Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Wilczek
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $11.95 (44%)
New (42) Used (9) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 4637
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0465003214
Dewey Decimal Number: 531.1
EAN: 9780465003211
ASIN: 0465003214
Publication Date: August 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Physicist’ understanding of the essential nature of reality changed radically over the past quarter century. Frank Wilczek has played a lead role in establishing the new paradigms. Transcending the clash and mismatch of older ideas about what matter is, and what space is, Wilczek presents here some brilliant and clear syntheses. Space is a dynamic material, the engine of reality; matter is a subtle pattern of disturbance in that material. Extraordinarily readable and authoritative, The Lightness of Being is the first book to unwrap these exciting new ideas for the general public. It explores their implications for basic questions about space, mass, energy, and the longed-for possibility of a fully unified theory of Nature. Along the way, Wilczek presents new perspectives on many strange aspects of our fantastic universe. Pointing toward new directions where the great discoveries in fundamental physics are likely to come, he envisions a new Golden Age in physics.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 The Lightness of Reading a Nobel Laureate's Writings December 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the clearest explanation of multitudes of basic theoretical elements for NON-experts in physics that I've ever read! And while he openly admits to no great desire to integrate science with art and/or an abstract (non-personified) form of religion, I sense a couple of starter-possibilities someone else might use in trying that. Already I've gone on to his earlier book -- Longing for the Harmonies -- to search for more clarity on several relevant ideas. Right now, Wilczek is right up there near Henry Stapp on my ranking of best-tentative-directions-in-grasping a multiverse that MAY have started with MIND versus MATTER but so far we really don't know which.
The best fundamental physics book in a generation. November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book reaches out to a wide audience: communicating with wit, skill, and remarkable truthfulness. In this it is better than any other popular account of fundamental physical reality that I know--bringing you into the mind of a top-level theorist, connecting you with how he thinks, what is actually known, what the questions are, what will be learned in the next few years. The book is intense, entertaining, extremely honest. There is no BS. Bob Laughlin said it: the book is both fun, and *right*.
 Quite technical, but very interesting October 30, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The author is a very brilliant person. This book is not light reading. On the other hand, the subject matter is quite complex. For physicists, the book is a five plus. I am glad that I labored through it, although at times, I was tempted to put it aside. It took a lot of work and concentration to read it.
The Lighness of Being October 25, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Lighness of Being by Wilczek.
Great booik. Not quite done with it yet. Very good on the Core Theory (or Standard Model). Very understandbly written.
Chris G.
 Particle physics still alive? October 10, 2008
3 out of 24 found this review helpful
Frank Wilczek, Physics Professor, MIT, Nobel Prize winner 2004,
427 publications, impressive work on theoretical particle physics.
This book is a classic, and a great read for anyone who is interested in physics.
Looking at the MIT website, there are many physics professors. What about the students? They can do research on particle physics. Where are the jobs when they graduate? How do they make a living? This is the main reason that Physics is fairly dead for the rest of the country.
I got my Ph.D. in Chemical Physics. I worked at Princeton University, under the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer. The first thing he told me, was there was no guarantee of jobs if you worked here. He was brutally honest and I appreciated that to this day.
I subsequently changed my field, Physics to Chemistry, to Computer Science, then to work as a Business Professor. Today, I teach everything from Accounting to Unix.
Yes, Physics is the foundation of everything. Dr. Wilczek has done very well. But for the young aspiring physics researcher, you need to put in 10 times the effort to be the next Dr. Wilczek. Good luck.
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