Three Roads to Quantum Gravity
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Narrated by:
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L. J. Ganser
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By:
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Lee Smolin
About this listen
In Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin provides an accessible overview of the attempts to build a final "theory of everything." He explains in simple terms what scientists are talking about when they say the world is made from exotic entities such as loops, strings, and black holes and tells the fascinating stories behind these discoveries: the rivalries, epiphanies, and intrigues he witnessed firsthand. Written with exceptional style and clarity, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity confronts the deepest questions of the nature of the universe and provides a preview of some of the remarkable scientific developments we can look forward to in the 21st century.
©2001 Lee Smolin; Postscript © 2002 by Lee Smolin; Postscript to the 2017 Edition © 2017 by Lee Smolin (P)2018 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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By: Jim Al-Khalili
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Six Not-So-Easy Pieces
- Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Richard P. Feynman
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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No 20th-century American scientist is better known to a wider spectrum of people than Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), physicist, teacher, author, and cultural icon. His autobiographies and biographies have been read and enjoyed by millions of readers around the world, while his wit and eccentricities have made him the subject of TV specials and even a theatrical film.
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Very Interesting, but ...
- By Doug on 01-01-06
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Paradox
- The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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The Universe in the Rearview Mirror
- How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality
- By: Dave Goldberg
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A physicist speeds across space, time, and everything in between showing that our elegant universe from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? Is it possible to build a shrink-ray gun? If there is antimatter, can there be antipeople? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Are time and space like a butterfly's wings? No one but Dave Goldberg, the coolest nerd physicist on the planet, could give a hyper-drive tour of the universe like this one.
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Good, but for whom?
- By Michael on 08-31-13
By: Dave Goldberg
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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ABSOLUTE MUST READ!
- By serine on 05-12-16
By: Sean Carroll
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Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
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educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
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To Explain the World
- The Discovery of Modern Science
- By: Steven Weinberg
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries, from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand or how to understand it.
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How the world created a Newton
- By Gary on 03-02-15
By: Steven Weinberg
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The Infinity Puzzle
- Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The second half of the 20th century witnessed a scientific gold rush as physicists raced to chart the inner workings of the atom. The stakes were high, the questions were big, and there were Nobel Prizes and everlasting glory to be won. Many mysteries of the atom came unraveled, but one remained intractable-what Frank Close calls the "Infinity Puzzle."
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Succinct exposition
- By Gary on 06-26-12
By: Frank Close
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What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
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Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
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Calculating the Cosmos
- How Mathematics Unveils the Universe
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Dana Hickox
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
- By James Weisner on 03-20-17
By: Ian Stewart
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Interesting but not Convincing
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Physics textbook without the math
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Strings snipped
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From Eternity to Here
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Time moves forward, not backward---everyone knows you can't unscramble an egg. In the hands of one of today's hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself---a period of modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed.
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Great Book For Cosmology Lovers
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A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles - one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.
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Quite nice
- By Michael on 02-14-10
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Quantum Space
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Interesting but not Convincing
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Physics textbook without the math
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Great Book For Cosmology Lovers
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A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles - one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.
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Quite nice
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Breezy style, but some painful pronunciation
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Needs a few Diagrams
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Awesome Smolin
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WHY is he WHISPERING???
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By: Frank Wilczek
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Quantum Entanglement
- MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series
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Quantum physics is notable for its brazen defiance of common sense. (Think of Schrödinger's Cat, famously both dead and alive.) An especially rigorous form of quantum contradiction occurs in experiments with entangled particles. Our common assumption is that objects have properties whether or not anyone is observing them, and the measurement of one can't affect the other. Quantum entanglement rejects this assumption, offering impeccable reasoning and irrefutable evidence of the opposite. Is quantum entanglement mystical, or just mystifying?
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gappy and devoid of rigor
- By Anonymous User on 05-03-20
By: Jed Brody
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Calculating the Cosmos
- How Mathematics Unveils the Universe
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In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
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By: Ian Stewart
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Beyond Weird
- By: Philip Ball
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An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means - and what it doesn't. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience.
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A difficult listen
- By Ray on 03-17-19
By: Philip Ball
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The Particle at the End of the Universe
- How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
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Scientists have just announced an historic discovery on a par with the splitting of the atom: The Higgs boson, the key to understanding why mass exists has been found. In The Particle at the End of the Universe, Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll takes readers behind the scenes of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to meet the scientists and explain this landmark event.
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A History of Modern Particle Physics
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Paradox
- The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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The Little Book of Black Holes
- Science Essentials
- By: Steven S. Gubser, Frans Pretorius
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Black holes, predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity more than a century ago, have long intrigued scientists and the public with their bizarre and fantastical properties. Although Einstein understood that black holes were mathematical solutions to his equations, he never accepted their physical reality - a viewpoint many shared. After introducing the basics of the special and general theories of relativity, this book describes black holes both as astrophysical objects and theoretical "laboratories".
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Great read/listen
- By william on 01-24-18
By: Steven S. Gubser, and others
What listeners say about Three Roads to Quantum Gravity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jan D. Leslie
- 02-01-20
Fascinating story
very balanced portrayal of several research paths. Altuogh he is very clear about which path he feels is best. Great book overall
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- Philomath
- 11-09-18
Physics still in trouble
I first came across the author Lee Smolin through his 2006 book, The Trouble with, which I thought deserved merit, because it highlighted the detachment of modern particle physics from reality and criticising the ever elusive and continuously evolving mathematical hypothesis of string theory.
I had purchased this book without realising it was written prior to his 2006 book. It becomes quite evident that the author is struggling to reconcile theories which are not testable and therefore unable to be falsifiable.
Can science produce work that no one can conceive experiments for testing them. In this book Smolin is still optimistic, but what else can a person who spent most of his life think. I believe there is more hope than reality. Physicists are satisfied with mathematical theories that explain reality and less concerned with experiments at this scale.
The book explains three roads to quantum gravity, an effort to unify quantum theory with relativity, but the roads could very well be more than three, and very long indeed before any unifying theory can be experimentally tested.
The author writes well on subjects that are usually nearly impossible to understand, and for this I must give him credit. Recommended to those that want to understand today’s complicated physics without mathematical knowledge.
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17 people found this helpful
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- MGGGK9
- 04-24-23
A little dated
Interesting insight into new ideas, however even though there are updates the information is still a little dated. Good explanation into string theory and loop quantum gravity, however I still have trouble understanding either. Worth the listen. Highly recommended
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1 person found this helpful
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- Adam Bede
- 07-21-23
Balanced point of view
Lucid thoughtful presentation. Brief but substantive update. Would have liked to hear a bit more on how a different understanding of time might help.
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- VR
- 12-09-19
The actual publication date is 2001
The publication date is misleading, there is only about 45 minutes of content at the end of the book in the form of a post script that is within the last year of 2018, most of the book was published over 15 years ago
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6 people found this helpful
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- GARY Kochert
- 02-03-24
How much. I don’t know or understand
When will Quantum Theory be fully resolved. I learn a lot about progress made. Hope it’s in my lifetime,
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-28-24
Extremely good book even in 2024
This book taught me a lot about loop quantum gravity, which isn’t as popular of a topic as, say, string theory. The post script is long and one of the best parts.
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- alr
- 01-28-19
Rambling
I found this too rambling for my taste. I only listened for 2 hours, maybe it became more focused.
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8 people found this helpful
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- tutsi buster lizzy
- 10-27-23
Waste of time after listening to Prof. Don Lincoln
Not even close in narrative, narration and content.
Looping- pun intended- and cycling through dated and sometimes plain gross analogies such as cats eating yummy or yucky mice (yuck!!) I learn nothing substantial and thought provoking after 2 hours of listening- abandoning this. Waste of a credit.
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