Physics on the Fringe

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0802778739
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis Physics on the Fringe by : Margaret Wertheim

Download or read book Physics on the Fringe written by Margaret Wertheim and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past fifteen years, acclaimed science writer Margaret Wertheim has been collecting the works of "outsider physicists," many without formal training and all convinced that they have found true alternative theories of the universe. Jim Carter, the Einstein of outsiders, has developed his own complete theory of matter and energy and gravity that he demonstrates with experiments in his backyard,-with garbage cans and a disco fog machine he makes smoke rings to test his ideas about atoms. Captivated by the imaginative power of his theories and his resolutely DIY attitude, Wertheim has been following Carter's progress for the past decade. Centuries ago, natural philosophers puzzled out the laws of nature using the tools of observation and experimentation. Today, theoretical physics has become mathematically inscrutable, accessible only to an elite few. In rejecting this abstraction, outsider theorists insist that nature speaks a language we can all understand. Through a profoundly human profile of Jim Carter, Wertheim's exploration of the bizarre world of fringe physics challenges our conception of what science is, how it works, and who it is for.

On the Fringe

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197555780
Total Pages : 122 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Fringe by : Michael D. Gordin

Download or read book On the Fringe written by Michael D. Gordin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under its umbrella-- astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields "pseudo" is a far more complex issue. It has proved impossible to come up with a simple criterion that enables us to differentiate pseudoscience from genuine science. Given the virulence of contemporary disputes over the denial of climate change and anti-vaccination movements--both of which display allegations of "pseudoscience" on all sides-- there is a clear need to better understand issues of scientific demarcation. On the Fringe explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. This book argues that by understanding doctrines that are often seen as antithetical to science, we can learn a great deal about how science operated in the past and does today. This exploration raises several questions: How does a doctrine become demonized as pseudoscientific? Who has the authority to make these pronouncements? How is the status of science shaped by political or cultural contexts? How does pseudoscience differ from scientific fraud? Michael D. Gordin both answers these questions and guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, looking at parapsychology (ESP), Lysenkoism, scientific racism, and alchemy, among others, to better understand the struggle to define what science is and is not, and how the controversies have shifted over the centuries. On the Fringe provides a historical tour through many of these fringe fields in order to provide tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both in the past and in our present.

Through Two Doors at Once

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101986107
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Through Two Doors at Once by : Anil Ananthaswamy

Download or read book Through Two Doors at Once written by Anil Ananthaswamy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intellectual adventure story of the "double-slit" experiment, showing how a sunbeam split into two paths first challenged our understanding of light and then the nature of reality itself--and continues to almost two hundred years later. Many of science's greatest minds have grappled with the simple yet elusive "double-slit" experiment. Thomas Young devised it in the early 1800s to show that light behaves like a wave, and in doing so opposed Isaac Newton. Nearly a century later, Albert Einstein showed that light comes in quanta, or particles, and the experiment became key to a fierce debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr over the nature of reality. Richard Feynman held that the double slit embodies the central mystery of the quantum world. Decade after decade, hypothesis after hypothesis, scientists have returned to this ingenious experiment to help them answer deeper and deeper questions about the fabric of the universe. How can a single particle behave both like a particle and a wave? Does a particle exist before we look at it, or does the very act of looking create reality? Are there hidden aspects to reality missing from the orthodox view of quantum physics? Is there a place where the quantum world ends and the familiar classical world of our daily lives begins, and if so, can we find it? And if there's no such place, then does the universe split into two each time a particle goes through the double slit? With his extraordinarily gifted eloquence, Anil Ananthaswamy travels around the world and through history, down to the smallest scales of physical reality we have yet fathomed. Through Two Doors at Once is the most fantastic voyage you can take.

God and the New Physics

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0671528068
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (715 download)

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Book Synopsis God and the New Physics by : P. C. W. Davies

Download or read book God and the New Physics written by P. C. W. Davies and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1984-10-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that the discoveries of twentieth-century physics--relativity and the quantum theory--demand a radical reformulation of the fundamentals of reality and a way of thinking, that is closer to mysticism than materialism.

The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 9780393320534
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (25 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace by : Margaret Wertheim

Download or read book The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace written by Margaret Wertheim and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2000 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cyberspace may seem an unlikely gateway for the soul, but as science commentator Wertheim argues in this "wonderfully provocative" ("Kirkus Reviews") book, cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. 37 illustrations.

Fringe Pattern Analysis for Optical Metrology

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 3527411526
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (274 download)

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Book Synopsis Fringe Pattern Analysis for Optical Metrology by : Manuel Servin

Download or read book Fringe Pattern Analysis for Optical Metrology written by Manuel Servin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main objective of this book is to present the basic theoretical principles and practical applications for the classical interferometric techniques and the most advanced methods in the field of modern fringe pattern analysis applied to optical metrology. A major novelty of this work is the presentation of a unified theoretical framework based on the Fourier description of phase shifting interferometry using the Frequency Transfer Function (FTF) along with the theory of Stochastic Process for the straightforward analysis and synthesis of phase shifting algorithms with desired properties such as spectral response, detuning and signal-to-noise robustness, harmonic rejection, etc.

The Pseudoscience Wars

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226304434
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pseudoscience Wars by : Michael D. Gordin

Download or read book The Pseudoscience Wars written by Michael D. Gordin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-09-17 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Properly analyzed, the collective mythological and religious writings of humanity reveal that around 1500 BC, a comet swept perilously close to Earth, triggering widespread natural disasters and threatening the destruction of all life before settling into solar orbit as Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor. Sound implausible? Well, from 1950 until the late 1970s, a huge number of people begged to differ, as they devoured Immanuel Velikovsky’s major best-seller, Worlds in Collision, insisting that perhaps this polymathic thinker held the key to a new science and a new history. Scientists, on the other hand, assaulted Velikovsky’s book, his followers, and his press mercilessly from the get-go. In The Pseudoscience Wars, Michael D. Gordin resurrects the largely forgotten figure of Velikovsky and uses his strange career and surprisingly influential writings to explore the changing definitions of the line that separates legitimate scientific inquiry from what is deemed bunk, and to show how vital this question remains to us today. Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material from Velikovsky’s personal archives, Gordin presents a behind-the-scenes history of the writer’s career, from his initial burst of success through his growing influence on the counterculture, heated public battles with such luminaries as Carl Sagan, and eventual eclipse. Along the way, he offers fascinating glimpses into the histories and effects of other fringe doctrines, including creationism, Lysenkoism, parapsychology, and more—all of which have surprising connections to Velikovsky’s theories. Science today is hardly universally secure, and scientists seem themselves beset by critics, denialists, and those they label “pseudoscientists”—as seen all too clearly in battles over evolution and climate change. The Pseudoscience Wars simultaneously reveals the surprising Cold War roots of our contemporary dilemma and points readers to a different approach to drawing the line between knowledge and nonsense.

The Universe Within

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Publisher : House of Anansi
ISBN 13 : 1770892257
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The Universe Within by : Neil Turok

Download or read book The Universe Within written by Neil Turok and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2012-09-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “With [The Universe Within’s] deeply thoughtful reflections on the place of science in society, on the need to educate the underserved, and on plenty of other topics rarely addressed in this sort of book, Turok takes you where no physicist has gone before. It’s well worth making the journey with him.” — TIME Magazine Winner of the Lane Anderson Award, longlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize, shortlisted for the Libris Award for Non-Fiction and selected as an Amazon.ca Best Book The most anticipated nonfiction book of the season, this year's Massey Lectures is a visionary look at the way the human mind can shape the future by world-renowned physicist Neil Turok. Every technology we rely on today was created by the human mind, seeking to understand the universe around us. Scientific knowledge is our most precious possession, and our future will be shaped by the breakthroughs to come. In this personal, visionary, and fascinating work, Neil Turok, Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, explores the transformative scientific discoveries of the past three centuries -- from classical mechanics, to the nature of light, to the bizarre world of the quantum, and the evolution of the cosmos. Each new discovery has, over time, yielded new technologies causing paradigm shifts in the organization of society. Now, he argues, we are on the cusp of another major transformation: the coming quantum revolution that will supplant our current, dissatisfying digital age. Facing this brave new world, Turok calls for creatively re-inventing the way advanced knowledge is developed and shared, and opening access to the vast, untapped pools of intellectual talent in the developing world. Scientific research, training, and outreach are vital to our future economy, as well as powerful forces for peaceful global progress. Elegantly written, deeply provocative, and highly inspirational, The Universe Within is, above all, about the future -- of science, of society, of ourselves.

Fire, Ice, and Physics

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262539616
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Fire, Ice, and Physics by : Rebecca C. Thompson

Download or read book Fire, Ice, and Physics written by Rebecca C. Thompson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the science in George R. R. Martin’s fantastical world, from the physics of an ice wall to the genetics of the Targaryens and Lannisters Game of Thrones is a fantasy that features a lot of made-up science—fabricated climatology (when is winter coming?), astronomy, metallurgy, chemistry, and biology. Most fans of George R. R. Martin’s fantastical world accept it all as part of the magic. A trained scientist, watching the fake science in Game of Thrones, might think, “But how would it work?” In Fire, Ice, and Physics, Rebecca Thompson turns a scientist’s eye on Game of Thrones, exploring, among other things, the science of an ice wall, the genetics of the Targaryen and Lannister families, and the biology of beheading. Thompson, a PhD in physics and an enthusiastic Game of Thrones fan, uses the fantasy science of the show as a gateway to some interesting real science, introducing GOT fandom to a new dimension of appreciation. Thompson starts at the beginning, with winter, explaining seasons and the very elliptical orbit of the Earth that might cause winter to come (or not come). She tells us that ice can behave like ketchup, compares regular steel to Valyrian steel, explains that dragons are “bats, but with fire,” and considers Targaryen inbreeding. Finally she offers scientific explanations of the various types of fatal justice meted out, including beheading, hanging, poisoning (reporting that the effects of “the Strangler,” administered to Joffrey at the Purple Wedding, resemble the effects of strychnine), skull crushing, and burning at the stake. Even the most faithful Game of Thrones fans will learn new and interesting things about the show from Thompson’s entertaining and engaging account. Fire, Ice, and Physics is an essential companion for all future bingeing.

Physics of Light and Optics (Black & White)

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Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1312929278
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis Physics of Light and Optics (Black & White) by : Michael Ware

Download or read book Physics of Light and Optics (Black & White) written by Michael Ware and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2020 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Fringe-ology

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 006209212X
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Fringe-ology by : Steve Volk

Download or read book Fringe-ology written by Steve Volk and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fringe-Ologybrings a poet’s eye to the frayed edges between the known and unknown, beliefand skepticism. . . . A dive into the paranormal even a hardcore skeptic like myselfcan enjoy.” —Mat Johnson, author of Pym Takea strange and unsettling trip into the heart of the paranormal universe asjournalist Steve Volk tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions atthe heart of human existence. Fringe-ology will appeal to anyone curiousbut cautious about reports of paranormal experiences, psychic phenomena, andother unexplainable events—anyone who has ever wondered about the existence anafterlife, intelligent life on other planets, or the limits of extrasensoryperception. For fans of Fringe, Mythbusters,Medium, Heroes, Nova, and Lost, Volk’sscintillating journey into mystery illuminates the furthest boundaries ofpossibility and wonder.

First You Build a Cloud

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Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0544080149
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis First You Build a Cloud by : K. C. Cole

Download or read book First You Build a Cloud written by K. C. Cole and published by HMH. This book was released on 2012-07-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This clearly written and compelling look at physics and physicists offers “thousands of new ways to see our daily world more richly” (Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach). For many of us, physics has always been a thing of mystery and complexity. K. C. Cole, an award-winning science writer, specializes in making its wonders accessible to the everyday reader. This book uses lively prose, metaphors, and anecdotes to allow us to comprehend the nuances of physics: gravity and light, color and shape, quarks and quasars, particles and stars, force and strength. It also shows us how the physical world is so deeply intertwined with the ways we think about culture, poetry, and philosophy, and explores the workings of such legendary scientific minds as Richard Feynman, Victor Weisskopf, brothers Frank Oppenheimer and J. Robert Oppenheimer, Philip Morrison, Vera Kistiakowsky, and Stephen Jay Gould. “An exemplary science writer . . . For readers without scientific background, Cole gracefully introduces relativity, quantum theory, optics, astrophysics, and other significant disciplines, never getting bogged down in unnecessary explanation. Thus, you may not learn all about thermodynamics from reading her chapter on it, but you will learn enough to think seriously about the entropy in your own life. Cole sprinkles her text with comments from famous scientists—‘Space is blue, and birds fly in it,’ said Heisenberg, and Faraday said, ‘Nothing is too wonderful to be true’—that are not only delightful in themselves but perfectly suited to her own text. No review of Cole’s book could be too wonderful to be true.” —Booklist

The Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction

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Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786470534
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis The Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction by : Steven D. Bloom

Download or read book The Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction written by Steven D. Bloom and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-06-22 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great scientific, astronomical and technological advances of the 20th century inspired the science fiction genre to imagine distant worlds and futures, far beyond the discoveries of the here and now. This book explores science fiction films, television series, novels and short stories--from Lost in Space (1965-1968) to Fringe (2008-2013) to the works of Isaac Asimov and Stephen Baxter--with a focus on their underlying concepts of physics and astronomy. Assessing accuracy and plausibility, the author considers the possibilities of solar system, interstellar and faster than light travel; intelligent planets, dark (anti-) matter, the multiverse and string theory, time travel, alternate universes, teleportation and replication, weaponry, force fields, extraterrestrial life, subatomic life, emotional robots, super-human and parapsychological powers, asteroid impacts, space colonies and many other topics.

The Living Universe

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Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1105352110
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis The Living Universe by : James Carter

Download or read book The Living Universe written by James Carter and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Physics for Kids

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Publisher : Kitchen Pantry Scientist
ISBN 13 : 0760372438
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Physics for Kids by : Liz Lee Heinecke

Download or read book The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Physics for Kids written by Liz Lee Heinecke and published by Kitchen Pantry Scientist. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Physics for Kids features biographies of 25 leading physicists, past and present, accompanied by accessible, hands-on experiments and activities to bring the history and principles of physics alive.

What Is Real?

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465096069
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis What Is Real? by : Adam Becker

Download or read book What Is Real? written by Adam Becker and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book Review An Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Longlisted for Goodreads Choice Award 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 solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as 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. "An excellent, accessible account." --Wall Street Journal "Splendid. . . . Deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists." --Washington Post

Farewell to Reality

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Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1453299149
Total Pages : 454 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (532 download)

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Book Synopsis Farewell to Reality by : Jim Baggott

Download or read book Farewell to Reality written by Jim Baggott and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From acclaimed science author Jim Baggot, a lively, provocative, and “intellectually gratifying” critique of modern theoretical physics (The Economist). Where does one draw the line between solid science and fairy-tale physics? 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. Unafraid to challenge prominent theorists, Baggott offers engaging portraits of many central figures of modern physics, including Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, John D. Barrow, Brian Greene, and Leonard Susskind. Informed, comprehensive, and balanced, Farewell to Reality discusses the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy, providing essential and entertaining reading for everyone interested in what we know and don’t know about the nature of the universe and reality itself.