Spooky Action at a Distance
The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time--and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Delightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.
What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time: nonlocality--the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. It appears to be almost magical.
Einstein grappled with this oddity and couldn't come to terms with it, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." More recently, the mystery has deepened as other forms of nonlocality have been uncovered. This strange occurrence, which has direct connections to black holes, particle collisions, and even the workings of gravity, holds the potential to undermine our most basic understandings of physical reality. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it?
In Spooky Action at a Distance, George Musser sets out to answer that question, offering a provocative exploration of nonlocality and a celebration of the scientists who are trying to explain it. Musser guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the often contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of not only space and time but also the origins of the universe-and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics.
“An important book that provides insight into key new developments in our understanding of the nature of space, time and the universe. It will repay careful study.” —John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal
“An endlessly surprising foray into the current mother of physics' many knotty mysteries, the solving of which may unveil the weirdness of quantum particles, black holes, and the essential unity of nature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this accessible and imaginative book, science journalist Musser (The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory) introduces readers to the "mother of all physics riddles": nonlocality the weird entanglement between particles in different places, which could help scientists better understand black holes, unified field theories, and other phenomena. Experimental evidence has long suggested that distant particles could indeed be connected, but in the early 20th century, many theoretical physicists thought that accepting nonlocality was like using magic to explain physics. Einstein held that it violates his theory of relativity, calling it "spooky action at a distance." Nearly a century later, there's still no good explanation for how nonlocality works. Musser explores nonlocality's possible role in black holes and wormholes, quantum teleportation, cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang, and even the existence of free will. Along the way, he introduces some of the scientists who have worked on nonlocality, including black hole expert Charles Misner, cosmologist Steve Giddings, and physicist John Stewart Bell, whose groundbreaking eponymous theorem makes nonlocality an "unavoidable" aspect of the universe. Clarity and humor illuminate Musser's writing, and he adroitly captures the excitement and frustration involved in investigating the mysteries of our universe. Illus.
Customer Reviews
The Surprising Implications of Quantum Entanglement
The spooky action to which Musser’s title refers is the entanglement of subatomic particles, whereby what happens to one is instantly reflected in the other, regardless of the distance separating them. The phrase is borrowed from Albert Einstein, who proposed the speed of light as a constant and an absolute, with nothing able to exceed its speed. How then to explain simultaneous actions, regardless of the distance separating them, with information seemingly travelling faster than the speed of light? … spooky? … or perhaps the result of our still incomplete understanding of the forces and structure of the universe?
Scientific American magazine contributing editor George Musser takes this topical real world problem - in mid-2015 scientists at the Delft University of Technology gave the strongest proof yet of its spooky existence - and uses both quantum mechanics (micro-scale) and Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (macro-scale) as bases from which to work. Musser works forwards (mostly) and backwards (for historical context and to incorporate Newtonian mechanics), and highlights the ongoing difficulty physicists face trying to unify the micro and macro forces into a single theory, and then adds newer theoretical frameworks to advance his narrative. Using both the foundational theories and the newer ones, Musser hypothesizes explanations for the spooky action, including that space itself may be an artificial construct, and that two entangled particles may not actually be separated by distance; that what appears to us as distance or space might be a construct in the same way that life is a construct founded upon basic laws of physics - not inconsistent with foundational laws, but not an essential part either.
The concepts are mind-bending, and to help us understand Musser makes ample use of analogies, including a recurring flipped coin to illustrate how aspects of entanglement work. He weaves amusing anecdotes throughout, and recounts in a lively fashion the various historic and contemporary physics debates. But given the many moving parts, including the competing and complementary theorems, more diagrams or frameworks would have been helpful - at the very least chapter sub-headings as a roadmap.
This small request - for a more comprehensive roadmap - highlights a larger and perhaps intractable issue; that the subject matter doesn’t easily lend itself to Musser’s target audience. Authors such as Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos) use a strong scientific framework in their presentation and assume a certain level of science comprehension in their analysis. Others, such as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, use the broadest of scientific frameworks (and lots of pictures and diagrams!) in their presentation, and for the most part omit any analysis - perfect for a mass audience. Musser is a capable writer, and like Sagan and Hawking he identifies and explains well the issues for a lay audience; unfortunately his theoretical explanations quickly drift from the desired orbit.
For those with a good scientific background and the willingness to wade through the early chapters’ slower pace, the second part of Musser’s book provides readers with the latest thinking on some of the most challenging problems in physics.