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Quantum theory is the strangest field in
all science. It deals with the laws of nature that govern
the realm of the very small. Entering this strange new world
is as baffling and bizarre as Alice's adventures in Wonderland.
In quantum theory, nothing makes sense from our everyday
experience of life on Earth. An uncertainty principle reigns,
where nothing can be known with precision, only as a haze
of probability and chance.
But the most perplexing phenomenon of all
is the effect called "entanglement." Two particles
are mysteriously linked together. Whatever happens to one
of them immediately causes a change in the other one, whether
it is two millimeters away or on the other side of the universe.
How is this possible? And what are the implications for
our understanding of the universe and the arcane laws that
govern its darkest recesses?
This groundbreaking book is an introduction
to this bizarre phenomenon and the weird world of the quantum.
In 20 chapters, bestselling writer Amir D. Aczel follows
the lives of the scientists who developed the theory, from
Galileo and Newton through Bohr and John Bell, a quiet,
freckled Scot whose groundbreaking work proved that Einstein
was wrong -- God really does play dice with the universe.
Amir D. Aczel's father was a ship's captain
and Amir grew up on a passenger ship in the Mediterranean.
He earned his master of sciences degree in mathematics from
the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from
the University of Oregon. He is a professor at Bentley College
in Waltham, MA. Among other books, he is the author of The
Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the
Search for Infinity; God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity
and the Expanding Universe; Fermat's Last Theorem:
Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem;
and The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed
the World. His work has been translated into French,
German, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish, Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese,
Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Finnish.
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