The Ghost in the Atom: A Discussion of the Mysteries of Quantum Physics

by P.C.W.Davies (Editor), JulianR.Brown (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1986

  $3.29

  Quantum physics is one of the most successful branches of science. Its conceptual foundations, however, are replete with-paradoxes, and the implications of the theory for the nature of reality are profound. Interest in this topic has been re-awakened by a key experiment performed in 1982 to test the foundations of the theory. The occasion prompted BBC Radio to make a documentary (of the same title as the book) on the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, for Radio 3. This book is based on the original transcripts of this broadcast, including interviews with several physicists who have played a prominent part in the debate on these paradoxes. The book also contains an introduction to quantum physics, its puzzles and paradoxes, and the contending proposed resolutions thereof, written at a non-specialist level. There is also a glossary and a bibliography.

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $19.04

  Anybody who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. Niels Bohr's dictum bears witness to the bewildering impact of quantum theory, flying in the face of classical physics and dramatically transforming scientists' outlook on our relationship with the material world. While the theory has been supremely successful in its explanation of some of the major problems in twentieth-century physics, its meaning (presenting a number of basic philosophical contradictions) is nevertheless the subject of unprecedented controversy amongst scientists. In this book, which has its origin in a series of radio broadcasts, Paul Davies interviews eight physicists involved in debating and testing the theory, with radically different views of its significance.