A Different Universe : Reinventing Physics From the Bottom Down

Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 Frontier Law; 2 Living with Uncertainty; 3 Mount Newton; 4 Water, Ice, and Vapor; 5 Schrodinger's Cat; 6 The Quantum Computer; 7 Vin Klitzing; 8 I Solved It at Dinner; 9 The Nuclear Family; 10 The Fabric of Space-Time; 11 Carnival of the Baubles; 12 The Dark Side of Protection; 13 Principles of Life; 14 Star Warriors; 15 Picnic Table in the Sun; 16 The Emergent Age; Notes; Index.;A Different Universe is a truly mind-bending book that shows us why everything we think about fundamental physical laws needs to change. A Nobel-winning physicist argues that fundamental physical laws are found not in the world of atoms, but in the macroscopic world around us In this age of superstring theories and Big Bang cosmology, we're used to thinking of the unknown as impossibly distant from our everyday lives. But in A Different Universe , Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin argues that the scientific frontier is right under our fingers. Instead of looking for ultimate theories, Laughlin considers the world of emergent properties-meaning the properties, such as the hardness and shape of a crystal, that result from the organization of large numbers of atoms. Laughlin shows us how the most fundamental laws of physics are in fact emergent. A Different Universe is a truly mind-bending book that shows us why everything we think about fundamental physical laws needs to change. Proposes a new way of understanding and interpreting the fundamental laws of science that will open up human thinking to the vast possibilities of the universe