Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli (English) Pap

Description: Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre, Simon Carnell Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian"Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life." Neil Gaiman"One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book" John Banville, The Wall Street Journal A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Anaximander.One of the worlds most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving.Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious.As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness.Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the United States and currently directs the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille, France. His books, including Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, are international bestsellers that have been translated into more than fifty languages. Review Praise for Helgoland:"Popular science has rarely been so good." Prospect"It was with great joy that I discovered and consumed Carlo Rovellis latest offering. . . . Helgoland hooked me so hard I read the entire book in one sitting. And then twice more." —Lisa Feldman Barrett, The Chronicle of Higher Education"One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book." John Banville, The Wall Street Journal"Bracing and refreshing…Rovelli is offering a new way to understand not just the world but our place in it, too." —NPR"A remarkably wide-ranging new meditation on quantum theory with the light touch of a skilled storyteller." The Guardian"Rovelli tackles both the quantum realm and the ways it helps us make sense of the mind with refreshing clarity." —Anil Ananthaswamy, The New York Times Book Review"Explained with uncanny insight and lyrical grace." —TIME"This entertaining and legible guide paints the history of quantum theory and lays out its possible meanings." —Scientific American"[An] intellectually exhilarating dive into the profoundest scientific conundrums." —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW"Physicist Rovelli (The Order of Time) dazzles with this look at the almost psychedelic experience of understanding quantum theory…These are big ideas, but Rovelli easily leads readers through the knotty logic, often with lyricism…Readers who follow along will be left in awe." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW"Charmingly idiosyncratic. . . . [Rovelli is] perhaps the finest author now writing on physics and the quantum world." —The Article"Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life." —Neil Gaiman "Helgoland is Rovellis most beautiful yet… Unforgettable." The London Times"Another brilliant book by Rovelli, who is emerging as the most approachable yet authoritative contemporary writer about quantum physics. He describes a relational universe in which there are no absolutes and everything depends on interactions between objects. You wont understand quantum mechanics after reading this—or any other book—but youll have fun trying." —Financial Times "Rovelli is a deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit." —London Observer "If anyone can make sense of the topsy-turvy, counterintuitive world of quantum physics, it is Carlo Rovelli." The Times "Inspiring." Spectator Review Quote Praise for Helgoland : "Popular science has rarely been so good." Prospect "It was with great joy that I discovered and consumed Carlo Rovellis latest offering. . . . Helgoland hooked me so hard I read the entire book in one sitting. And then twice more." --Lisa Feldman Barrett, The Chronicle of Higher Education "One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book." John Banville, The Wall Street Journal "Bracing and refreshing...Rovelli is offering a new way to understand not just the world but our place in it, too." -- NPR "A remarkably wide-ranging new meditation on quantum theory with the light touch of a skilled storyteller." The Guardian "Rovelli tackles both the quantum realm and the ways it helps us make sense of the mind with refreshing clarity." --Anil Ananthaswamy, The New York Times Book Review "Explained with uncanny insight and lyrical grace." -- TIME "This entertaining and legible guide paints the history of quantum theory and lays out its possible meanings." -- Scientific American "[An] intellectually exhilarating dive into the profoundest scientific conundrums." -- Booklist , STARRED REVIEW "Physicist Rovelli ( The Order of Time ) dazzles with this look at the almost psychedelic experience of understanding quantum theory...These are big ideas, but Rovelli easily leads readers through the knotty logic, often with lyricism...Readers who follow along will be left in awe." -- Publishers Weekly , STARRED REVIEW "Charmingly idiosyncratic. . . . [Rovelli is] perhaps the finest author now writing on physics and the quantum world." -- The Article "Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator... This is the place where science comes to life." --Neil Gaiman " Helgoland is Rovellis most beautiful yet... Unforgettable." The London Times "Another brilliant book by Rovelli, who is emerging as the most approachable yet authoritative contemporary writer about quantum physics. He describes a relational universe in which there are no absolutes and everything depends on interactions between objects. You wont understand quantum mechanics after reading this--or any other book--but youll have fun trying." -- Financial Times "Rovelli is a deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit." --London Observer "If anyone can make sense of the topsy-turvy, counterintuitive world of quantum physics, it is Carlo Rovelli." The Times "Inspiring." Spectator Excerpt from Book I A STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL INTERIOR How a young German physicist arrived at an idea that was very strange indeed, but described the world remarkably well-and the great confusion that followed. The Absurd Idea of the Young Heisenberg: Observables It was around three oclock in the morning when the final results of my calculations were before me. I felt profoundly shaken. I was so agitated that I could not sleep. I left the house and began walking slowly in the dark. I climbed on a rock overlooking the sea at the tip of the island, and waited for the sun to come up . . . I have often wondered what the thoughts and emotions of the young Heisenberg must have been as he clambered over that rock overlooking the sea, on the barren and windswept North Sea island of Helgoland, facing the vastness of the waves and awaiting the sunrise, after having been the first to glimpse one of the most vertiginous of Natures secrets ever looked upon by humankind. He was twenty-three. He was on the island seeking relief from the allergy that afflicted him. Helgoland-the name means Sacred Island-has virtually no trees, and very little pollen. ("Heligoland with its one tree," as James Joyce has it in Ulysses.) Perhaps the legends of the dreadful pirate Stsrtebeker hiding on the island, which Heisenberg loved as a boy, were in his mind as well. But Heisenbergs main reason for being there was to immerse himself in the problem with which he was obsessed, the burning issue handed to him by Niels Bohr. He slept little and spent his time in solitude, trying to calculate something that would justify Bohrs incomprehensible rules. Every so often, he would take a break to climb over the islands rocks or learn by heart poetry from Goethes West-Eastern Divan, the collection in which Germanys greatest poet sings his love for Islam. Niels Bohr was already a renowned scientist. He had written formulas, simple but strange, that predicted the properties of chemical elements even before measuring them. They predicted, for instance, the frequency of light emitted by elements when heated: the color they assume. This was a remarkable achievement. The formulas, however, were incomplete: they did not give, for instance, the intensity of the emitted light. But above all, these formulas had about them something that was truly absurd. They assumed, for no good reason, that the electrons in atoms orbited around the nucleus only on certain precise orbits, at certain precise distances from the nucleus, with certain precise energies-before magically "leaping" from one orbit to another. The first quantum leaps. Why only these orbits? Why these incongruous "leaps" from one orbit to another? What force could possibly cause such bizarre behavior as this? The atom is the building block of everything. How does it work? How do the electrons move inside it? The scientists of the beginning of the century had been pondering these questions for more than a decade, without getting anywhere. Like a Renaissance master painter in his studio, Bohr had gathered around him in Copenhagen the very best young physicists he could find, to work together on the mysteries of the atom. Among them was the brilliant Wolfgang Pauli-Heisenbergs extremely intelligent, pretty arrogant friend and former classmate. But Pauli had recommended Heisenberg to the great Bohr, saying that to make any real progress, he was needed. Bohr had taken the advice, and in the autumn of 1924 had brought Heisenberg to Copenhagen from Gsttingen, where he was working as an assistant to the physicist Max Born. Heisenberg had spent a few months in long discussions with Bohr, in Copenhagen, in front of blackboards covered with formulas. The young apprentice and the master had taken long walks together in the mountains, talking about the enigmas of the atom; about physics and philosophy. Heisenberg had steeped himself in the problem. It had become his obsession. Like the others, he had tried everything. Nothing worked. There seemed to be no reasonable force capable of guiding the electrons on Bohrs strange orbits, and in his peculiar leaps. And yet those orbits and those leaps really did lead to good predictions of atomic phenomena. Confusion. Desperation pushes us to look for extreme solutions. On that island in the North Sea, in complete solitude, Heisenberg resolved to explore radical ideas. It was with radical ideas, after all, that twenty years earlier Einstein had astonished the world. Einsteins radicalism had worked. Pauli and Heisenberg were enamored of his physics. Einstein for them was a legend. Had the time perhaps come, they asked themselves, to hazard as radical a step, to escape from the impasse regarding electrons in atoms? Could they be the ones to take it? In your twenties, you can dream freely. Einstein had shown that even our most rooted convictions can be wrong. What seems most obvious to us now might turn out not to be correct. Abandoning assumptions that seem self-evident can lead to greater understanding. Einstein had taught that everything should be based on what we see, not on what we assume to exist. Pauli repeated these ideas to Heisenberg. The two young men had drunk deep of this poisoned honey. They had been following the discussions on the relation between reality and experience that ran through Austrian and German philosophy at the beginning of the century. Ernst Mach, who had exerted a decisive influence on Einstein, insisted that knowledge had to be based solely on observations, freed of any implicit "metaphysical" assumption. These were the ingredients coming together in the young Heisenbergs thinking, like the chemical components of an explosive, as he isolated himself on Helgoland in the summer of 1925. And here he had the idea. An idea that could only be had with the unfettered radicalism of the young. The idea that would transform physics in its entirety-together with the whole of science and our very conception of the world. An idea, I believe, that humanity has not yet fully absorbed. Heisenbergs leap is as daring as it is simple. No one has been able to find the force capable of causing the bizarre behavior of electrons? Fine, lets stop searching for this new force. Lets use instead the force we are familiar with: the electric force that binds the electron to the nucleus. We cannot find new laws of motion to account for Bohrs orbits and his "leaps"? Fine, lets stick with the laws of motion that were familiar with, without altering them. Lets change, instead, our way of thinking about the electron. Lets give up describing its movement. Lets describe only what we can observe: the light it emits. Lets base everything on quantities that are observable. This is the idea. Heisenberg attempts to recalculate the behavior of the electron using quantities we observe: the frequency and amplitude of emitted light. We can observe the effects of the electrons leaps from one of Bohrs orbits to another. Heisenberg replaces the physical variables (numbers) with tables of numbers that have the orbits of departure in their rows and the orbits of arrival in their columns. Each entry of the table stands in a row and in a column: it describes the leap from one orbit to another. He spends his time on the island trying to use these tables to calculate something that could justify Bohrs rules. He doesnt get much sleep. But he fails to do the math for the electron in the atom: too difficult. He tries to account for a simpler system instead, choosing a pendulum, and looks for Bohrs rules in this simpler case. On June 7, something begins to click: When the first terms seemed to come right [giving Bohrs rules], I became excited, making one mathematical error after another. As a consequence, it was around three oclock in the morning when the result of my calculations lay before me. It was correct in all terms. Suddenly I no longer had any doubts about the consistency of the new "quantum" mechanics that my calculation described. At first, I was deeply alarmed. I had the feeling that I had gone beyond the surface of things and was beginning to see a strangely beautiful interior, and felt dizzy at the thought that now I had to investigate this wealth of mathematical structures that Nature had so generously spread out before me. It takes our breath away. Beyond the surface of things, "a strangely beautiful interior." Heisenbergs words resonate with those written by Galileo on first seeing the mathematical regularity appear in his measurements of the fall of objects along an inclined plane: the first mathematical law describing the motion of objects on Earth ever discovered by humankind. Nothing is like the emotion of seeing a mathematical law behind the disorder of appearances. On June 9, Heisenberg leaves Helgoland and returns to his university in G Details ISBN0593328892 Author Simon Carnell Short Title Helgoland Pages 256 Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 0593328892 ISBN-13 9780593328897 Format Paperback Publication Date 2022-05-24 Subtitle Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. Country of Publication United States Translated from Italian Illustrations 15 B&W ILLUSTRATIONS/PHOTOS THROUGHOUT AU Release Date 2022-05-24 NZ Release Date 2022-05-24 US Release Date 2022-05-24 UK Release Date 2022-05-24 Translator Simon Carnell DEWEY 530.12 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:135199271;

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