Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
July 1, 2010 by Actaphysica
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Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
Following on from his bestseller, SCHRODINGER’S CAT, John Gribbin presents the recent dramatic improvements in experimental techniques that have enabled physicists to formulate and test new theories about the nature of light. He describes these theories not in terms of hard-to-imagine entities like spinning subnuclear particles, but in terms of the fate of two small cats, separated at a tender age and carried to opposite ends of the universe. In this way Gribbin introduces the reader to such n
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Review by Newt Gingrich for Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
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This is the follow on to In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat, which was a laymen’s introduction to the complexities of Quantum behavior. I strongly recommend you read that book first to get a general introduction to the amazingly different world of behavior below the level of about one hundred nanometers or 200 atoms. At that level the rules change profoundly. So much so that we do not seem to even understand quantum behavior but we do understand the effects of quantum behavior. That is, as Feynman described it in QED we can measure and predict with astonishing precision (accurate to the thickness of a hair measuring between two points one in New York and one in Los Angeles) what happens but we cannot explain why.Gribbin seeks to create a deeper understanding of the principles of quantum behavior and the why of it. Gribbin explains elegantly why all this matters: “the interactions of electrons with one another and with electromagnetic radiation determine almost everything about the world around us . . . All of chemistry is explained by quantum physics . . . biological life depends upon the behavior of complex molecules such as proteins and DNA, which is also chemistry and also depends ultimately on the quantum properties of electrons”.If you want to have a better understanding of the most powerful area of basic knowledge for the early 21st century you should read these three books and Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe. If after you get through it and it doesn’t make sense then you are on the right track. You will, however, be closer to understanding quantum dynamics which will be as important for the first half of the 21st century as physics was in the 20th or electromagnetic theory and the internal combustion engine were for the second half of the 19th.Gribbin does his best to make this subject both interesting and understandable and I recommend his two books to anyone willing to take the time to stop frequently to think about the amazing ideas they have encountered.
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Review by Atheen M. Wilson for Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
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Although I’m not really a math/physics type person, I enjoy the popular books on the subject and have read a number. John Gribbin’s book Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality was a little harder for me to get into, but there was a fair amount of new-at least to me-material. Part of the problem was that the author tended to repeat himself. Although if I plowed onward I usually discovered his purpose in doing so. Part of the problem is that he covers a lot. The book has a fairly extensive history of the who’s who of physics, starting with the early Greek philosophers for whom experiment was largely impossible (even the thermometer is a fairly new invention) to the likes of Galileo and Newton (for both of whom experiment was an imperative). The section on Modern Times is interesting in that it shows where thinking has gone wrong as well as right, and shows the interconnectedness of research in physics, one break through or thought experiment leading to further advances. I certainly found the degree to which Einstein was beholding to previous theorists surprising; he has become such an icon, that he seems to stand alone, head and shoulders above the rest. Just the idea that scientific understanding had reached a level at the turn of the century that the discovery of relativity was “ready” to be made was a surprise to me. It makes even more obvious that advances have their “time” and that much in science and technology moves forward in lock step. In Desperate Remedies the author discusses in greater depth the various interpretations of quantum theory including, for instance, the well known Copenhagen Interpretation, David Bohm’s pilot wave theory, and the many worlds theories, putting them into perspective and describing how each is different from the others and how each stands up to experiment. He has his own biases, but he is fairly up front with it, explaining his reasons for them. To those with a greater background in physics and/or math, this may seem arrogant, but to those of us who haven’t a clue, it’s helpful. One of the benefits of the last chapters was that Dr. Gribbin points out clearly that all of the theories about “reality” are just paradigms that allow their authors to draw conclusions, design experiments and test results. He also points out that these same paradigms can confine thinking, confusing the metaphor with the described phenomenon, or channel thinking so much that experiments are designed to find certain things while neglecting other things. I thought his own idea of combining all of these theories and sifting out the relevant portions of each to make a master theory an interesting one. The bibliography is fairly extensive and annotated, which allows the interested to follow up on some of the areas of interest, whether particular theories or biographies. Most of these are quite current, from the 80′s and 90′s, the oldest being 1873 and 1934 (Tyndall, On light; and Dunne, An Experiment with Time.) I’m not sure I’d advise the first time dabbler to start with this book. I think it might be too confusing to start with, but it would definitely be a good one for those with at least some background in the genre. I agree with another reviewer; read 10, then go on to this one. The Universe Next Door: The Making of Tomorrow’s Science by Marcus Chown, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe by Martin J. Rees, Matter Myth by John Gribbin, and P. C. W. Davies, and About Time by P. C. W. Davies might interest the beginner.
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Review by Samuel Sperling for Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
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This books attempts three things: (1) a non-technical introduction to quantum mechanics, by historical background, analogy, and descriptions of predicted phenomena; (2) descriptions of a number of relatively recent experiments elucidating the “mysteries” of quantum mechanics; and (3) a critical summary of various interpretations. As a popular introduction I would not recommend this book over superior accounts such as Nick Herbert’s “Quantum Reality.” Despite the fact that Herbert’s book is substantially older, the basic theory is still the same. Descriptions of experiments are very poorly written, and many lack diagrams that would make them faster to read and easier to understand. The interpretative section is extremely poorly written and self-indulgent. It does give extensive space to “many-worlds” interpretations, but these have largely fallen out of favor among physicists. In any event, Gribbin is a shallow writer, and fails to convey many of the philosophical nuances — or, for that matter, to connect the interpretations to the experiments in a clear and easily comprehensible way. His final twist (relative to other popular works) is the introduction of an interpretation incorporating the quantum “backwards” wave. This is an extremely interesting addition to the interpretive literature. Gribben butchers his description, but if you’ve have a solid course in QM already under your belt, you’ll get it.All in all this book, this book, which probably had considerable promise in its initial proposal to the publisher, fails in execution. I notice, however, that competition in this market has thinned in recent years, so it may still be a viable alternative for readers looking for a popular text that is relatively up-to-date.
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It’s a great book for getting a rough handle on some of the popular quantum interpretations, but Gribbin fails to explain some critical theories. In some parts he leaves the reader a bit confused, while going to deeply in some of the historical/ mechanical stuff, boring the readers in other parts. “In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat” was much better. I’d recommend other authors (like Feynman) for explanations of quantum theories.
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Review by C,Richardson-Child for Schrodinger’s Kittens: and the Search for Reality
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Ok, its not Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe. Its not Feynman either. But John Gribbin is a polymath who has a unique insight into many things scientific. This book is no different and an easy to follow account of quantum physics follows within. You need to read more than one book to get a full understanding of what is know as Quantum Electrodynamics. Try 10 – and you’d be getting near. This would be one of my 10. I like his coloring in of the characters involved at the time, Boltzmann, Faraday, Maxwell, Davy, Michelsom. Morley, Lorentz. He also takes Einstein a little off the pedestal on which he unfortunately rests. Einstein was lazy, used other peoples work and should not be the byword for science – that belongs to Maxwell, Feynmann, Heisenberg or Young. If you are thinking of buying this book – and you genuinely want all the pieces of the quantum puzzle – buy this – it fills in yet another part of this complex issue
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