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What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Science
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Today we are blessed with two extraordinarily successful theories of physics. The first is Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes the large-scale behavior of matter in a curved spacetime. The second is quantum mechanics. This theory describes the properties and behavior of matter and radiation at their smallest scales.
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Philosophers have long puzzled over the nature of space, time, and matter. These inquiries led to the flowering of physics with the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century. Since then, the spectacular success of modern physics might appear to have made philosophy irrelevant. But new theories have created a new range of philosophical concerns: What is the shape of space? Is time travel possible? Is there a grand unified theory that unites all of physics?
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excellent and witty reading.
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Summary
The untold story of the heretical thinkers who challenged the establishment to rethink quantum physics and the nature of reality.
Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favoured practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo long meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists like John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics.
What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
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- Hanna
- 24-04-19
excellent history of quantum
It was a pleasure to endulge in the drama of last century's phisicians and to see how that affected their theories. excellent book for anyone who has interest in quantum, but is not necessary science minded. the physics concepts are easily explained here, but like the other reviews say, it's mostly focused on historic aspect.
4 people found this helpful
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- Simon
- 13-08-18
Best Quantum Physics Audio book out of 20 i have
This book is both comprehensive and well written. The fact that it is chronological provides real insight into the melase of regurgitation that other books offer. if you want an introduction to Quantum Physics... this is the book for you. Apart from Bells inequality, its easy to digest and covers the philosophical weaknessess in the Copenhagen interpretation the best i have seen. The measurement problem and issues around locality are well focused and detailed. Other books may cover relativity, many worlds, string theory and spacial dimentions better. But this one book could have replaced 10 others i have bought. Top marks
4 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 31-10-19
A quantum masterpiece
Reading pop science on quantum physics is a favourite hobby of mine though my background is firmly in the humanities. I had not heard of Adam Becker until he was interviewed on Sean Carroll's excellent podcast and though he is a popular science writer, it was clear that Carroll held him in high regard and wouldn't do this lightly when quantum mechanics is being discussed. So I bought this book and fine it is genuinely excellent. It is very well written and the exposition of the scientific ideas involved is outstandingly clear. The author himself unlike some science writers stays in the background himself, but gives excellent biographical detail on the leading figures, Nils Bohr, David Bohm, Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein. Becker's account of Nils Bohr and his consequences is marvellously full and lucid but is also deliberately slightly under-stated, all of which adds up to a devastating portrait which contrasts with the triumphalist way in which the course of scientific discovery is usually presented. Becker seems to be both a scientist and a good historian-biographer and this makes for a wonderfully full and clear exposition of the rise and fall of the Copenhagen Interpretation in quantum mechanics, with related science history (e.g. the race to build the first atomic bomb) fitted neatly in. Understanding the wave function and the debates over whether it drops or not hasn't been easy for me, but this book has helped me push my grasp of these topics much further. It is an immense pleasure to read. Strongly recommended. You'lll probably want to read this book several times, and will enjoy it as you do.
2 people found this helpful
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- Ronan
- 14-06-18
A lighthearted look at the quantum politics
Really Easy to listen to and enjoyable. I liked the almost biographical element to the book. Took a quite dry subject added some big characters, their backgrounds and breakthroughs and threw it all together. Very enjoyable and did explain the basics of quantum mechanics and the arguments that still rage to this day. Some of the quips made me laugh out loud and the ashes thing still makes me smile. One thing for the narrator... My family are from Ireland and your Belfast accent sounded like a mild Liverpool one to me. I understand a Belfast accent maybe hard for American listeners to understand bit other than that the delivery was excellent.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-07-18
More history than physics
The book is about physics history, so if you expect a book on Quantum Physics, you will most likely be disappointed.
4 people found this helpful
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- Erik
- 12-07-18
Pretty solid and readable book
Essentially, quantum mechanics can't be boring. The double slit experiment and delayed choise experiment keep on dazzling the mind. However, this dazzling is why you read a QM book. The title of this book gave me hope that in the last 20 years there might have been found a more suitable answer for the interpretation of QM. Unfortunately, this book does not provide an answer, it just sums up the different historical viewpoints/interpretations from many different theoretical physicists. Essentially, if you read some QM books before there is not much new in here, although the historical in depth story is quite appreciable. For my taste, it would be nice if there were more practical examples as a change. The last chapters tease a bit with modern day applications and explanations of phenomena, but it sticks with mentioning, while explaining would have been nice. In the end, a pretty solid and readable book.
1 person found this helpful
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- interseller_uk
- 10-06-18
Essential reading for anyone interested in physic.
Essential reading for anyone interested in physic. Well though out and interestring book on quantum theory
1 person found this helpful
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- Eder Souza
- 26-02-21
Good enough
Well narrated, just the subject could be approached differently. A bit of fantasy applied .
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- Luca Ambrogioni
- 03-02-21
Interesting but too opinionated
Some part of the book are good. It's well written and full of interesting stories and insights. However, the author is in some places insufferably arrogant and enforces a very biased narrative. Handle with care.
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- Phil R
- 18-12-20
superb book and extremely well read.
I'm not normally driven to review anything but this book is stunning in content and story and brilliantly read.
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- G B.
- 14-09-19
philosophy and politics versus science
The book is an interesting account of the various people that played a role in the development of quantum physics, the famous like Schroedinger, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Bell and Feinman, but also the lesser known to the public like Everet, Wheeler, Bohm and Podolsky.
More precisely it tells about the divide in the scientific community on the interpretation of quantum physics and what it means; what we understand/believe to be how reality is structured. It is a story about the culture of science; how scientists got inspired to come up with new theories and how the political and philosophical climate supported some and not others in the academic world.
The author makes a case for the relevance of the interpretation, stating there is still a large portion of the community that disregards the meaning and holds a utilitarian view: "as long as the math works and it helps us to predict the outcomes of experiments, what does it matter?" In the book, he refutes this with a thought experiment about a remote control and hypothetical dead batteries.
Another is the lagging influence of the logical positivist philosophy that holds that only observable phenomena have any meaning and the unobservable, like the atom that was hypothesized before it was seen, have no meaning.
Having read news articles about the loophole-free Bell test which proves quantum entanglement, the measurement of gravity waves, the discovery of the Higgs boson and the development of quantum computers that use q-bits in a probabilistic way, I was interested to listen to the different emerging theories and find out how they were first conceived or proven.
Even though the subject matter is sometimes quite thick or confusing the narrator does a really good job of keeping my attention.
In the end, the point has been driven home that theories that inform our fundamental understanding of the world are needed and are what drives science forward in a certain direction, and this decides for a large part what experiments are done.
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- stefano
- 21-08-19
Lucid and courageous. Einstein avenger
Loved this book. It starts as a narrative from the very early days of quantum theory till today. It ends with a lucid analysis about science and philosophy. the (brave) author doesn’t spare Neils Bohr and his followers accusations of intellectual dishonesty. Einstein and others victims of the Copenaghen imposition are avenged.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-07-18
jarring and entertaining
well worth the time and energy (pun intended) to follow along the various thought experiments that the author takes you to.
great read