Strange Matters: Undiscovered Ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time - Hardcover

Siegfried, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0309084075 ISBN 13: 9780309084079

Publisher: Joseph Henry Press, 2002

Synopsis

Scientists studying the universe find strange things in two placesâ€"out in space and in their heads. This is the story of how the most imaginative physicists of our time perceive strange features of the universe in advance of the actual discoveries.

It is almost a given that physics and cosmology present us with some of the grandest mysteries of all. What weightier questions to ponder than, "How does the universe work?" or "What is the universe made of?" There are any number of bizarre phenomena that could provide clues or even answers to these queries. The strangeness ranges from unusual forms of matter and realms of existence to wild ideas about how time and space are related to one another. Many of these proposals may well turn out to be wrong. But how many will be proven to be right?

This book speaks for the scientific theorists who are bold enough to imagine and predict the impossible. New ideas are percolating in their heads every day. One physicist may dream of subatomic particles that could resolve a variety of cosmological conundrums while another may study the likes of "funny energy," which may explain how rapidly the universe is expanding. This is the stuff of Strange Matters.

In broad terms, this book is about a variety of discoveries that theorists of the past imagined before the observers and experimenters actually saw them. Moreover, it is about the things that today’s are now imaginingâ€"but haven't yet been discovered or confirmed by the observers. Strange Matters artfully mixes the present with the past and future, reporting from the frontiers of research where history is in the process of being made.

Each chapter examines a different step along the twisted path we've walked to gain our rudimentary understanding of the universe, incorporating historical examples of successful "prediscoveries" with current stories that relate brand new ideas. We come to see the universe not only in terms of what has already been discovered, but also in terms of what has yet to be observed.

Strange Matters is a guide to the discoveries of the twenty-first century, a series of visions dreamt by the most imaginative scientists of our time merged with the achievements of the pastâ€"to point the way towards even greater accomplishments of the future.

Table of Contents

• Front Matter
• Introduction
• 1. Strange Matter
• 2. Mirror Matter
• 3. Super Matter
• 4. Dark Matter
• 5. The Best of all Possible Bubbles
• 6. The Essence of Quintessence
• 7. Superstrings
• 8. Stretching Your Brane
• 9. Ghosts
• 10. The Two-Timing Universe
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Further Reading
• Index

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"Tom Siegfried provides a cook's tour of the current menagerie of wild ideas and theories that have been developed. With clarity and a fluid style, he captures the breadth of current thinking, based on discussions with many of today's active physicists. Thought provoking and fun." -- Lawrence M. Krauss, author of Atom: A Single Oxygen Atom's Journey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond and The Physics of Star Trek

"With the seasoned authority of Dan Rather, the dry wit of Mark Twain and a prescience that puts astrology to shame, Tom Siegfried makes the perfect guide on this rollicking good ride to the frontiers of truly weird science--and beyond. Describing discoveries that have yet to be made, but probably should be, Siegfried homes in on the throbbing heart of things--the exciting if sometimes fuzzy frontier where science really is stranger than fiction. Will strangelets inherit the Earth? Is the universe a hologram? Does time swing both ways? Read on." -- K.C. Cole, author the The Universe and the Teacup and The Hole in the Universe

"Tom Siegfried takes the reader on a fascinating tour of some of the strange things that have been discovered in the universe--and some of the even stranger ideas that have been conjectured by scientists in seeking to understand the universe better. Surely not all of the wild ideas described here will pan out--but probably some of them will!" -- Edward Witten, Simonyi Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey

About the Author:

Tom Siegfried has been Science Editor of the Dallas Morning News since 1985.

About this edition

• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0309084075
• ISBN 13: 9780309084079
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224