Ross Barrett - Quantum Mechanics, Relativity and Cosmology for Everyone: Dont Be Afraid of Physics

Cover illustration: Cover Picture is a Hubble Telescope photograph of the Fairy of Eagle Nebula, courtesy of NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071209.html , https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0506b/ , Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3211862

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Getting to the top of a high mountain without any effort, e.g. with a cable car or a helicopter, may perhaps seem to make no sense, since all the feelings of adventure and achievement are lost. Likewise, wanting to learn physics without bearing the effort of fathoming the intricacies of its equations and having to face the quagmire of its daunting theories could also be considered questionable or even futile. Yet, trying to allow non-scientists to understand the foundations and beauty of physical theories has been a goal of many pioneers of the field, and I have myself greatly benefited from their endeavours.

I remember with a vivid emotion my first reading of The Evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, which had precisely the purpose of introducing the non-initiated to the wonderful world of science in general and physics in particular. Their book led me to a gratifying level of satisfaction for the qualitative understanding of the basic concepts which I had reached, accompanied later on by an inevitable dissatisfaction, due to the lack of a more quantitative understanding, which I (partially) achieved only after a university degree in physics (following a first one in engineering). In other words, if I became a scientist, it is partly thanks to such a book.

The present book is framed in this context, taking advantage of a modern approach and of the extraordinary advances, achieved in the field of physics and related applications in the last century or so. Should anybody have any doubt about the flourishing progress (or rather explosion) of the field, it is enough to recall the Quantum Technologies Flagship (a major initiative by the European Commission to support quantum technology research) and, of course, similar initiatives worldwide. We are already fully immersed in a second quantum revolution, with untold scientific and technological consequences for everyone.

The book of Barrett and Delsanto is ideally suited in this context, since it covers all major fields of current research in physics, with a language which is simplified as much as possible, but not oversimplified (to quote one more time Einstein), and devoid of any mathematical formula. Well, to be honest, there is one formula, and I will let everyone try to figure out for themselves, which one. In short, the book should represent an entertaining reading for curious minds, since it also offers nice short stories, to illustrate the contents of each chapter, plus a myriad of anecdotes and asides.

The main purpose of the book should be, in my opinion, as a textbook for courses of science for college students majoring in a non-scientific field, since it teaches a great amount of modern physics without being a burden for them. But it also can be very useful for students majoring in a scientific field, since very seldom are they offered courses covering all the topics discussed in the book. Equally important, the first part of the book analyses concepts, which are prerequisite to a solid formation in science, such as the meaning of understanding, reality and accuracy, both from a philosophical and a scientific point of view.

It is a sad fact of life that in an epoch in which most people enjoy the benefits of modern technologies, and new relevant discoveries are made on a daily basis in all disciplines from physics to chemistry to biology to medicine, in spite of all of that, superstition, prejudices against science and profound ignorance coexist and often prevail. Part I of the book should help to let people around us gain an understanding of why we need good science.

Finally, from a personal point of view, what I probably like most is Part III, which provides an anticipation of the future directions of the field and possible solutions of the current open problems. Here, everything seems to be non-dogmatic, well-motivated and very reasonable. Yet, at the end of a long discussion, we are left permeated by an almost unshakeable certainty that the future will reserve to us a quite different scenario, with wonderful unpredictable surprises. Science is all but boring!

To conclude, the book encompasses essentially all relevant modern physics and is described in a language comprehensible to the non-scientist. The authors, physicist Ross Barrett, former Research Leader at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Adelaide, Australia, and Pier Paolo Delsanto, Senior Professor from the Politecnico of Turin, Italy, present difficult concepts, which would normally be accompanied by many pages of mathematics, in lucid logic with clear straightforward figures. Their book is for every curious person interested in better understanding the secrets of Nature.

And you, man, who considers in this work of mine the admirable works of Nature, if you judge it to be vile to destroy it, now think it the vilest thing to take away life from man; if this creation seems to you a wonderful artifice, think it as being nothing compared to the soul that lives in such architecture