Escape From Shadow Physics

The received wisdom in quantum physics is that, at the deepest levels of reality, there are no actual causes for atomic events. This idea led to the outlandish belief that quantum objects - indeed, reality itself - aren't real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this idea, asking whether his bed spread out across his room unless he looked at it. And yet it remains one of the most influential ideas in science and our culture. In Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Forrest Kay takes up Einstein's torch: reality isn't mysterious or dependent on human measurement, but predictable and independent of us. At the heart of his argument is groundbreaking research with little drops of oil. These droplets behave as particles do in the long-overlooked quantum theory of pilot waves; crucially, they display quantum behaviour while being described by classical physics. What if the original doubters of our quantum orthodoxy (not least Einstein himself) were onto something? What if pilot wave theory was right all along? In that case, our whole story of twentieth-century physics is topsy-turvyand we must give up the idea that reality is simply too weird to grasp. Weird it may still be, but a true understanding of nature now seems within our reach.

An expert researcher argues for a revolutionary new understanding of quantum mechanics The received wisdom in quantum physics is that, at the deepest levels of reality, there are no actual causes for atomic events. This idea led to the outlandish belief that quantum objects—indeed, reality itself—aren’t real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this idea, asking whether his bed spread out across his room unless he looked at it. And yet it remains one of the most influential ideas in science and our culture. In Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Forrest Kay takes up Einstein’s torch: reality isn’t mysterious or dependent on human measurement, but predictable and independent of us. At the heart of his argument is groundbreaking research with little drops of oil. These droplets behave as particles do in the long-overlooked quantum theory of pilot waves; crucially, they showcase quantum behavior while being described by classical physics. And that classical-quantum interface points to a true understanding of quantum mechanics and a reasonable universe. A bold and essential reset of the field, Escape from Shadow Physics describes the kind of true scientific revolution that comes along just once—or less—in a century.

An expert physicist argues for a revolutionary new understanding of quantum mechanics. The received wisdom in quantum physics is that, at the deepest levels of reality, there are no actual causes for atomic events. This idea led to the outlandish belief that quantum objects — indeed, reality itself — aren’t real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this idea, asking whether his bed spread out across his room unless he looked at it. And yet it remains one of the most influential ideas in science and our culture. In Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Forrest Kay takes up Einstein’s torch: reality isn’t mysterious or dependent on human measurement, but predictable and independent of us. At the heart of his argument is groundbreaking research with little drops of oil. These droplets behave as particles do in the long-overlooked quantum theory of pilot waves; crucially, they showcase quantum behavior while being described by classical physics. What if the original doubters of our quantum orthodoxy (not least Einstein himself) were onto something? What if pilot wave theory was right all along? In that case, our whole story of twentieth-century physics is topsy-turvy, and we must give up the idea that reality is simply too weird to grasp. Weird it may still be, but a true understanding of nature now seems within our reach.

An engaging and razor-sharp attack on the orthodoxy of modern physics, and a bold new idea about the structure of reality. For 70 years, mathematical physicist Adam Kay argues, physics has laboured under delusions. 'When it comes to atoms,' the founding quantum physicist Neils Bohr once wrote, 'language can only be used as in poetry.' Since the earliest days of quantum mechanics, its founders have firmly stressed that what goes on inside an atom is impossible to rationally describe. Kay fundamentally disagrees. Escape from Shadow Physicsis his fiery rebuke to Bohr's mentality and his theory, arguing that quantum physics is as logical, reasonable, and intuitive as any other scientific theory -- or at least it will be, if scientists will let it. Kay aims to free us from the shackles of Bohr's obscure theorising -- which Bertrand Russell referred to as 'the shadow physics of our time' -- and to restore the basic principles of scientific inquiry to quantum mechanics. Thanks to Kay's cutting-edge work at MIT, a genuine understanding of quantum mechanics may be just around the corner. Building on his research and from the original ideas of pioneers such as Einstein and de Broglie, Kay calls for a new understanding of quantum physics: the Ensemble Interpretation. Through bouncing droplets of oil, his team has observed quantum mechanical behaviour emerging on a macroscopic scale -- a stunning breakthrough, indicating that quantum and classical physics are not as irreconcilable as we have been led to think.

The aim of the book is to describe some of the recent advances, through computer simulation in a broad sense, in the understanding of the complex processes occurring in solids and liquids.The rapid growth of computer power, including the new parallel processors, has stimulated a ferment of new theoretical and computational ideas, which have been developed in particular by the authors in a pluriennal research project supported by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) for the development of novel software for large scale computations.The book will cover advances in ab initio (Car-Parrinello) molecular dynamics, quantum monte carlo simulations, self-consistent density functional computation of electronic states, classical molecular dynamics simulation of thermodynamic processes, chemical reactions and transport properties.Besides the description of the results of these techniques in leading edge applications, the book will address specific aspects of the algorithms and software which have been developed by the authors in order to implement in an efficient way the new theoretical advances in these computationally intensive problems.These aspects which are generally not discussed in any detail in the literature, can be of great help for newcomers in the field.

The largest specialization in faculties of education in Canada is curriculum studies. Curriculum Studies in Canada represents the present preoccupations of curriculum scholars in Canada. Set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributors engage with significant themes, among them ongoing efforts at justice for Indigenous Peoples, the continuing arrival of immigrants and refugees, Canada’s complex relationship to the United States, and issues related to the climate crisis. Addressing such realities through the field of curriculum studies and the school curriculum is critical at this historical conjuncture given the complex and shifting intersections of local and global dynamics restricting education. To this end, contributing scholars serve as intellectual activists to address the critical need for understanding curriculum responsive to the vexed relations among schools, nation-building, social reconstruction, and identity development. Their activism yields more sophisticated understandings of what it means to be educated in Canada. Contributors trace the legacy of their work and reflect on their present scholarly preoccupations in light of their past endeavours. In doing so, Curriculum Studies in Canada offers an invitation to readers: to study, remember, dialogue, and navigate an uncertain world with them.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty is widely known for his emphasis on embodied perceptual experience. This emphasis initially relied heavily on the positive results of Gestalt psychology in addressing issues in philosophical psychology and philosophy of mind from a phenomenological standpoint. Eventually he transformed this account in light of his investigations in linguistics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of history and institutions. Far less work has been done in addressing his evolving conception of philosophy and how this account influenced more general philosophical issues in epistemology, accounts of rationality, or its status as theoretical discourse. Merleau-Ponty's own contributions to these issues and, in particular, the theoretical status of the phenomenological account that resulted, have provoked varying responses. On the one hand, some commentators have understood his work to be a regional application of Husserl's foundational account of phenomenology. On the other hand, some commentators have questioned whether, in the final analysis, Merleau-Ponty was a phenomenologist at all. In In the Shadow of Phenomenology, Stephen H. Watson offers an in depth analysis of these responses and the complications and development of Merleau-Ponty's position.