A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down

Not since Feynman has a Nobel physicist written with as much panache as Laughlin. He proposes a new way of understanding fundamental laws of science. In an age of superstring theories & Big-Bang cosmology, we think of the unknown as being impossibly distant from everyday life. The edges of science lie in the 1st nanofraction of a second of existence or in realms so small that they can't be glimpsed by the most sophisticated experimental techniques. But we haven't reached the end of science-only the end of reductionist thinking. Considering the world of emergent properties instead, suddenly the deepest mysteries are as close as the nearest ice cube or salt grain. He goes farther: the most fundamental laws of physics-such as Newton's laws of motion & quantum mechanics-are in fact emergent. They're properties of large assemblages of matter. When their exactness is examined too closely, it vanishes into nothing. A Different Universe goes into a cosmos where space vacuum has to be considered a kind of solid matter, where sound has quantized particles just like light, where there are many phases of matter, not just three, & where metal resembles a liquid while superfluid helium is more like a solid. It's a cosmos teeming with natural phenomena still to be discovered. This mind-altering book shows a surprising, beautifully mysterious new world. Preface Acknowledgments Frontier law Living with uncertainty Mount Newton Water, ice, and vapor Schrödinger's cat The quantum computer Vin Klitzing I solved it at dinner The nuclear family The fabric of space-time Carnival of the baubles The dark side of protection Principles of life Star warriors Picnic table in the sun The emergent age Notes Index