Showing results by author "Chad Orzel" in All Categories

Without quantum physics, your breakfast - and so many other things we take for granted - wouldn't be possible. International best-selling author and physicist Chad Orzel shows us why. Just beneath the surface of our ordinary lives, strange phenomena lurk. Exciting physics doesn’t only show up in the big bang or a black hole or in the guts of giant particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider - it’s all around us. Beginning at sunrise, Chad Orzel embarks upon a fascinating tour of the exotic science that underlies each moment of our day.

Predating written language and marching on through human history, the desire for ever-better timekeeping has spurred technological innovation and sparked theories that radically reshaped our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Chad Orzel, a physicist and bestselling author, continues his tradition of demystifying thorny scientific concepts by using the clocks and calendars central to our everyday activities as a jumping-off point to explore the science underlying the ways we keep track of our time. 

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But what about relativity? Physics professor Chad Orzel and his inquisitive canine companion, Emmy, tackle the concepts of general relativity in this irresistible introduction to Einstein's physics. Through armchair- and sometimes passenger-seat-conversations with Emmy about the relative speeds of dog and cat motion or the logistics of squirrel-chasing, Orzel translates complex Einsteinian ideas into examples simple enough for a dog to understand.

Even in the 21st century, the popular image of a scientist is a reclusive genius in a lab coat, mixing formulas or working out equations inaccessible to all but the initiated few. The idea that scientists are somehow smarter than the rest of us is a common yet dangerous misconception, getting us off the hook for not knowing or caring how the world works.