author : Jim Baggott

This new molecule—one of a large family of carbon cage molecules called ‘fullerenes’—represents a new form of carbon in addition to diamond and graphite. Its discovery has revolutionized our understanding of this once most familiar of all elements. It has heralded a new chemistry, a new range of high-temperature superconductors, and some marvellous new concepts in the architecture of large carbon structures. Carbon will never be the same again.

In Perfect symmetry, prize-winning science writer Jim Baggott tells the story of the accidental discovery of buckminsterfullerene, from its origins in the cold chemistry of interstellar clouds to the development of the fast-growing field of fullerene science. It is a story full of surprises.

Most academic textbooks on the subject are written for specialists, filled with complex jargon and dense mathematics. In contrast there are many popular presentations of the inherent ‘weirdness’ of the quantum world that are light on jargon and contain no mathematics. Together these different presentations serve to create the impression that there are two theories—the ‘serious’ one with its abstract mathematical formalism that all students of physical science must learn how to apply without worrying overmuch about what it all means, and the ‘weird’ one guaranteed to provide much pointless debate for the less serious or downright foolish and naïve.

Beyond Measure successfully bridges the gulf between these presentations by grounding the discussion of the theory's profound problems directly in its mathematical formalism in a way that undergraduate students and interested individuals can follow. It brings the reader up to date with the results of experimental tests of quantum non-locality and complementarity, and reviews the latest thinking on alternative interpretations—pilot waves, decoherence, consciousness, many worlds and God—and the frontiers of quantum cosmology, quantum gravity and potential applications of quantum entanglement in computing, cryptography and teleportation. Quantum theory emerges largely unscathed, only serving to reinforce the point that the theory remains the most powerful framework for explaining observations of the quantum world, but that its orthodox interpretation continues to offer little in the way of understanding in terms of underlying physical processes. Quantum theory remains a mysterious theoretical black top hat from which white rabbits continue to be pulled. Students are usually advised not to ask how this particular conjuring trick is done.

In Farewell to Reality, science writer Jim Baggott outlines the currently accepted or ‘authorized’ scientific version of physical reality. This description is astonishing in its scope and accuracy, but it is also full of problems. Baggott argues that in seeking to resolve these, contemporary theorists have crossed a boundary. They are suffering a ‘Grand Delusion’ – a belief that they can describe reality using mathematics alone, with no foundation in scientific fact. The result is ‘fairytale’ physics.

A string of recent best-selling popular science books has helped to create the impression that fairytale physics is established science. Farewell to Reality provides a timely and much-needed antidote.

The 20th century gave us two extraordinarily successful theories of physics: quantum mechanics, which works astonishingly well at very small scales, and general relativity. which beautifully explains gravity and the large-scale cosmos. The trouble is they don’t work together. Quantum mechanics assumes an arena of space and time, as if everything were being played out against an invisible backdrop. General relativity dispenses with the backdrop: space and time are relative, and gravity is just the effect of matter moving in curved spacetime. Theorists in the 21st century seek to transcend both, by developing a single, joined-up account that can explain the behaviour of the universe at quantum scales. They seek a theory of quantum gravity.

There are two major approaches to quantum gravity, seen as rivals, though at root they have much in common. One, string theory, has been widely popularized, and arises primarily from the viewpoint of particle physics. This book is about the other approach, loop quantum gravity, or LQG. Less well known, it is gaining increasing interest and influence. Starting from general relativity, it borrows many ideas and techniques from particle theories, and predicts that space itself is quantum in nature. Time emerges as an evolving sequence of jumps in the geometry of quantum space which form a ‘spinfoam’. It’s all very abstract, but Quantum Space offers an opportunity to glimpse, without any mathematical technicalities, the deepest, most fundamental contemporary ideas concerning space, time, and the universe.

Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli have been leading players in the development of LQG, and Jim Baggott frames the story around the work and life experiences of these two famous physicists, who are close friends: their hopes, their frustrations, and their moments of triumph. This is also their story.

For all its success, quantum mechanics encourages us to accept some bizarre ideas: particles are waves, and waves are particles; Schrödinger’s cat is both dead and alive until we open the box to look; and a measurement here can affect an entangled particle, separated perhaps by millions of miles, instantaneously—‘spooky’ action at a distance. Alternatively, quantum mechanics tells us none of these things, but we have to accept that there’s nothing more to see here. Physicists and philosophers have been discussing its meaning since the ideas were first debated in the early 20th century by the theory’s architects—Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and their colleagues.

Many popular books have highlighted quantum strangeness. Here, Jim Baggott seeks to look deeper, and with a more philosophical eye. He outlines the way in which the aspects of the theory came together, in the broader context of the nature of scientific theories and the different philosophical positions they assume. This provides the backdrop to the great debate between Bohr and Einstein. Using simple drawings to explain the deep concepts involved, Baggott explores the various efforts to understanding what the theory might mean—from the Copenhagen interpretation to many worlds and the multiverse.