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Antimateria (2010)

by Frank Close(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8806203614 (ISBN13: 9788806203610)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: I have always been fascinated with modern theoretical physics. The discovery of a remarkable sub atomic world that seemingly does not operate by the same set of natural laws as the visible world has challenged our most basic beliefs on life. Is it really possible that the world operates on two different sets of laws or (as many scientists believe) is there one unifying theory of physics yet to be discovered? What do the sub atomic laws tell us about the big bang or the existence of God? And what of the concept of antimatter - a substance that is utterly annihilated when it comes into contact with matter, in the process releasing nearly unlimited energy?Frank Close has written a brilliant, accessible book that explains the theory behind antimatter, its physical attribut... morees, the history behind how it was discovered, and the experiments that proved its existence. As with much of theoretical physics, there is some heavy duty mathematics behind the discovery of antimatter. But Close has written this book for the layman and does a brilliant job of keeping the high level math in the background. It's there in the appendix if you want to dive into the detail, but it is not necessary to follow the stream of the book or to understand the brilliance of the theoretical physicists who first projected the existence of antimatter. In part, it's clear that the author wrote this book to debunk many of the misunderstandings about antimatter that exist in the modern press or in the minds of the general public. He begins the book by noting that conspiracy theorists have claimed that the U.S. Defense Department is close to producing an antimatter bomb. To some extent, he notes, this kind of thinking is encouraged by the mass popularity of books like Dan Brown's Angels & Demons whose plot is based on the presence of an antimatter bomb under the Vatican. Yet the reality makes this idea impossible. For example, it requires as much energy to produce antimatter as is released in it's annihilation which makes its production unrealistic. Second, based on the world's capacity to produce antimatter (it requires exceptionally large facilities and billion's of dollars of investment with current technology) it would take millions of years to produce sufficient antimatter mass for a bomb. Finally, since antimatter is annihilated when it comes into contact with matter, the ability to store large quantities of antimatter for the periods of time necessary to weaponize it is well beyond the capacity of current technologies. That is the point of the book, but along the way Close does a remarkable job of giving us a layman's understanding of the wonders of the sub-atomic universe and telling us a thrilling tale of the discovery and attributes of antimatter. If you are interested in the science behind an understanding of how our universe works (without the complex mathematics) I would argue that this is among the best books I've ever read. Well done Mr. Close!
review 2: I am fairly certain that particle physics can only be really understood if you can understand the complexity of the mathematical equations that under gird the atomic construction our world, but trying to understand how it works without that ability (which I simply do not have) challenges your mind in a most delightful way. And this is clear enough to give you some kind of hold on the mysteries of matter and antimatter, an enjoyable stretching of how you see the world. less

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