Scientific American “The Edge of Physics”
Having returned from my annual extended-family holiday which this year was in Tunisia (Star Wars locations, Sahara desert and Roman ruins) I thought I would recommend a peice of summer reading that was much better than I was anticipating. As I do every year, I buy one of the “special” science magazines that get issued just to catch out sado types like me at the airport. This year I picked up The Edge of Physics ($5.95, £3.75), thinking this will kill an hour on the plane.
This is less of a time killer and much more of a series of review articles on a number of fields of cutting edge physics, with the emphasis on Quantum mechanics and particle physics. The highlights for me were the articles on big science i.e. the new Large Hadron Collider and the Neutrino detectors. The only article I eventually gave up on was the one on String Theory (or rather it is an article on the successor to string theory). For those not of a scientific bent there is still lots of a Fortean flavour in the magazine including an article on reducing the speed of light to a standstill and how to do it at home (well perhaps not at home). A good spend of £3.75, even if it does draw some strange glances at the pool from The Sun readers.
Having returned from my annual extended-family holiday which this year was in Tunisia (Star Wars locations, Sahara desert and Roman ruins) I thought I would recommend a peice of summer reading that was much better than I was anticipating. As I do every year, I buy one of the “special” science magazines that get issued just to catch out sado types like me at the airport. This year I picked up The Edge of Physics ($5.95, £3.75), thinking this will kill an hour on the plane.
This is less of a time killer and much more of a series of review articles on a number of fields of cutting edge physics, with the emphasis on Quantum mechanics and particle physics. The highlights for me were the articles on big science i.e. the new Large Hadron Collider and the Neutrino detectors. The only article I eventually gave up on was the one on String Theory (or rather it is an article on the successor to string theory). For those not of a scientific bent there is still lots of a Fortean flavour in the magazine including an article on reducing the speed of light to a standstill and how to do it at home (well perhaps not at home). A good spend of £3.75, even if it does draw some strange glances at the pool from The Sun readers.