Professor Wilczek offers ten “fundamentals” upon which we can build a view of nature consistent with what we have been learning about the universe lately - which is quite a lot.
Here is the list that makes an interesting topic, to begin with
1. Plenty of Space
2. Plenty of Time
3. Very few Ingredients
4. Very few Laws
5. Plenty of Matter and Energy
6. Cosmic History - Open Book
7. Complexity Emerges
8. Plenty more to see
9. Mysteries remain
10. Complementarity is mind-expanding
The first chapter begins with fundamentals like dealing with GPS, simple laws of nature, organised matter, and a hierarchy of structures like those of planets. The concept of space and matter is discussed, whilst space occupies most. This chapter also mentions how lenses work using the laws of diffraction.
The saying "Time is what prevents everything from happening at once", by Ray Cummings is mentioned (often quoted). Tiny errors in time multiplied by the speed of light can lead to noticeable errors in the distance is what Google Maps has to offer at times (particularly inside Indian towns). Here are some excerpts from the book that is good for most beginners who would want to explore questions in science.
Only 'atoms and Voids', by Democritus is modified into 'Mass, charge and spin with voids'!
Einstein calling Bohr's (remember their debates) work as the highest form of musicality in the sphere of thoughts.
The Abundance of Cosmic energy reaching the Earth/day is measured as equivalent to a human's 2000 Calories/day energy - which approximately comes to a 100W bulb continuously burning for a year. And a new unit as AHUMEN is coined when 'Watts' becomes 'Joules'.
Three crucial ingredients are considered making life possible on Earth: Temperature, high and low, and intermediate Energy scale. (It is hard to agree when you have so many particles in Physics to counter)
Science often resembles the game of jeopardy where answers suggest what the right questions are! Studying what happened in the past is like reconstructing the crime survey with the evidence from cases and look for corroborating evidence.
A chapter devoted to 'Universe' says Cosmic Inflation is justified as the big bang assuming the space as Euclidean or flat - not required by relativity (a hint that relativity is of two types).
Finally, in the last chapter, the author talks about knowing the importance of Science. The chapter deals with the mention of the sensors in animals and humans. While humans have 6 million receptors to identify the incoming molecule in the nose, dogs have ~300 million receptors! Then there is talk about navigation in birds (Chromoprotein), the Strength of spider's net (nanomaterials), and Bee's sensitivity (receptors).
There is a good attempt to explain the recently discovered/confirmed 'Gravitational waves' - space-time tells matter how to move, matter tells space-time how to bend and so space-time is a form of matter! Similarly, Electricity and Magnetism that have complementary effects can be related to 'moving mass' radiating 'gravitational waves' - but there is a quantitative difference.
Omar Khayyam's couplet on 'Hearts desires' finds a mention without the original quote.
Some mention about 'illusions' in the world is followed by a reference to a huge amount of work by Ramachandran's work on brain neurons (and illusions, thus). A corollary to that effect is how we perceive gold bars which provoke our attention immediately but never are we bothered about the equal amount of gold atoms swimming in the ocean! Then a sleek mention about Noise Cancellation technology pops up and the cosmological constant finds mention with a few Einstein-Bohr debates (Quantum by Manjit Kumar is a leading book on that).
Science is a fruitful way to understand optical delusion, a kind of prison and the Universe is a strange place and we are all in it together.
Arising curiosity around basic questions, facts, and dazzling speculations, Wilczek investigates the idea that forms our understanding of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity, and complementarity. He explores the history of fundamental science - what we know and how we know it, while journeying to the horizons of the scientific world to give us a glimpse of what we may soon discover.
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