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The Matter Myth Dramatic Discoveries that Challenge Our Understanding of Physical Reality Paul Davies / John Gribbin
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In this sweeping survey, acclaimed science writers Paul Davies and John Gribbin provide a complete overview of the latest develop- ments in physics which have revolutionized modern science. From the weird world of quarks and the theory of relativity to the latest ideas about the birth of the cosmos, the authors find evidence for a mas- sive paradigm shift. New developments in the studies of black holes, cosmic strings, solitons, and chaos theory now challenge common- sense concepts of space, time, and matter, and demand a radically altered and more fully unified worldview of the universe. Here is a truly fascinating advance glimpse at the 21st-century science. Contents: The Death of Materialism; Chaos and the Liberalisation of Matter; The Mysterious Present; The Universe at Large; The First One Second; ...and the Last; Quantum Weirdness; The Cosmic Net- work; Beyond the Infinite Nature; The Living Universe. The movement against a "postmechanistic" paradigm, a paradigm suitable for twenty-first century science, is taking place across a broad front: in cosmology, in the chemistry of self-organizing systems, in the new physics of chaos, in quantum mechanics and particle physics, in the information sciences and (more reluctantly) at the interface of biology with physics. In all these areas scientists have found it fruitful, or even essential, to regard the portion of the Uni- verse they are studying in entirely new terms, terms that bear little relation to the old ideas of materialism and the cosmic machine. This monumental paradigm shift is bringing with a new perspective on hu- man beings and their role in the great drama of nature.
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