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Nothing: A Very Short Introduction [#205]
Nothing: A Very Short Introduction [#205]
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「無」とは一体どういう状態のことをいうのでしょうか。すべての物質を取り除いたときに残るものは何なのでしょうか。果ては「真空」とは存在するものなのでしょうか。こうした疑問に答えるべく、古代アリストテレスの真空否定論から、ニュートンやアインシュタインが導き出した理論、真空と宇宙に関する最新の物理学的発見について紹介し、「無」の謎を解き明かします。
  

  • This Very Short Introduction tells you everything about 'nothing' - it is the story of how scientists have been puzzled by the physical problem of what remains when you take all the matter away.
  • A lively and stimulating guide, taking the reader from ancient ideas and cultural superstitions about the void, via the theories of Newton and Einstein, to the frontiers of current research in today's powerful particle accelerators
  • Reveals how the vacuum is far from being empty - that in fact it seethes with particles that spontaneously erupt into being - and how this provides fascinating clues about how the universe began, and what was there before
  • Tells the tale of the mysterious 'aether' that was long ago supposed to permeate the void - how Einstein did away with it, and how the latest research into the 'Higgs field' may mean it is making a comeback
  • Asks fascinating questions such as: Would nothing exist if there was no one to observe it? Where did everything come from? What lies outside the universe, and what is it expanding into?

 
What is 'nothing'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - a void - exist? This Very Short Introduction explores the science and the history of the elusive void: from Aristotle who insisted that the vacuum was impossible, via the theories of Newton and Einstein, to our very latest discoveries and why they can tell us extraordinary things about the cosmos. 

Frank Close tells the story of how scientists have explored the elusive void, and the rich discoveries that they have made there. He takes the reader on a lively and accessible history through ancient ideas and cultural superstitions to the frontiers of current research. He describes how scientists discovered that the vacuum is filled with fields; how Newton, Mach, and Einstein grappled with the nature of space and time; and how the mysterious 'aether' that was long ago supposed to permeate the void may now be making a comeback with the latest research into the 'Higgs field'. 

We now know that the vacuum is far from being empty - it seethes with virtual particles and antiparticles that erupt spontaneously into being, and it also may contain hidden dimensions that we were previously unaware of. These new discoveries may provide answers to some of cosmology's most fundamental questions: what lies outside the universe, and, if there was once nothing, then how did the universe begin? 

目次: 

1: Much Ado About Nothing
2: How Empty is an Atom?
3: Space
4: Waves in What?
5: Travelling on a Light Beam
6: The Cost of Free Space
7: The Infinite Sea
8: The Higgs Vacuum
9: The New Void
Notes
Bibliography
Index

著者について: 

Frank Close, OBE, is Professor of Physics at Oxford University and a Fellow of Exeter College. He was formerly vice president of the British Association for Advancement of Science, Head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Head of Communications and Public Education at CERN. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Lucifer's Legacy (OUP, 2000), and was the winner of the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for his 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics'. His other books include Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction (2004), The Cosmic Onion (1983), The Particle Explosion (1987), End (1988), Too Hot to Handle (1991), and The Particle Odyssey (OUP, 2002). In 2013 Professor Close was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science.

Review from previous edition All in all, this book makes for some fascinating reading. - Chemistry World, Dennis Rouvray.

An accessible and entertaining read for layperson and scientist alike. - Physics World

The Void is well worth reading. - Robert Cailliau. CERN Courier.

It covers very complicated concepts in a mostly accessible way. - Lawrence Rudnick, Nature

商品情報

ISBN : 9780199225866

著者: 
Frank Close
ページ
176 ページ
フォーマット
Paperback
サイズ
111 x 174 mm
刊行日
2009年06月
シリーズ
Very Short Introductions
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Nothing: A Very Short Introduction [#205]

Nothing: A Very Short Introduction [#205]

Nothing: A Very Short Introduction [#205]