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In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality » (Reissue)

Book cover image of In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin

Authors: John Gribbin
ISBN-13: 9780553342536, ISBN-10: 0553342533
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: August 1984
Edition: Reissue

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Author Biography: John Gribbin

Book Synopsis

It is so shocking that Einstein could not bring himself to accept it. It is so important that it provides the fundamental underpinning of all modern sciences. Without it, we'd have no nuclear power or nuclear bombs, no lasers, no TV, no computers, no science of molecular biology, no understanding of DNA, no genetic engineering -- at all. Now John Gribbin tells the complete story of quantum mechanics, a truth far stranger than any fiction. He takes us step-by-step into an ever more bizarre and fascinating place -- requiring only that we approach it with an open mind. He introduces the scientists who developed quantum theory. He investigates the atom, radiation, time-travel, the birth of the universe, superconductors and life itself. And in a world full of its own delights, mysteries and surprises, he searches for Schrodinger's Cat -- a search for quantum reality -- as he brings every reader to a clear understanding of the most important area of scientific study today -- quantum physics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsvii
Introductionxv
Prologue: Nothing Is Real1
Part 1The Quantum
Chapter 1Light7
Waves or Particles?
Wave Theory Triumphant
Chapter 2Atoms19
Nineteenth-Century Atoms
Einstein's Atoms
Electrons
Ions
X Rays
Radioactivity
Inside the Atom
Chapter 3Light and Atoms33
The Blackbody Clue
An Unwelcome Revolution
What Is h?
Einstein, Light, and Quanta
Chapter 4Bohr's Atom51
Jumping Electrons
Hydrogen Explained
An Element of Chance: God's Dice
Atoms in Perspective
Chemistry Explained
Part 2Quantum Mechanics
Chapter 5Photons and Electrons81
Particles of Light
Particle/Wave Duality
Electron Waves
A Break With the Past
Pauli and Exclusion
Where Next?
Chapter 6Matrices and Waves101
Breakthrough in Heligoland
Quantum Math
Schrodinger's Theory
A Backward Step
Quantum Cookery
Chapter 7Cooking with Quanta123
Antimatter
Inside the Nucleus
Lasers and Masers
The Mighty Micro
Superconductors
Life Itself
Part 3... And Beyond
Chapter 8Chance and Uncertainty155
The Meaning of Uncertainty
The Copenhagen Interpretation
The Experiment With Two Holes
Collapsing Waves
Complementarity Rules
Chapter 9Paradoxes and Possibilities177
The Clock in the Box
The "EPR Paradox"
Time Travel
Einstein's Time
Something for Nothing
Schrodinger's Cat
The Participatory Universe
Chapter 10The Proof of the Pudding215
The Spin Paradox
The Polarization Puzzle
The Bell Test
The Proof
What Does It Mean?
Confirmation and Applications
Chapter 11Many Worlds235
Who Observes the Observers?
Schrodinger's Cats
Beyond Science Fiction
Beyond Einstein?
A Second Look
Beyond Everett
Our Special Place
Epilogue: Unfinished Business255
Twisted Space-Time
Broken Symmetry
Supergravity
Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?
Inflation and the Universe
Bibliography277
Index291

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