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The Infinity Puzzle
- Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
The second half of the 20th century witnessed a scientific gold rush as physicists raced to chart the inner workings of the atom. The stakes were high, the questions were big, and there were Nobel Prizes and everlasting glory to be won. Many mysteries of the atom came unraveled, but one remained intractable: what Frank Close calls the "Infinity Puzzle".
The problem was simple to describe. Although clearly very powerful, quantum field theory - the great achievement of the 1930s - was making one utterly ridiculous prediction: that certain events had an infinite probability of occurring. The solution is known as renormalization, which enables theory to match what we see in the real world. It has been a powerful approach, conquering three of the four fundamental forces of nature, and giving rise to the concept of the Higgs boson, the now much-sought particle that may be what gives structure to the universe.
The Infinity Puzzle charts the birth and life of the idea, and the scientists, both household names and unsung heroes, who realized it. Based on numerous firsthand interviews and extensive research, the book captures an era of great mystery and greater discovery. Even if the Higgs boson is never found, renormalization - the pursuit of an orderly universe - has led to one of the richest and most productive intellectual periods in human history. With a physicist's expertise and a historian's care, Close describes the personalities and the competition, the dead ends and the sudden insights, in a story that will reverberate through the ages.
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- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
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What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
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Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Michael on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
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Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
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Wow!
- By Michael on 02-02-14
By: Max Tegmark
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Einstein's Cosmos
- How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time: Great Discoveries
- By: Michio Kaku
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
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A dazzling tour of the universe as Einstein saw it. How did Albert Einstein come up with the theories that changed the way we look at the world? By thinking in pictures. Michio Kaku, leading theoretical physicist (a cofounder of string theory) and best-selling science storyteller, shows how Einstein used seemingly simple images to lead a revolution in science. With originality and expertise, Kaku uncovers the surprising beauty that lies at the heart of Einstein's cosmos
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Mix of science and the man
- By B. Ruple on 11-03-13
By: Michio Kaku
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Quantum Enigma
- Physics Encounters Consciousness
- By: Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
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In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics, the most successful theory in science and the basis of one-third of our economy. They found, to their embarrassment, that with their theory, physics encounters consciousness. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all this in nontechnical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, emphasizing what is and what is not speculation.
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Wow. Very Informative and mind boggling.
- By Kevin Harper, Realtor on 08-11-17
By: Bruce Rosenblum, and others
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Warped Passages
- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
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Warped Passages is an altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early 20th-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature.
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Physics textbook without the math
- By Victor on 05-13-18
By: Lisa Randall
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Significant Figures
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In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart introduces the visionaries of mathematics throughout history. Delving into the lives of twenty-five great mathematicians, Stewart examines the roles they played in creating, inventing, and discovering the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics.
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Beware
- By Anton Kurtz on 12-08-18
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Euclid's Window
- The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace
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- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
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Through Euclid's Window Leonard Mlodinow brilliantly and delightfully leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. Here is an altogether new, refreshing, alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space -- in the living room or in some other galaxy -- have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology.
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Wow!
- By Eric on 08-13-10
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The Cosmic Cocktail
- Three Parts Dark Matter
- By: Katherine Freese
- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
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The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe - from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars - constitute only 5 percent of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The rest is known as dark matter and dark energy, because their precise identities are unknown. The Cosmic Cocktail is the inside story of the epic quest to solve one of the most compelling enigmas of modern science - what is the universe made of? - told by one of today’s foremost pioneers in the study of dark matter.
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I was looking for a book about science....
- By Jeff on 03-27-15
By: Katherine Freese
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Paradox
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
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How the Hippies Saved Physics
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- By: David Kaiser
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
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In the 1970s, amid severe cutbacks in physics funding, a small group of underemployed physicists in Berkeley decided to throw off the constraints of academia and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued a freewheeling, speculative approach to physics. Some dabbled with LSD while conducting experiments. They studied quantum theory alongside Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading, discussing the latest developments while lounging in hot tubs.
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Finally, I understand entanglement
- By Gary on 05-27-12
By: David Kaiser
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What listeners say about The Infinity Puzzle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michael
- 07-06-12
The other side of Science
The Infinity Puzzle is about science, but much more about the politics, personalities, and history of science, and only a little about the theory and technology of science. This is largely an analysis of history associated with the theories of renormalization and the Higgs boson. This book seems intended for an audience consisting mainly of those who will decide who should get the next few Nobel prizes. This was not uninteresting, but was not at all what I expected. It is illuminating to see the minutia of who said what to whom and when. No matter how many people are involved with the development of a theory, only three may be included for a single Nobel prize. Scientist, as a theory develops, sometimes years before any Nobel will be awarded, begin to subtlety position themselves for consideration for those three spots. There was not very much about the details of renormalization or the Higgs field. This was interesting but not my favorite cup of tea.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Diane Walter
- 06-02-17
Terrific overview of QED, QCD, and QFD
Oxford physicist Frank Close carefully traces the advance of our understanding of matter and the forces they feel, from the ideas of Newton to the development of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He describes in clear language the problems arising in the accepted physical models and how they were solved. He deftly explains complex ideas using easy to understand analogies. I've listened to several books that delve into these topics, and I think Close has done the best job of clarifying, at least for me, the bewildering concepts behind symmetry breaking, and gauge invariance. I thought this book was fascinating and I recommend it very highly to young physicists or oldsters like me who are interested in finding out more about the cosmos.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-09-12
read this only if you know the history
If you could sum up The Infinity Puzzle in three words, what would they be?
I would recommend this first and formost to journalists. It delves in to the politics of the nobel almost as much as the science. It may be hard to follow without prior reading. "The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn" really is the best source on audible. It is long but complete.
Overall I really liked this book as it filled in parts of the story from another person's perspective, sometimes firsthand.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Infinity Puzzle?
"Feynman cut in: “When I invented all this 25 years ago ." awesome.
Which character – as performed by Jonathan Cowley – was your favorite?
huh?
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
who writes these questions?
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle me this:
- 05-30-14
Excellent
Any additional comments?
Listened to it on audio -very good - starting to understand the whole attempt to join the very large with the very small, including quantum gravity, and the "perturbatively non-renormalizable" (or asymtoptically unsafe) infinities involved.
I am re-reading it on Kindle, bits at a time, to try to understand and retain it better.
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- MrNickA
- 04-20-17
A bit slow for my tastes
After finishing "The Big Picture" by Sean Carroll, I was left wanting a better understanding of QFT so I went looking for a good book on the subject. Weinberg's 3 volume set is apparently the de facto standard, but I wasn't able to find an audio version. This was one of the few titles on QFT here on audible and was well reviewed by other listeners. It's on me that I was surprised to find that this is not a book of explanation through analogy and investigation of mathematics or experiment, but rather a scientific history. I found it boring overall, and a bit of a slog to get through due to the pace and content. It was more interesting to me from chapter 20 on, but overall, I feel I could have completely skipped this title.
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- Fred271
- 02-05-23
An informed view of an important period in physics
Frank Close, as a particle physicist who was starting his career when the Standard Model was beginning to come together, is an ideal choice to write about how things happened at the time. He's done the legwork and reports in an honest and objective way, doing his best to bring non-physicists along with him. It's solid work, written before the Higgs was discovered, though whether it's for you depends partly on how interested you are in the field of physics as a profession, and issues such as priority and who deserved a Nobel Prize.
One caveat. While Close's discussions of the scientific material are excellent, it isn't possible to really explain these ideas without getting more technical, and, in particular, using equations. If you didn't already know something about renormalization and effective field theories, or about gauge theory, the book isn't in a position to give you more than a general idea. Nor is it really the point of the book.
Jonathan Crowley was probably not the right choice to narrate this, since it doesn't suit his style, and he's unfamiliar with some of the vocabulary and tries to wing it. He mispronounces "boson," which comes up a lot, and "meson," and spells out SLAC every time he says it, rather than saying it as "slack," as is standard. He's plainly guessing about the pronunciation of Gerard 't Hooft's name, though there are online references that would clear it up. Rather embarrassingly, he refers to "Tiny" Veltman. (Veltman's first name is Martinus, and Tini is a nickname,) It's always odd anyway to hear an actor standing in for a scientist in a first-person account, and Crowley's somewhat leaden performance isn't remotely plausible at that level.
On the other hand, the narration does have the virtue that it presents the material plainly and directly, without trying to punch up the material as many readers of nonfiction do. The mispronunciations are a little annoying, but there's never any confusion about what Crowley's referring to. And he does get points for getting the name "Göteborg" about right. (For some reason Close uses the native Swedish name for the city most of the way through, though he calls it by its English name, Gothenburg, at one point. It's like using the name Roma in some places and Rome in others.)
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- Ken
- 11-20-12
Get the WhisperSync version
I listen to books while doing other things that are generally boring or repetitive (think lawn mowing or leaf raking), but no task is completely mindless, so I found this one tough going in those few sections where graphs that I could not see were being described. There were many times when I would have preferred to actually read this book, or re-read certain sections, and I wish I had known about the WhisperSync system that allows one to switch modes in the Kindle version. I would definitely have bought it in that format. Otherwise my only real complaint is that the book was a bit lighter on the science than I expected. Like many of my favorite science books, this one reviews a lot of the history of the process of discovery, but I wish Close had tilted a bit more in the direction of the actual research and theory, perhaps by writing a longer book so as not to give up the interesting contextual material.
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- Peaceful Cyborg
- 10-11-17
Well-crafted quantum journey
Mental adventure that provides atomic context and cognitive sustenance. Read nicely. Writing ambiance is pleasant, complex, neighborly.
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- Gary
- 06-26-12
Succinct exposition
There's almost not a wasted word in this book. If you blink while listening, you might lose track of the physics. The author is very good at writing a history of quantum science from QED to looking for the Higgs boson.
He uses the narrative of the scientific players to describe the physics. There is nothing of the physics or the math for which he does not explain before he talks about it. The problem is the author explains the physics at the moment of introduction than assumes that you will understand it and won't explain it to you again.
A large audience of people won't like this book. If you don't follow the physics as he introduces it, the narrative of the history will not be enough to entertain you. He only introduces the physics once and assumes you get it. He covers so much of modern physics he really doesn't have time to repeat his clear explanations more than once.
What I liked about this book he really filled in the details for what has happened since quantum mechanics was fully developed and the Large Hadron Collider has gone online. I had read many books on each and had mostly just walked away with that particles were very small. Now I have a very good feel for what's going on and why the Higgs boson is so important.
His last chapter was a marvelous summary of the book. I only wish he had summarized more of the physics after he explained difficult concepts more frequently.
I don't want to mislead. This book is a very difficult read. Some one with no real background in physics can follow it, but it requires ones full concentration. He covers the topics so well, I'll probably never have to read another history of that period of physics again for a long time.
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- Douglas
- 03-31-13
As another reviewer notes...
this is not popular science. Some goodly knowledge of quantum mechanics, the problems it presents, the several challenges that have been made to the "standard model" and the search for the Higgs field (and what it does) are going to have to be brought to the table. This is by no means a criticism of the book. In fact, it is high praise. Close, while being meticulously precise and informative, does not coddle the reader. So if you are just beginning study in this field, begin elsewhere and then come later to this wonderfully informative and clarifying volume of modern science.
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11 people found this helpful