the majority of today's physicists still regard physical laws as immutable, mathematical and eternally true--to them, the universe is an intricate mechanism, a cosmic clock. But what if the laws of physics aren't really "laws" at all, but rather an evolving, developing process of natural selection that began even before the Big Bang?
Science fans, hold on to your hats! Lee Smolin, a professor at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University, is about to take you on the ride of your life. Imagine, if you will, the theory of evolution applied to physics. What if our universe is so ideally adapted to life because it developed that way? What if ours is just one among many thousands of universes, all engaged in a cosmic survival-of-the-fittest struggle? These are just two of the wildly original theories Smolin posits in The Life of the Cosmos, in which Alice in Wonderland meets quantum physics. According to Smolin, the majority of today's physicists still regard physical laws as immutable, mathematical and eternally true--to them, the universe is an intricate mechanism, a cosmic clock. But what if the laws of physics aren't really "laws" at all, but rather an evolving, developing process of natural selection that began even before the Big Bang?
From Smolin's initial theory, it's a short step to black holes, alternate universes, string theory, gauge symmetry and knots--all complicated abstractions that Smolin describes and explains in a remarkably comprehensible way. Even if you don't agree with Smolin's science, his book makes for great mind-bending reading and more than a little food for thought. If nothing else, The Life of the Cosmos proves once and for all that there really is intelligent life on this planet.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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This radical, exciting book draws as much on Darwinian ideas as on Einstein's to propose a way forward beyond theories that can only explain aspects of our universe, towards one that can explain it as a whole. Smolin suggests that the laws of nature are not fixed, but that they evolve in the same way that living things themselves evolve. Effectively, Smolin puts forward the possible unifica-tion of biology and physics, a view of the cosmos which moves beyond both the notion of God and the pessimism of Nietzsche and the existentialists.
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As the story is told, Nicolaus Copernicus received the first copy of his first and only book as he lay dying in the tower of the castle in northeastern Germany where he had lived and served as Deacon for the last half of his life. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
As the story is told, Nicolaus Copernicus received the first copy of his first and only book as he lay dying in the tower of the castle in northeastern Germany where he had lived and served as Deacon for the last half of his life. Read the first page
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73% buy the item featured on this page: The Life of the Cosmos |
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10% buy The Fabric of Reality: Towards a Theory of Everything £7.69 |
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9% buy The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next £6.99 |
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8% buy The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Penguin Press Science) £7.69 |
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