In this stunning new volume, Jim Baggott argues that there is no observational or experimental evidence for many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics: super-symmetric particles, super strings, the multiverse, the holographic principle, or the anthropic cosmological principle. These theories are not only untrue, it is not even science. It is fairy-tale physics: fantastical, bizarre and often outrageous, perhaps even confidence-trickery.This book provides a much-needed antidote. Informed, comprehensive, and balanced, it offers lay readers the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy. With its engaging portraits of many central figures of modern physics, including Paul Davies, John Barrow, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, and Leonard Susskind, it promises to be essential reading for all readers interested in what we know and don't know about the nature of the universe and reality itself.
Author(s): Jim Baggott
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 336
Title Page......Page 4
Dedication......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
1. The Supreme Task: Reality, Truth and the Scientific Method......Page 13
Part I The Authorized Version......Page 33
2. White Ambassadors of Morning: Light, Quantum Theory and the Nature of Reality......Page 34
3. The Construction of Mass: Matter, Force and the Standard Model of Particle Physics......Page 58
4. Beautiful Beyond Comparison: Space, Time and the Special and General Theories of Relativity......Page 82
5. The (Mostly) Missing Universe: The Universe According to the Standard Model of Big Bang Cosmology......Page 101
6. What’s Wrong with this Picture?: Why the Authorized Version of Reality Can’t be Right......Page 125
Part II The Grand Delusion......Page 144
7. Thy Fearful Symmetry: Beyond the Standard Model: Supersymmetry and Grand Unification......Page 145
8. In the Cemetery of Disappointed Hopes: Superstrings, M-theory and the Search for the Theory of Everything......Page 169
9. Gardeners of the Cosmic Landscape: Many Worlds and the Multiverse......Page 191
10. Source Code of the Cosmos: Quantum Information, Black Holes and the Holographic Principle......Page 213
11. Ego Sum Ergo Est: I Am Therefore It Is: the Anthropic Cosmological Principle......Page 236
12. Just Six Questions: Defining the Destination at the End of a Hopeful Journey......Page 256
Endnotes......Page 270
Bibliography......Page 284
Index......Page 290
Copyright Page......Page 318
