The Quantum Physics Bible: The Definitive Guide to 200 Years of Subatomic Science

by Brian Clegg

An easy-to-understand guide to the complex subject of quantum physics. Quantum physics is how scientists describe the world of the very small. For other people, however, the rules of quantum physics seem to violate all How can a particle be in more than one place at the same time? How can it tunnel through an impenetrable barrier? How can a cat in a box be both alive and dead? This book explains the complexities of quantum physics in bite-sized "lessons" that make it clear and accessible to all readers. The sections and chapters 1. Atoms -- quantum; quantum physics in everyday life; the periodic table; atoms and nuclei; isotopes; hydrogen atom (energy levels and spectra)
2. Photons -- photoelectric effect; thermal emission and the Planck distribution; wave particle duality (Young's slit experiment)
3. Quantum devices -- superconductors; transistor, diode; light-emitting diode; laser
4. Spin -- spin; fermions; exclusion principle; Fermi Dirac distribution; Bose-Einstein statistics
5. Wave Mechanics -- Heisenberg uncertainty principle; wave functions; standing waves; wave particle duality
6. Subatomic Particles -- radioactivity; atomic particles; protons; neutrons; electrons
7. Particle Physics -- elementary particles; quarks; leptons; electron and electron neutrino; muon and muon neutrino; tauon and tau neutrino; bosons; photon; W and Z boson; gluon; Higgs boson; composite particles; hadrons; matter-anti-matter
8. Quantum Physics in Medicine and industry -- magnetic resonance imaging; superfluidity; cancer treatment by radiation
9. Into the Future -- quantum physics of space; quantum gravity; graviton; Hawking radiation (grand unified theory); dark matter; strings; dark energy. Throughout the book, there are timelines and profiles about the scientists who developed the theories and made important discoveries in quantum physics, including Dmitri Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, William Shockley, Isama Akasaki, Stephen Hawking, Enrico Fermi, and Max Born.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Coleccionista de finales tristes]

Un libro muy básico. La presentación es bonita pero no es lo que anuncia el título.

[Sonia]

No he sido capaz de acabarlo. Lo que parecía que iba a ser una trayectoria de la historia y la actualidad de la física cuántica parece que ha acabado siendo un montón de datos sin un hilo conductor e imposible de comprender por la falta de este. Por otro lado, me cuesta creer que en 200 años de fisica cuántica todos los descubrimientos hayan sido generados por hombres...

[Jim]

I heartily recommend this book for folks (like me) vaguely interested in a very readable history of quantum physics. The book's arranged in bite-sized pieces, typically a couple of pages per topic with lots in the way of charts, pictures and trivia. Those bite-sized pieces flow together to eloquently tell a story. The tale begins well back beyond 200 years ago and seems to hit highlights of our understanding of the sub-atomic (and broader) world. It's astounding how recent some of the discoveries/models are and how integrated they are into our daily lives.

The book presents broad essentials and it's clear throughout how much more detail and debate there is on each topic. The author definitely succeeds in describing key points, key figures and key implications in a way that informs and piques the interest of someone like me, who didn't get past high school physics. (My goodness there's a lot that's gone on beyond that!)

[Cara]

I can't claim to understand everything in this book. I kind of lost interest once it started breaking things down into different quarks... But I really like the style of this book: tackling a tough subject to make it more approachable for the layman. I enjoyed reading some of the behind the scenes details about the scientists...like the fact that there is a mural in Zurich of Schroedinger's cat that looks alive or dead depending on the light and shadows at certain times of day. I also liked the step by step approach to how we have come to have the theories we have today. Very interesting!

[Alejandro Torresano]

Sé que es difícil hacer divulgación de la física cuántica, pero este libro no es de los mejores. Parece una serie de fichas, donde cada ficha incluye una breve descripción y unas ilustraciones, y el lector va saltando de una ficha a otra sin apenas hilo conductor.
Lo mejor, algunas ilustraciones y el índice; lo peor, la falta de un hilo conductor en muchas partes del libro.

[Diego Fernández]

Es interesante para aprender sobre la física cuántica, pero no tiene un hilo conceptual, simplemente son curiosidades sobre investigaciones, proyectos de futuro, científicos..

[Lucas Sanchez]

Buenas explicaciones

[Javier]

There’s a lot of information in this book even though most subjects are covered superficially. A very complete introduction to the subject.

[Elend]

4/5