The Physics Of Encounter

The book introduces fresh concepts into the public debate about the origin of paranormal phenomena, the physical processes underlying consciousness, and the encounter between science and religion.

The essential features of quantum physics, largely debated since its discovery, are presented in this book, through the description (without mathematics) of recent experiments. Putting the accent on physical phenomena, this book clarifies the historical issues (delocalisation, interferences) and reaches out to modern topics (quantum cryptography, non-locality and teleportation); the debate on interpretations is serenely reviewed.

Do the movements of animals, including humans, follow patterns that can be described quantitatively by simple laws of motion? If so, then why? These questions have attracted the attention of scientists in many disciplines, and stimulated debates ranging from ecological matters to queries such as 'how can there be free will if one follows a law of motion?' This is the first book on this rapidly evolving subject, introducing random searches and foraging in a way that can be understood by readers without a previous background on the subject. It reviews theory as well as experiment, addresses open problems and perspectives, and discusses applications ranging from the colonization of Madagascar by Austronesians to the diffusion of genetically modified crops. The book will interest physicists working in the field of anomalous diffusion and movement ecology as well as ecologists already familiar with the concepts and methods of statistical physics.

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 non-technical 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. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is heatedly controversial. But every interpretation of quantum physics involves consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum mechanics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer the only sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves. In the few decades since the Bell's theorem experiments established the existence of entanglement (Einstein's "spooky action"), interest in the foundations, and the mysteries, of quantum mechanics has accelerated. In recent years, physicists, philosophers, computer engineers, and even biologists have expanded our realization of the significance of quantum phenomena. This second edition includes such advances. The authors have also drawn on many responses from readers and instructors to improve the clarity of the book's explanations.

Close Encounters of Art and Physics is a voyage in time through the abstract ideas harboured in the minds of humans, starting from the graffiti art of cave dwellers and extending to the street art of contemporary men and women. In seeking parallels with science, the author looks far back to the first geometric ideas of our ancestors as well as ahead to the contemporary science of present-day physicists. The parallelism and analogies between these two fields bear witness to a real entanglement in the human brain. The second part of the book contains about 25 colour images showing the author's stunning glass artwork representing ideas such as dark matter, quantum entanglement, cellular automata and many others that are almost impossible to capture in words. Furthermore, many of the physicists who have themselves made major contributions in these fields provide their comments and analysis of the works. The book provides entertaining and informative reading, not only for practicing artists and physicists, but also anyone curious about art and physics.

It is one of the curious oddities of our time that we talk so much about the scientific method as if it is one singular entity when, in point of practice, it is anything but. The ultimate linchpin in science is decided not by how we go about doing it, but about how well our hunches, observations, and results tally with the universe we observe and, in turn, how such intellectual lurches compare and contrast with other competing stratagems in terms of yielding more, not less, information. The very word science, derived from the Latin "scire" (see the Oxford English Dictionary for more on its etymology), is rather open ended and simply means "knowledge."

This book is a history, analysis, and criticism of what the author calls “postmodern interpretations of science” (PIS) and the closely related “sociology of scientific knowledge” (SSK). This movement traces its origin to Thomas Kuhn's revolutionary work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), but is more extreme. It believes that science is a “social construction”, having little to do with nature, and is determined by contextual forces such as the race, class, gender of the scientist, laboratory politics, or the needs of the military industrial complex.Since the 1970s, PIS has become fashionable in the humanities, social sciences, and ethnic or women's studies, as well as in the new academic discipline of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). It has been attacked by numerous authors and the resulting conflicts led to the so-called Science Wars of the 1990s. While the present book is also critical of PIS, it focuses on its intellectual and political origins and tries to understand why it became influential in the 1970s. The book is both an intellectual and a political history. It examines the thoughts of Karl Popper, Karl Mannheim, Ludwik Fleck, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, David Bloor, Steve Woolgar, Steve Shapin, Bruno Latour, and PIS-like doctrines in mathematics. It also describes various philosophical contributions to PIS ranging from the Greek sophists to 20th century post-structuralists and argues that the disturbed political atmosphere of the Vietnam War era was critical to the rise of PIS.