Amazon.com
Astrophysicist John Gribbin first introduced the general public to the world of quantum physics in 1984 with his book In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. A dizzying, counterintuitive domain, the quantum world is so strange that Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his time, admitted, "nobody understands quantum physics."
Science has not stood still in the years since In Search of Schrödinger's Cat was written, and in this new book, Gribbin brings us up to speed on the latest developments. New interpretive models have been put forth about the nature of particles and light; experimental evidence has turned over many of the basic precepts of the Copenhagen interpretation, which says that until it is observed, the subatomic world exists only as a probability wave, lacking any objective reality independent of observation. The new models offer not only a paradigm independent of an observer, but also begin to unite quantum phenomena with relativity and Newtonian mechanics. This is not to say that the quantum realm has become more comprehensible. With particles existing simultaneously as particles and waves, feedback loops, and waves that move forward and backward in time, the quantum world is still a strange, strange place; it's just a little less solipsistic.
As in his previous books, Gribbin deftly translates the abstruse mathematics of these new theories into a highly readable narrative that informs as it entertains. Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality is a book that can be enjoyed by expert and layman alike.
From Publishers Weekly
In a sequel to In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Gribbin offers further explorations into the often mind-bending theoretical world of contemporary quantum physics. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In In Search of Schrodinger's Cat (LJ 7/84), veteran science writer Gribbin considered a famous paradox in quantum mechanics: that subatomic particles are not really particles until someone observes them. His new book explains recent experimental and theoretical findings about the strange nature of the submicroscopic world of the atom. The "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum mechanics offered by Niels Bohr and his colleagues has prevailed for almost 70 years, but there is now a plethora of competing interpretations. Gribbin reviews this active and controversial field and cautiously indicates his personal preference for one of the new theoretical models. It is fascinating to see how a problem long regarded as "settled" has acquired new layers of mystery. For larger science collections?Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann ArborCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gribbin earned physics-writing eminence with In Search of Schrx9a dinger's Cat (1984), a popular must-have for libraries that describes the quantum universe of felines and all other matter. In this sequel, he addresses certain dents inflicted by current researchers on the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation of the behavior of electrons and photons that is associated with Bohr, Heisenberg, and others, physicists who capped the quantum theory with wave-particle duality, uncertainty, and nonlocality. The denters are experimenters who have, for example, disproven some "established" facts, such as the axiom that a quantum energy packet may be a wave or particle but not both. It can be both, apparently. Feynman's seminal contributions, particularly his sum-over-histories explanation for the apparition of light traveling in a single line, have also been further refined. As usual in his intriguing books, Gribbin speculates on sf-style implications, among them using quanta as an unbreakable code or for a teletransporter a{ } la Star Trek. In the true quantum realm, Gribbin remains the premier expositor of the latest developments. Gilbert Taylor
From Book News, Inc.
Gribbon (In Search of Shr<:;o>dinger's Cats) presents new evidence about the nature of light that pulls together quantum theory and relativity theory into a coherent explanation of reality. Scattering the indeterminate feline's brood to the opposite ends of the universe (all good homes, of course) he explains signals that travel faster than light and backwards in time, photons capable of being in two places at the same time; and how such arcanery is already being used to make uncrackable codes and could result in a transporter a la Star Trek. For general readers with some general knowledge of science. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Home
