Praise for the first edition:
"Unifying the Universe is a masterful synthesis of humanity's long search to understand the deep workings of the universe. Richly illustrated and expertly told, you want to read this book slowly to savour our species' bold and creative attempts to understand our place in the cosmos."
--Professor Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of "The Elegant Universe", "Fabric of the Cosmos", and "The Hidden Reality"
"... a beautiful discussion of the progression of our understanding of the physical world and universe. The book is ideally suited to provide a scientific background for university students not majoring in science."
--Professor David Lee (Nobel Laureate in Physics), Cornell University
Unifying the Universe: The Physics of Heaven and Earth presents a non-technical approach to physics for the lay-science enthusiast. This popular textbook, which evolved from a conceptual course at Cornell University, is intended for non-science undergraduate students taking their first physics module.
This second edition maintains its unique approach in crossing boundaries between physics and humanities, with connections to art, poetry, history, and philosophy. It explores how the process of scientific thought is inextricably linked with cultural, creative, and aesthetic aspects of human endeavor, opening the readers up to new ways of looking at the world.
The text has been fully updated throughout to address current and exciting new topics in the field, such as exo-planets, the accelerating Universe, dark matter, dark energy, gravitational waves, super-symmetry, string theory, big bang cosmology, and the Higgs boson. There is also an entirely new chapter on the Quantum World, which connects the fascinating topics of quantum entanglement and quantum computing.
Key Features:
- Provides a solid, yet accessible, background to basic physics without complex mathematics
- Uses a human interest approach to show how science is significant for more than its technological consequences
- Discusses the arts and philosophies of historical periods that are pertinent to the subject
Professor Hasan Padamsee has taught the 'Physics of Heaven and Earth' at Cornell University to non-science students for the last 20 years. He served as head of the Technical Division at Fermilab. In 2015 he received one of the highest awards in the physics of particle accelerators, the American Physical Society Robert R. Wilson Prize.