The Bit and the Pendulum; From Quantum Computing to M Theory--The New Physics of Information

vi, 281. [1] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Glossary. Further Reading. Index. Inscribed by the author on fep. The inscription reads For Phil, Read this quick before it becomes old news. Tom Siegfried. Compliments bookplate on fep. Ink notations inside cover and on fep (front and back). Some ink underling and notations to text noted. Tom Siegfried was editor in chief of Science News from 2007 to 2012, and he was the managing editor from 2014 to 2017. In addition to Science News, his work has appeared in Science, Nature, Astronomy, New Scientist and Smithsonian. Previously he was the science editor of The Dallas Morning News. He is the author of three books: The Bit and the Pendulum; Strange Matters; and A Beautiful Math. Tom earned an undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University and has a master of arts with a major in journalism and a minor in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. His awards include the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism,and the AAAS Westinghouse Award. An award-winning journalist surveys the horizon of a new revolution in science. Everything in the universe, from the molecules in our bodies to the heart of a black hole, is made up of bits of information. This is the radical idea at the center of the new physics of information, and it is leading to exciting breakthroughs in a vast range of science, including the invention of a new kind of quantum computer, millions of times faster than any computer today. Acclaimed science writer Tom Siegfried offers a lively introduction to the leading scientists and ideas responsible for this exciting new scientific paradigm. Derived from a Kirkus review: The computer has, in the information age, developed into a powerful metaphor for understanding the universe. In a straightforward, often whimsical exposition of new revelations in computer science, theoretical physics, molecular biology, and the developing science of consciousness, Many computer functions, Siegfried asserts, including the binary coding with which computers calculate and the manner in which computers produce outputs from inputs according to pre-programmed mathematical rules, find analogues in nature. Siegfried hurtles from cell analysis to Boolean logic to quantum mechanics to the theory of black holes to make his point. He contends, the computer has become such a powerful symbol for the universe that scientists are in danger of mistaking the metaphor for nature itself: The computer has become as all-encompassing a model as Newton's clock, Siegfried concludes, but it may be no better able to explain everything in nature.…