Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes - Softcover

Seife, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143038397 ISBN 13: 9780143038399

Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics), 2007

Synopsis

The author of Zero explains the scientific revolution that is transforming the way we understand our world

Previously the domain of philosophers and linguists, information theory has now moved beyond the province of code breakers to become the crucial science of our time. In Decoding the Universe, Charles Seife draws on his gift for making cutting-edge science accessible to explain how this new tool is deciphering everything from the purpose of our DNA to the parallel universes of our Byzantine cosmos. The result is an exhilarating adventure that deftly combines cryptology, physics, biology, and mathematics to cast light on the new understanding of the laws that govern life and the universe.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Seife is the author of Alpha and Omega and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction book and was named a New York Times Notable Book. He is an associate professor of journalism at New York University and has written for Scientific American, the Economist, and many other publications.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In a book that's all but impossible to put down, science journalist Seife (Alpha & Omega) explains how the concepts of information theory have begun to unlock many of the mysteries of the universe, from quantum mechanics to black holes and the likely end of the universe. Seife presents a compelling case that information is the one constant that ties all of science, indeed all of the universe, together. His skill with language permits him to do what many have tried and few have accomplished—making complicated concepts of quantum mechanics accessible to the average reader. Seife demonstrates how quantum oddities so alien to classical physics actually are consistent with the same physical laws that govern the world we see. For example, the fact that entangled particles half a universe away can instantaneously communicate with one another (what Einstein called "spooky action" at a distance), apparently violating the law that nothing can exceed the speed of light, can be understood through information theory. Seife takes all of this to a most bizarre, but logical, conclusion reached by many cosmologists: the universe as we know it is but one of an infinite number of universes, all brought into being through information transfer. (Feb. 6)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143038397
• ISBN 13: 9780143038399
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304