The Nobel Prize-winning physicist offers ten insights that illuminate all you need to know about the Universe
Frank Wilczek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004. He is the prize-winning author of numerous books, including A Beautiful Question and Longing for the Harmonies. Wilczek is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT; founding director of the T. D. Lee Institute and chief scientist of the Wilczek Quantum Center in Shanghai; and a distinguished professor at Arizona State and Stockholm universities.
A gorgeous and inviting overview of the fundamental facts of
physical reality.
*Steven Pinker, Johnson Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, and author of Enlightenment Now*
If you were to go back just two hundred years and tell people what
we knew, from the origins of the universe to the molecular basis of
life, and how weird and unintuitive nature is at the atomic scale,
they would think we were crazy. But if you showed them what we have
created with that knowledge, they would think we were magicians. In
this engaging and highly accessible book, Frank Wilczek shows how
the vast edifice that is modern science was constructed with only a
few ingredients and assumptions, but depended crucially on a way of
thinking--about the nature of evidence and how it applied to the
world around us. Anyone interested in the underlying basis of the
complexity of today's science will enjoy this book.
*Venki Ramakrishnan, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and
author of Gene Machine*
Frank Wilczek is not only one of the world's greatest physicists;
he's also one of its greatest explainers. Fundamentals is lucid,
beautiful, and revelatory.
*Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and
author of Infinite Powers*
Whether or not you're accustomed to reading physics for pleasure,
the Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek's Fundamentals might be the
perfect book for the winter of this plague year... Wilczek writes
with breathtaking economy and clarity, and his pleasure in his
subject is palpable... What a reader gets in Fundamentals is the
native language of physics - mathematics - precisely translated by
someone who has spent a lifetime (about a billion thoughts!) on
these forces that shape our physical world
*The New York Times*
This is an exuberant, gorgeously crafted, and intellectually
thrilling book, written by one of our greatest living scientists
yet hospitable to all. To be reminded that time and space, mystery
and order, are so much stranger and more generous than we can
comprehend-this is a gift to public life and moral imagination in a
young century where what is visible and tangible feels chaotic and
constricting. This book is also unexpectedly spiritually thrilling.
Wilczek makes the remarkable move of picking up and evolving the
classic scientists' faith that their investigations would reveal
the mind of our maker, as well as Einstein's self-described 'cosmic
spiritual sensibility.' What began as an exposition, as Wilzcek
writes, 'grew into a contemplation.' The result is a profoundly
enriched understanding, accessible to the religious and
non-religious alike, of what it means to be human-and what we might
be pointing at when we use the word God.
*Krista Tippett, host of On Being and author of Becoming Wise*
[Wilczek] turns out to be a true visionary
*The Times*
For those with more scientific yearnings, and who regret not taking
a few courses in college to learn about the physical world,
theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek offers a way to catch up . . .
With his clear and joyful voice, Wilczek succeeds very well, and
for good reason . . . There is no calculus required; this is not
Physics 101. Instead, Wilczek talks about modern physics and
cosmology from a more broad-brush and philosophical perspective,
often linking their findings to the real world - how they affect
us. In this age of rising skepticism, he wants his readers - whom
he imagines to be lawyers, doctors, artists, parents or simply
curious people - to be 'born again, in the way of science'.
*Washington Post*
A lucid and riveting narrative of the fundamentals-what Wilczek
calls 'the central messages of modern physics,' which are not just
facts about how the world works but also 'the style of thought that
allowed us to discover them.
*Scientific American*
Mr. Wilczek's prose pulses with enthusiasm for its subject
*Wall Street Journal*
The universe at its grandest and most minuscule is explored in this
beguiling meditation on physics. . . a stimulating and very
readable scientific tour of the cosmos.
*Publishers Weekly (starred review)*
...breathtaking feat . . . the narrative is a mind-bender of the
first order-in the best way possible-but what makes it so
engrossing is that the author does far more than just present the
facts and speculations, however fascinating; on every page, readers
will glean his exhilaration and joy in discovery . . . Another
winner from Wilczek, who invites us to be born again into a richer,
deeper understanding of the world.
*Kirkus,starred review*
This is a book about deep ideas, not passing fancies. It will teach
you profound principles, not dry lists of facts. It's a rare treat
indeed to get a glimpse into the mind of one of the world's leading
physicists, presented in an engaging style that will be enjoyed by
anyone at all.
*Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden*
How is the universe put together? Beneath the bewildering clamor of
the world around us, there lies a hidden realm of subtle
mathematical beauty, a bedrock of fundamental principles in which
all of nature is grounded. Few living scientists have accomplished
more than Frank Wilczek in helping unveil that deeper layer of
existence. With poetry and fervor, Wilczek takes us on a
breathtaking journey to the frontiers of physics, and reminds us of
just how privileged we human beings are to glimpse the foundations
of reality.
*Paul Davies, Regents' Professor at Arizona State University and
author of The Demon in the Machine*
A delightful book . . . Frank Wilczek is that rare creature: a
first-class scientist who is also an extremely talented
communicator. . . Wilczek constantly finds fresh ways to present
such ideas, so that you emerge with new insight into what they
mean. . . . Fundamentals is, then, not only an exceptional piece of
science communication but also a deeply humanistic book
*Physics World*
Fundamentals is an engaging account of the history of humankind's
understanding of reality, told by one of the key contributors to
recent parts of that story. Wilczek's grasp on the physics he
relates is comprehensive and authoritative; he conveys
technicalities with a rare combination of accuracy and
accessibility . . . Wilczek provides an exceptionally clear guide
to the state of physical knowledge in the early 21st century, much
in the spirit of the sort of explanation that the ancient Greeks
desired
*Science News*
It's hard to imagine a better tour of fundamental physics than the
one I got from Frank Wilczek here. Loved it
*Sam Harris, Twitter*
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