Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2018 -

Atom Land takes us on a tour through the world of subatomic particles. In this journey, we encounter lands of leptons and islands of hadrons. Our ship is afloat in a quantum sea, full of quantum waves. Butterworth (University College London) weaves a wonderful metaphor of the world of subatomic physics, sure to engage and enlighten laymen about the world of particle physics. He begins by discussing the different names given to the field and their relevance to the actual research. The book is written at a level accessible to a high school or liberal arts student, yet it still contains enough interesting material to make for enjoyable light reading for a science student. Particularly impressive are the stories behind various discoveries. Most books present such topics using modern logic and explanations; it is a pleasure to learn about the original reasoning that led scientists to their findings. Along this journey, we meet monsters like dark energy and higher dimensions. All in all, this is a highly engaging and entertaining book on the topic of particle physics.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates and general readers.

Zee (physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) writes with a blend of seriousness and tongue-in-cheek that is reminiscent of the popular works by another noted theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman. Thus the reader is both entertained and enlightened as the book moves from Newtonian gravity to modern general relativity to cover such enticing topics as black holes, Hawking radiation, and gravitons in 19 brief chapters. The material is geared toward readers who have not yet been initiated into the mysteries of gravity; in his explanations, Zee does not demand any sophisticated math skills of his readers. Although his development of "extremizing" (maximizing or minimizing) the action from Fermat's principle of least time may give some readers pause, his discussion of this concept is well worth the effort. Particularly useful to readers willing to take on more of a challenge is the outstanding qualitative and semi-quantitative evolution of the equations leading to curved space-time, starting with the simple coordinates on a globe, which appears in the appendix. Also, readers who typically skip the notes at the end of a book will not want to do so here; Zee's are enjoyable.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and general readers.

As Burwell (Ryerson Univ., Canada) points out in this excellently written and fascinating work, though quantum physics is one of the most mathematically precise and scientifically rigorous disciplines, its subject matter is at the same time readily misrepresented by language. This is a central reason the concepts of quantum theory are so "nomadic" and effortlessly appropriated by "quantum mysticism" and "quantum 'get rich' gurus." Burwell's clear, concise introduction to the concepts of quantum theory emphasizes the role of language and values not typically treated as scientific: that is, the ability of a theory to be visualized and to be intuitively and aesthetically appealing. Burwell demonstrates that rhetorical style has always played a role in the history of quantum physics. The story she tells, from quantum theory's development in the early 1900s to its influence on critical discourses (e.g., cultural studies, women's studies, and postcolonial studies) in the 1980s and 1990s, is richly informative to the history and philosophy of science, science studies, literary and cultural criticism, and physicists interested in the history of their discipline and the central roles that language and rhetoric play in its development and influence.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This delightful book by Stanford physicist Susskind and Friedman, an engineer, is the third volume in their "Theoretical Minimum" series (Vol. 1, CH, Jul'13, 50-6241; Vol. 2, CH, Jul'13, 50-6241). This installment introduces readers with a calculus-level knowledge of mathematics to the two fundamental fields of special relativity and relativistic classical field theory. The first of these is presented through the use of the Minkowski diagram, which is a versatile visual tool for understanding the implications of the constancy of the speed of light and lack of simultaneity among moving observers. The text then introduces field theory through the use of Lagrangians, first in the context of scalar fields. The authors go on to discuss electromagnetic fields, particle-field interactions, and gauge invariance--all fundamental topics. What makes this text so enjoyable, readable, and unique is its friendly, colloquial style. Susskind is masterful at explaining concepts in a down-to-earth manner and, from there, transitioning into the mathematics that encode the concept. Readers without a background in physics will find the text difficult, but those with some undergraduate familiarity will walk away with a firm grasp of the basic concepts.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students; general readers.

This book attempts to lay the philosophical groundwork for understanding the connection between manifest time and physical time. For Callender (philosophy, Univ. of California, San Diego), manifest time is experienced time and consists of presentness, flow, and the asymmetry of past and future. Instead of taking a reductionist approach, Callender first demonstrates that relativity and quantum mechanics, as typically discussed, cannot be the sources of manifest time. He then uses a combination of physics, psychology, biology, and information theory to present a new potential approach. Callender offers an intriguing argument that is far from simplistic. This is not easy reading, and those who lack a technical background in physics will find the sections on relativity and quantum mechanics challenging. However, if the reader accepts the technical conclusions and pushes onward, Callender's argument can still be followed. Though he often notes that his attempt to bridge physical and manifest time is incomplete, he does give a thorough presentation of how the issues can be explored and where the challenges lie. This is a very well-written and engaging book that is appropriate for anyone interested in the philosophy of time.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.