Graham Farmelo
presents
The Universe Speaks in Numbers:
How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets
in conversation with JACOB BARANDES
This event includes a book signing
DateJun
5
Wednesday
June 5, 2019 6:00 PM ET |
LocationHarvard Science Center Hall D
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA |
Tickets
This event is free; no tickets are required.
|
Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed author and professor GRAHAM FARMELO—author of The Strangest Man, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize—for a discussion of his latest book, The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets. He will be joined in conversation by JACOB BARANDES, Co-Director of Graduate Studies for Physics at Harvard University.
About The Universe Speaks in Numbers
One of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most basic particles and the forces between them. For centuries, we have searched for these laws by studying the results of experiments.
Since the 1970s, however, experiments at the world's most powerful atom-smashers have offered few new clues, so some of the world's leading physicists have looked to a different source of insight: modern mathematics. These physicists are sometimes accused of doing "fairy-tale physics," unrelated to the real world. But in The Universe Speaks in Numbers, award-winning science writer and biographer Graham Farmelo argues that the physics they are doing is based squarely on the well-established principles of quantum theory and relativity, and part of a tradition dating back to Isaac Newton.
With unprecedented access to some of the world's greatest scientific minds, Farmelo offers a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of the blossoming relationship between mathematics and physics and the research that could revolutionize our understanding of reality. A masterful account of the some of the most groundbreaking ideas in physics in the past four decades, The Universe Speaks in Numbers is essential reading for anyone interested in the quest to discover the fundamental laws of nature.
Praise for The Universe Speaks in Numbers
"This fascinating, splendidly readable, extensively researched, and remarkably up-to-date book takes readers from the days of Newton to the forefront of modern theoretical physics and shows how current research has reshaped the fields of physics and mathematics to the enrichment of both." ―Jeremy Gray, emeritus professor, Open University
"A riveting account of one of the greatest stories of our time. Graham Farmelo has delved deep into this fascinating subject, combining original scholarship and lively interviews with leading contemporary theorists at the forefront of the field. The result is a masterful book, which gives us, for the first time, a behind-the-scenes look at how physicists and mathematicians, driven by their pursuit of ultimate Truth, have been drawn into common territory by mysterious intellectual forces seemingly beyond their control." ―Nima Arkani-Hamed, professor, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton
"A superbly written, riveting book. In elegant prose, and using virtually no equations, Farmelo describes the ongoing quest of great thinkers to understand the bedrock nature of reality, from the microworld to the cosmos." ―Martin Rees, astronomer royal, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics, University of Cambridge
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