We Need to Talk About Kelvin

by Marcus Chown

Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a spot of blood on your finger tells you that somewhere out in space there is furnace at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. Your TV tells you that the universe had a beginning. In fact, your very existence tells you that this may not be the only universe but merely one among an infinity of others, stacked like the pages of a never-ending book. Marcus Chown, author of "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You", takes familiar features of the world we know and shows how they can be used to explain profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality. His new book will change the way you see the world: with Chown as your guide, cutting-edge science is made clear and meaningful by a falling leaf, or a rose, or a starry night sky.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Popular Science, Science Nature, Amazon

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. He is the author of the bestselling Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never Ending Days of Being Dead and The Magic Furnace. He also wrote The Solar System, the bestselling app for iPad, which won the Future Book Award 2011. Marcus Chown has also written a work for children, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil.

Reviews

[Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We Need To Talk About Kelvin” has a unique storytelling approach to covering some of the deepest concepts of the universe. It starts with an everyday observation - taking it to its logical conclusion with step by step reasoning.

A very good example is the view from the window out into the street during the night. You can see into the lighted shop opposite the window; and you can also see your own reflection partially in the window. This leads to the discussion of the quantum theory of light. The unpredictability associated with the probability of reflection. There are then deeper discussions on quantum theory, atoms and the universe.

There is a very interesting discussion on why the night sky is black (Oblers paradox). In a universe with millions of stars, why do we not see a more lighted sky? Marcus Chown mentions that as many as over 90% of astronomers get the reasoning wrong for this. This relates to the observable universe, speed of light, the finite age of the universe and its expansion. The reasoning leading up to the conclusion is very good. There is an easy, fast paced and fun style of narration which keeps you hooked till you read all of it.

Another starting point for a discussion is the amount of iron we find on Earth, ultimately leading to the conclusion of where and how it was condensed on Earth from. The discussion on how the sun is as hot as it is, is also fascinating. There were various theories and considerable work done on this before an acceptable reasoning was arrived. The section dealing with spin of sub-atomic particles like photons is an engrossing read as well.

In fairly simple language the book certainly simulates interest, prompting you to read more about the universe! Well worth a read and recommended. Marcus Chown’s enthusiasm about discussing the universe will carry you through the book very quickly.

Interestingly the other book of Marcus Chown which I read The Universe Next Door is unique in detailing very different non-mainstream theories (some make the head swim) about the universe (all put forward by scientists!).

[Courtney Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

It turns out that you can have too many analogies in a pop science book.

Chown sets out to explain the sheer lunacy - the total irrationality - of the quantum world by making comparisons to everyday lives and things. A mass of billions and billions and billions of bananas or microwave ovens would emit as much heat as the sun - because it's the mass, not the substance, that's of crucial importance. Light is both a photon and a wave: "Imagine you are standing by a fire hydrant in New York's Times Square and simultaneously spread out like a fog throughout Manhattan. Ridiculous? Yes. Nevertheless that is the way light is."

By the end of the third chapter (which was when I gave up on the book) I was crying out for some plain explanation and some diagrams (really - if you're describing how data looks when it's graphed, just put the fucking graph on the page. This was getting close to interpretative dance about physics).

I think overall the problem I had was that Chown was trying to convince me that the lunacy has its own internal logic - of sorts - and therefore I would be safe in believing what he was telling me. The thing is that I already believe. Like Sam Black Crow in Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods', I have no trouble believing ...

"I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck."

[Rose]

Before I read this book, I was confused about this subject. Having read it, I am still confused. But on a higher level.

(Apologies to Fermi)

[Merrilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading "Kelvin" halfway through January, and it feels like it's taken me almost that long to compose this review. The problem is that I want to rave, and I'm having to restrain my enthusiasm so I can compose some intelligent arguments as to why you should read this book.

So let me get the raving out of the way first. I really enjoyed this book. I expected to be educated and enlightened, but I never expected to be entertained as well. I laughed more than once, and enjoyed sharing quotes and tidbits with my geeky husband, who is now nose-deep in the book himself.

Author Marcus Chown is the cosmology consultant to New Scientist, and this is the latest in a string of books about the universe. In "Kelvin", Chown promises to show us what everyday things tell us about the universe, and that promise is fulfilled. Each chapter looks at a single feature of the world that we know, and uses that to explain the bizarro world of quantum physics in simple, straightforward language.

And it's brilliant. Chown leads the reader gradually from simple daily observations to the insane theories of how the universe works, so that by the time you finish a section you're ready for the next mind-boggling revelation.

It's a book worth putting down and thinking about at regular intervals, because there is a lot to absorb. But while the book is intense reading, it escapes being dull and heavy. Chown has a talent for exposing not just the science, but the people behind it. I never knew physicists were such interesting creatures. The anecdotes and histories scattered throughout the text are fascinating and give a welcome human touch.

This is a book best served in a big comfy chair with a glass of something fortifying. It's a book for anyone who looks at the world and asks "why?" And if you're a speculative fiction writer, this book is 200 pages of ideas. The star crucibles, for example, just blew me away completely. Wonderful stuff. Science has never been so entertaining.

[Ariki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a little out of my element with quantum physics, and found the examples hard to follow at times...Nevertheless I did experience a few eureka moments along the way and i certainly have an increasing appreciation of how incredible our existence truly is.

I found some of the descriptions of quantum behavior a bit hard to comprehend and yet after a couple of you tube searches on topics such as "wave particle duality", the clever cgi animations had me grasping the ungraspable. On reflection, I can't help but think that a few diagrams in Chowns book would have been helpful.

[Arpenik Kroyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous! Funny, witty, coherent and for the most part - accurate. Also comes with a good body of further reading for those who remain curious. Beautifully circles around the main problems in modern physics, while showing how abundant and weird our reality is. Absolutely recommend ❤️

[Katria]

Only half finished reading, will maybe come back to it later.

[Mike Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of data, but...

This book is a real curate's egg. There are loads of interesting facts, theories and views, which relate real-world effects to scientific concepts and in general, these are presented in an easy-to-understand way. But, they're presented again and again... and again... and see Chapter Three... and again. This is very irritating; tell me once and maybe again in a summary, but that's all that I need.
However, the really 'annoying' thing about 'this' book is the incredibly 'frequent' use of 'inverted commas'. Every time that a new 'term' is used, e.g. heat, it's put in inverted commas. This gets really wearing after a while, where a 'while' is about five pages.
In summary, this is a book that needs some decent editing. Ironically - spoiler alert - the Kindle version stops at 80%, followed by footnotes. To be honest, I was overjoyed to know that I'd see no more inverted-comma-laden sentences.
4* for content, -1* for the 'inverted commas'.

[Christopher Byram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered this book from a video on YouTube, uploaded by the channel Tibees, entitled "Books for Learning Physics". In the video, the narrator, Toby Hendy, a mathematics and physics graduate, is present with a guest, David Gozzard, who also has a background in physics. Toby and David both state that they are fans of Marcus Chown, and Toby started reading his books when she was in high school, finding them very interesting and reckoning that someone did not necessarily need a background in physics to understand them. A friend recommended this book in particular to her.

Toby claims that the book has very good descriptions of stellar nucleosynthesis, how stars work and how astronomy works, described in a way that she finds very interesting. David states that he has read several of Marcus Chown's books and found them to be very good; there is a reason why he is one of the most popular science writers. Toby actually met Marcus when he came to New Zealand.

[Faras_bookclub · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5
Half this book was great and I absolutely loved the topics and explanations and how it came together. Especially loved the chapters on astrophysics.
For the other part of this book I’ll quote a quote of the last page of the book: “Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused. But on a higher level.”
Some analogies just made me more confused and then I felt like I would get more out of just the quantum physics instead of the story they intertwined it with.

[Anna Zapasnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vahva suositus tälle kirjalle, jos et tiedä kvanttifysiikasta mitään tai omaa matemaattista taustaa, mutta maailmankaikkeus kiinnostaa. Kirja on aiheidensa kiinnostavuuden vuoksi nautinnollinen lukukokemus. Pidin Chownin retoriikasta, sitaateista ja kyvystä selittää asiat perin pohjin. Spekulaatiota ja useita eri näkökulmia oli paljon, mikä tuntui avartavalta. Kirja tarjosi useita ahaa-elämyksiä ja mielenkiintoisia oivalluksia, sekä avasi minulle uusia aihealueita, joista haluan lukea lisää.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked it up thinking it was We Need To Talk About Kevin, but was happily surprised it wasn't. It's meant to break down sciencey things into things the average person can relate to. I think it does this 3 times. The same point is repeated over and over in different ways, which ends up making me zone out. The third section about space was the most interesting, and I did enjoy the final chapter about aliens (or lack thereof), but I skimmed through a lot of the more boring parts.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. It opened my eyes to many things that surround us and then used those to explain space,stars and so much more. Very educational and fun. Can't wait to dive into more books like this one

[Kath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chown attempts to make sense of the quantum world for laymen and proove his points by making analogies to everyday life things we CAN see. Nothing really made me sit up and say WOW when reading it. Can probably give it a miss if you have already read similar books on the quantum universe.

[Michal Sabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written.

[Levent Soysal]

things you want to know about the origins (get ready to be amazed)

[Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool wee book about physics, talking big and small.

[Tim Coyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a good book on physics. What i found most interesting was how it tied atomic and sun-atomic physics to chemistry and biology which is something i have previously not given much thought to. I feel that Chown attempted to present the book with a certain spin on it: being his sub-title of "What everyday things tell us about the universe". he certainly managed to tell us about the universe and covered most of the major theories and hypotheses but i felt he didn't explain the relationship with the "everyday things" very well, despite this being the starting point of each chapter.

[Arnost Stedry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pokud bych měl shrnout obsah Chownovy knihy do jednoho citátu, byl by to tento:

"Odraz vaší tváře v okně sděluje šokující objev v historii vědy: a sice, že svět na jeho nejhlubší úrovni řídí náhody; že věci se nakonec dějí zcela bez důvodu. "

Jak vidno, autor se snaží najít zcela běžné jevy a vystopovat jejich původce až k počátkům vesmíru. A to míním doslova. Přitom se mu daří být zábavný a poučný v duchu nejlepších tradic popularizačních knih Richarda Feynmana. Jeho výklady jsou často překvapivé, byť divočejší teorie jako superstruny, nebo multiversa pouze uctivě zmiňuje. I tak máte často pocit, že vám praskne hlava.

Kniha má i druhou tvář. Zároveň s fakty o podstatě všehomíra se vám dostane slušné porce historie vědy a i staré historky dokáže Chown došperkovat. Například o Paulim je známo, že v jeho přítomnosti, často i velmi vzdálené, končily experimenty fiaskem. Chown zde dodává:

"Bizarní na tom bylo, že sám Pauli byl přesvědčen, že Pauliho efekt skutečně existuje. Jako celoživotní přítel švýcarského psychiatra Carla Junga věřil, že se jedná o jakýsi druh psychokinetického jevu, který upřednostňuje mysl před hmotou, a ačkoli nebyl dosud vysvětlen, jednoho dne se dostane do hledáčku vědy."

O Fermim se zase dočteto toto:

"Fermi proslul svou schopností jednoduchým a rychlým způsobem odhadnout fyzikální veličiny. Při explozi první jaderné bomby v Alamogordu v poušti v Novém Mexiku 15. července 1945 například upustil kus papíru z výšky ramen a sledoval, jak se vlivem nárazové vlny z bomby odklonil. Tím, že věděl, že epicentrum je devět mil daleko, odhadl energii výbuchu – jednalo se o ekvivalent více než 10 000 tun TNT."

V některých případech kniha funguje i jako obecný opravník všeobecných popularizačních omylů. Vzpomínám si, jak mne vždy flustrovala má nechuť přijmout běžné výklady Keplerova paradoxu, tj. tvrzení, že pokud by byl vesmír nekonečný, byla by obloha zcela vyplněna světlem hvězd. Dokázal jsem si nejen představit nekonečné hvězdné struktury, které takovou vlastnost nemají, ale dokonce jsem byl přesvědčen, že takových uskupení hvězd je mnohem více než těch, které produkují zcela jasnou noční oblohu. Vždy jsem se však spokojil s tím, že asi něco podstatného přehlížím. Až zde jsem nalezl jednoduchou argumentaci ve prospěch mých domněnek:

"Ukazuje se, že Keplerův – nebo Olbersův – paradox ve skutečnosti ani žádným paradoxem nebyl. Noční obloha by nikdy nemohla být tak jasná jako povrch průměrné hvězdy, protože to by vyžadovalo, aby hvězdy vyplnily prostor svým svitem, a ony zkrátka nemají tolik energie, aby požadovanou vůbec záři vytvořily. Paradox noční oblohy nám říká, že je vesmír buď mladší než čas nutný k jeho vyplnění světlem, nebo že hvězdy nemají dostatečnou energii, aby rozzářily oblohu. Ukazuje se, že správná je druhá možnost. Noční obloha je tmavá, protože ve vesmíru není dostatek energie. Jak prosté. Hvězdy jsou zkrátka příliš slabé."

Kniha samotná obsahuje mnoho odkazů na volně dostupné články, takže pokud vás probírané téma zaujme, nic nebrání v prodloužené extázi.

Ach ano, negativa. Překlad není uplně špatný, ale kniha by zasloužila větší redakční péči. I tak nepozorně nekritický čtenář jako já si ledasčeho všimnul. A to je ta hvězdička dolu.

[Kerem Cankocak · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Atomların dansı', M. Chown' un en kapsamlı kitaplarından biridir. Sonsuz küçükten sonsuz büyüğe, evrendeki hemen her olguyu mercek altına yatıran bu kitap, her bölümde gündelik bir gözlemden yola çıkarak, bu gözlemin nihai gerçekliğiyle ilgili daha derin bir konuya dikkat çekiyor.

''Bu kitabın amacı basittir: Dünyanın aşina olduğumuz özelliklerini ele alarak, onların nasıl olup da bize gerçekliğin temel doğası ile ilgili derin gerçekleri anlattıklarını bilim alanındaki mevcut bilgilerimizin ışığında göstermek; olağan dünyanın kozmik işaretlerini okumaktır. Ya da William Blake’in ifadesiyle ‘bir Kum Taneciğinde – düşen bir yaprakta , bir gülde veya yıldızlı bir gökyüzünde- Dünya’yı görmektir. '' M. Chown

New Scientist' in kozmoloji danışmanı olan Marcus Chown, kariyerine California Institute of Technology' de radyo astronom olarak başlar. Popüler bilim dalında bir çok ödüle sahip olan İngiliz yazar, ülkemizde Alfa yayınlarından çıkan ''Biraz Kuantumdan Zarar Gelmez'' kitabıyla tanınmaktadır. “The Universe Next Door”, ”Afterglow of Creation”, “The Magic Furnace” isimli bir çok kitabın yazarı olan Chown evren, kozmoloji ve kuantum gibi zor konuları geniş kitlere aktarmak gibi zor bir işi başarmıştır.

[Noushin Afrashteh · Rating 3 out of 5]

If atoms, stars and astrophysics isn't your cup of tea then this book will not make you change your mind. I picked it because i had heard great reviews about it and was hoping it can make me understand the excitement world of stars and atoms. Didn't work; in fact, if anything, now I now why i'm interested in the subject; it all so subjective.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing Sunday afternoon read, well-written, entertaining and all around interesting book that takes the discoveries of physics and astronomy throughout history and brings them closer to the layman understanding by taking everyday stuff from our lives and forming the explanations from them. Definitely a good read, I'd recommend it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read although I had to make a second pass at some of the chapters. The style of writing is engaging but the book could really do with some illustrations as I found myself completely bewildered at certain points and had to read and re-read paragraphs over and over before I could make sense of what was being described.

[Roddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read something by Chown for some time after hearing a recommendation from "Dr Karl" on the "Naked Scientist" podcasts. As they say...I wasn't disappointed! Explanations of current cosmology and quantum science pitched at just the right level for high school/undergraduate folks with an interest in science.

[E L K Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well. I don't really have much to say, clearly this book was not ment for me. It happens to you with movies too but then you say "yeah it's not really my genre" but this was topic of my interest, therefore no comfort of three stars.

Even though it may be popular-sciency way of describing interesting of the universe the way it was described did not even slightly cought me in.

[Jemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good pop science book, well worth reading. However not quite as engaging as many such books and a bit heavy in places. This does have the benefit though of rephrasing some familiar subjects in clearer ways and raising new and interesting aspects that you may not have read about elsewhere. There's a pretty good glossary too, one that's actually worth reading.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, Marcus Chown is very good at delivering popular science. In this tome, he takes the simplest of starting points and explains how they hint at the deepest mysteries of the universe. Some of the quantum mechanics gets a bit deep but it still makes for a good read.

[Richard Mullahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read, although for some of the quantum theory all I can say is that if this is accessible what the hell are the regular books like. My admiration for the theoretical physicists, mathematicians and other that populate this book has only increased from its reading.

[Helen Callaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Advanced scientific and quantum concepts explained beautifully. Really enjoyed it and found it very helpful.

[Steve]

Review of this book in the 20 October 2010 issue of The Independent, London, in an article entitled "Endangered: The Science Book Prize."