The Strange Case Of Mrs. Hudson's Cat: And Other Science Mysteries Solved By Sherlock Holmes (Helix Book)

This is the story of the great paradigm shifts of science, told as never before: in Sherlock Holmes adventures set amid the grandeur and squalor of Victorian London. FROM PARADIGMS PAST... The first stories involve the overthrow of ancient fallacies. For example, a death by heat-stroke is blamed on a wandering cloud of phlogiston - but will this explanation stand up to Sherlock Holmes's scrutiny? ....THROUGH RELATIVITY... Subsequent cases turn on problems of relative motion and timing, culminating in a terrifying question: just how much energy do the laws of physics allow an Anarchist bomb the size of a grapefruit to contain? .... TO QUANTUM THEORY More subtle crimes relate to quantum effects. A crooked lottery offering impossibly good odds turns out to involve the spooky 'quantum links' of the EPR paradox. The strangest story is based on real life: a physicist at the Santa Fe Institute was challenged to prove his faith in a widely accepted interpretation of quantum theory in the only way possible - by taking part in a bizarre game of Russian roulette. He declined. But here, the challenge is accepted...

A singular volume, Watson... the author has a flair for unorthodox methods of presentation. -- IAN STEWART, author of Does God Play Dice

Colin Bruce, a physicist in England, has a clever idea. What better way to explain to nonscientists the sometimes mystifying world of modern physics than by enlisting the aid of that master demystifier, Sherlock Holmes? Since so many advances in science have followed from attempts to explain puzzling anomalies in experimental observations, Bruce has little trouble recasting the puzzles as "cases" that fate drops into the lap of the famous detective.... Whether Bruce's attempt to explain modern physics in readable prose leads to illumination or not, readers of The Strange Case of Mrs. Hudson's Cat will enjoy pitting their wits against the universe in such stimulating company. -- The New York Times Book Review, Gerald Jones

What a great idea!... Starting with simple problems of motion and energy, Bruce takes his readers into very modern questions of quantum mechanics and relativity... Great fun and fine teaching. -- BEN BOVA, editor of Science Fiction Hall Of Fame