What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics is a book on quantum physics by American astronomer Adam Becker. It was first published in 2018.
Background
editBecker had been a member of the California Quantum Interpretation Network, "a research collaboration among faculty and staff at multiple UC campuses and other universities across California, focusing on the interpretation of quantum physics."[1]
In 2016, he received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to research and publish a written work concerning the history, development, and controversy surrounding the study and development of the mysticized field of Quantum Foundations.[2] The resulting work, What is Real? (2018),[3] focused on the question of what exactly quantum physics says about the nature of reality. Becker, stated the motivation for the book as follows:
Despite the fact that every physicist agrees that quantum physics works, a bitter debate has raged over its meaning for the past ninety years, since the theory was first developed.[4]
Themes
editThe book deals with the personalities behind the competing interpretations of quantum physics as well as the historical factors that influenced the debate—factors such as military spending on physics research due to World War II, the Cold War ethos that caused the eschewing of physicists thought to be Marxist, the assumed infallibility of John von Neumann, the sexism that quashed the work of Grete Hermann (the female mathematician who first spotted von Neumann's error), and the sway of prominent philosophical schools of the period, like the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle. Niels Bohr appears in the book as the charismatic figure whose stature and obtuse writing style made it hard for alternate interpretations to be voiced. The book also challenges the popular portrayal of Albert Einstein as a behind-the-times thinker who couldn't accept the new paradigm. Becker argues that Einstein's thought experiments aimed at quantum dynamics are not stodgy quibbles with the seeming randomness of quantum physics, as characterized by the popularity of the quote that "God does not play dice". Rather, Einstein's thought experiments are apt critiques of violations of the principle of locality.[5]
Reception
edit"What is Real?" was given mostly positive reviews by lay and expert audiences alike, including the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and New Scientist, among others,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].
In Physics Today, philosopher David Wallace called the book "a superb contribution both to popular understanding of quantum theory and to ongoing debates among experts."[14] And in the journal Nature, Ramin Skibba said "What Is Real? is an argument for keeping an open mind. Becker reminds us that we need humility as we investigate the myriad interpretations and narratives that explain the same data."[15] The journal Science explained, "What Is Real? offers an engaging and accessible overview of the debates surrounding the interpretation of quantum mechanics,".[9] Philosopher of science, Tim Maudlin said, "There is no more reliable, careful, and readable account of the whole history of quantum theory in all its scandalous detail."[12]
Physicist Sheldon Glashow wrote a critical review, saying, "I found it distasteful to find a trained astrophysicist invoking a conspiracy by physicists and physics teachers to foist the Copenhagen interpretation upon naive students of quantum mechanics".[16] A review in the journal Science declared the project to be the sporadically accurate presentation of an "oversimplified" summary of either imaginary or merely ostensible conflicts between very complex schools of thought.[9] Reviews in Science News and the American Journal of Physics were also negative, similarly criticizing the book for numerous historical inaccuracies and philosophical oversimplifications.[17][18]
The book was nominated for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and Physics World Magazine's Book of the Year Award.[19][20]
References
edit- ^ "Adam Becker". CSTMS. University of California, Berkeley. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
- ^ "Grants Database". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
- ^
Adam Becker. Basic Books. August 8, 2017. ISBN 9780465096060. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help) - ^ Becker, Adam (2018). What is Real?. New York: Basic Books. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3.
- ^
Becker, Adam (March 20, 2018). What is Real? : The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3. OCLC 1015259283.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Gleick, James (May 8, 2018). "What Does Quantum Physics Actually Tell Us About the World?". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ Albert, David. "Quantum's Leaping Lizards". NYBooks.com. New York Review of Books. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ "What is Real?". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- ^ a b c Frappier, Melanie (March 30, 2018). "Questioning quantum mechanics". Science. 359 (6383). AAAS: 1474. Bibcode:2018Sci...359.1474F. doi:10.1126/science.aas9190. S2CID 13689170. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Brooks, Michael. "What Is Real? A tale of how big egos hijacked quantum physics". New Scientist. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Iain, Dale-Trotter (December 2, 2018). "The Quantum Heretics". Physics World. IOP Publishing. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ a b Maudlin, Tim. "The Defeat of Reason". Bostonreview.net. Boston Review. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Crumey, Andrew (March 16, 2018). "'What Is Real?' Review: Quarks and Quandaries". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- ^ Wallace, David (2018). "Quantum foundations still not cemented". Physics Today. 71 (11): 51–52. Bibcode:2018PhT....71k..51W. doi:10.1063/PT.3.4070.
- ^ Skibba, Ramin (2018). "Einstein, Bohr and the war over quantum theory". Nature. 555 (7698): 582–584. Bibcode:2018Natur.555..582S. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-03793-2. PMID 32099168. S2CID 4403170.
- ^ Glashow, Sheldon Lee (October 19, 2018). "Not So Real". Inference. 4 (2). Inference: International Review of Science. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ Siegfried, Tom (2019-01-06). "'Beyond Weird' and 'What Is Real?' try to make sense of quantum weirdness". Science News. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
- ^ Fuchs, Christopher A. (2018). "What is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics". American Journal of Physics. 86 (12): 957–959. arXiv:1809.05147. Bibcode:2018AmJPh..86..957F. doi:10.1119/1.5053411. S2CID 239612503.
- ^ "2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Longlist Announced". EO Wilson Foundation. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
- ^ Commissariat, Tushna (7 April 2019). "Physics World's shortlist for Book of the Year 2018". Physics World.