{"product_id":"matter-the-magnificent-illusion-hardback-9781509564149","title":"Matter; The Magnificent Illusion (Hardback) 9781509564149","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eMatter\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Magnificent Illusion\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eGuido Tonelli (Author), Edward Williams (Translated by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781509564149, Polity Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 11 October 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e224 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.1 x 14.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.431 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This book, with its lucid, exhilarating and cultured prose, takes the reader on a grand tour of the cosmos, clearly explaining many of the most profound mysteries of twenty-first-century science along the way. Tonelli, our guide, shows us that from humans to the universe which gave birth to us, nothing is eternal and immutable. We learn that some of the most profound discoveries lie within ourselves and our origins, and we are compelled to agree that matter is a grand illusion. This book is a masterpiece of the genre.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIan Shipsey, University of Oxford\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tonelli guides the reader with depth and insight into this fascinating aspect of modern physics: as it celebrates the triumph of materialism, it leads to an understanding of matter profoundly different from, and richer than, the traditional one.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCarlo Rovelli, author of \u003ci\u003eSeven Brief Lessons on Physics\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An extraordinary personal journey through the nature of matter, from its smallest obscurities to its grandest inscrutabilities. Tonelli is a wonderfully informative guide.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJim Baggott, co-author of \u003ci\u003eQuantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“what his lively and informative book demonstrates is how much we know about the matter we are made of, and how little we know about the other stuff that constitutes most of the cosmos.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“well-written”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat are we made up of? What holds material bodies together? Is there a difference between terrestrial matter and celestial matter – the matter that makes up the Earth and the matter that makes up the Sun and other stars? When Democritus stated, between the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, that we are made up of atoms, few people believed him. Not until Galileo and Newton in the seventeenth century did people take the idea seriously, and it was another four hundred years before we could reconstruct the elementary components of matter.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEverything around us – the matter that forms rocks and planets, flowers and stars, even us – has very particular properties. These properties, which seem quite normal to us, are in fact very special, because the universe, whose evolution began almost fourteen billion years ago, is today a very cold environment. In this book, Guido Tonelli explains how elementary particles, which make up matter, combine into bizarre shapes to form correlated quantum states, primordial soups of quarks and gluons, or massive neutron stars. New questions that have emerged from the most recent research are answered: in what sense is the vacuum a material state? Why can space-time also vibrate and oscillate? Can elementary grains of space and time exist? What forms does matter assume inside large black holes?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn clear and lively prose, Tonelli takes readers on an exhilarating journey into the latest discoveries of contemporary science, enabling them to see the universe, and themselves, in a new light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlso available as an audiobook\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThanks\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrologue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. The mother of everything\u003cbr\u003eA word which has very deep roots \u003cbr\u003e Morning rituals and due respect for corpses \u003cbr\u003e Matter in the thoughts of the great thinkers \u003cbr\u003e An assumption about the stability and persistence of the material universe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. Atoms and the void\u003cbr\u003eThe birth of atomism \u003cbr\u003e Epicurus and Lucretius \u003cbr\u003e An incredible discovery made by the secretary to an anti-Pope \u003cbr\u003e Venus Zephyrus and maggots in cheese \u003cbr\u003e The birth of modern science and atomism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. They’re just particles\u003cbr\u003eThe dark side of the Moon 26\u003cbr\u003e Particle hunters\u003cbr\u003e Particles which bond with other particles \u003cbr\u003e The irresistible force of Eros \u003cbr\u003e The realm of the shyest and most self-effacing of the particles 33\u003cbr\u003e Five small phenomena\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4. Clouds soft matter and the last shamans\u003cbr\u003eStates of matter \u003cbr\u003e The strange world of soft materials \u003cbr\u003e The almost eternal life of the great material structures \u003cbr\u003e The evanescent world of the most ephemeral forms of matter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5. The triumph and decline of a thousand-year-old assumption\u003cbr\u003eStories of fermions and bosons \u003cbr\u003e But what really is mass? \u003cbr\u003e The generation of ’64 \u003cbr\u003e Geneva the 8th of November 2011 \u003cbr\u003e A strange field that occupies the whole universe \u003cbr\u003e The strangeness of the Higgs and the many mysteries it hides\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6. Shining stars and black stars\u003cbr\u003eWhat stars are \u003cbr\u003e The turbulent side of the Sun \u003cbr\u003e The spectacular end of a tranquil star \u003cbr\u003e Supernovas and neutron stars 64\u003cbr\u003e Black holes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e7. The obscure forms of matter which populate the universe\u003cbr\u003eMostly gas and a pinch of dust \u003cbr\u003e Milkomeda and the Black Eye Galaxy \u003cbr\u003e The dark side of matter \u003cbr\u003e The light which sees dark matter \u003cbr\u003e The dark kingdom of shadows \u003cbr\u003e Delicate and gentle messengers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8. What is supporting the water that Bahamut swims in\u003cbr\u003eThe critical density of the universe \u003cbr\u003e What the vacuum is \u003cbr\u003e Where matter comes from \u003cbr\u003e What will happen to matter in the end\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9. The magnificent illusion\u003cbr\u003eThe great euphoria of mechanistic materialism \u003cbr\u003e State materialism \u003cbr\u003e Modern materialism \u003cbr\u003e But what is matter really \u003cbr\u003e And what if particles were hiding unspeakable secrets from us\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEpilogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndex\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eSubject Areas: Physics [\u003ca title=\"See our other books on Physics\" href=\"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/search?q=%22Physics%20%5BPH%5D%22\"\u003ePH\u003c\/a\u003e]\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Polity","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52458402906392,"sku":"9781509564149","price":15.69,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/2037\/5320\/files\/9781509564149.jpg?v=1785372285","url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/matter-the-magnificent-illusion-hardback-9781509564149","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}