FAREWELL TO REALITY: HOW FAIRY-TALE PHYSICS HAS BETRAYED THE SEARCH FOR SCIENTIFIC TRUTH
Book ID/图书代码： 13000511B48894
English Summary/英文概要： Stephen Hawking recently remarked, ’There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story’. But might the same be said of modern theoretical physics?
In Farewell to Reality, Jim Baggott argues that although we know a lot more about the nature of reality, there is a sense in which we understand less. So far there is no observational or experimental evidence for many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics such as super-symmetric particles, superstrings, the multiverse, the holographic principle or the anthropic cosmological principle. For some of the wilder speculations of theorists such as Hawking there can by definition never be any such evidence. This stuff is not only not true, it is not even science. It is fairy-tale physics: fantastical, bizarre and often outrageous – borderline confidence-trickery, even, claims Baggott.
This book provides a much-needed antidote. Informed, comprehensive and balanced, it offers lay readers an up-to-date summary of the latest thinking about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy. With its engaging portraits of many central figures of modern physics, including Paul Davies, John Barrow, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind and other ’high priests of fairy-tale physics’, this is a book that promises to be essential reading for all readers interested in what we do and don’t know about the Universe – whether they are inside or outside science.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 近日，斯蒂芬•霍金说：“天堂是不存在的，那只是个童话。”或许，现代理论物理学也是如此。 在《告别现实》一书中，吉姆•巴格特声称尽管我们对现实的本质了解颇多，但对一个领域我们知之甚少。到目前为止，现代物理学中的许多观点都缺少观察和实验证据支撑，这包括超对称粒子理论、超弦理论、多元宇宙理论、全息理论和人类宇宙学理论等。但对于像斯蒂芬•霍金这样的对更广阔领域推测的理论家来说，一些理论只可能用定义来解释而不可能有此类证据的支撑。巴格特说：“物理学仿佛童话，捕风捉影、奇异荒诞有时是荒谬可笑的---甚至让我们变得盲目自信。
本书是一个我们亟需的解毒剂，它内容全面详细，中规中矩，不仅为读者总结了最新关于物理学本质的思考成果，而且清楚地为我们分辨了什么是事实什么是虚幻。借用保罗•戴维斯、约翰•巴罗、布莱恩•格林、斯蒂芬•霍金、伦纳德•萨斯卡德等现代物理学泰斗的研究成果，毫无疑问，吉姆为这些对我们了解或知之甚少的宇宙颇感兴趣的，无论是科学界内还是之外的读者们提供了一道重要的阅读大餐。(兼职翻译-XMM)
Awards/获奖情况：Persuasive. (Independent on Sunday)
About the Author/作者介绍： 吉姆•巴格特于1957年出生在英国南安普顿市。1978年，吉姆毕业于曼切斯特大学化学系。在牛津大学获得物理化学博士学位后，他作为一名研究生研究员在牛津大学和加利福尼亚州的斯坦福大学进行研究工作。近二十年来，吉姆一直从事着科学、哲学及科学历史的研究和写作，在科技研究与创作方面，他均获得了多个大奖。他家喻户晓的作品包括：《量子故事》、《不可估量：现代物理学》、《初学者面对现实的指南》《哲学》及《量子理论的含义》等。 Jim Baggott was born in Southampton, England, in 1957. He graduated in chemistry from the University of Manchester in 1978. After completing his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Oxford, he worked as a postgraduate research fellow at Oxford and at Stanford University in California. He has been studying and writing about science, philosophy and science history for nearly 20 years, and has won awards for both scientific research and science writing. His widely acclaimed books include The Quantum Story, A Beginner’s Guide To Reality and Beyond Measure: Modern Physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory.
Format:电子手稿
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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