The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A maths free exploration of the science that made our world - Softcover

James Kakalios

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0715643819 ISBN 13: 9780715643815

Publisher: Duckworth, 2012

Synopsis

In the pulp magazines and comics of the 1950s, it was predicted that the future would be one of gleaming utopias, with flying cars, jetpacks, and robotic personal assistants. Obviously, things didn't turn out that way. But the world we do have is actually more fantastic than the most outlandish predictions of the science fiction of the mid-20th century. The World Wide Web, pocket-sized computers, mobile phones and MRI machines have changed the world in unimagined ways. In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, James Kakalios uses examples from comics and magazines to explain how breakthroughs in quantum mechanics led to such technologies. The book begins with an overview of speculative science fiction, beginning with Jules Verne and progressing through the space adventure comic books of the 1950s. Using the example of Dr. Manhattan from the graphic novel and film Watchmen, Kakalios explains the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, and describes nuclear energy via the hilarious portrayals of radioactivity and its effects in the movies and comic books of the 1950s. Finally, he shows how future breakthroughs will make possible ever more advanced medical diagnostic devices - and perhaps even power stations on the moon that can beam their power to earth.

About this title

Review:

For a popular science book, I can't conceive of higher praise, 10/10 --Fortean Times

Kakalios is a man who loves both physics and comics, and it really shines through --SFX Magazine

With passion, genial affability and a penchant for bad (truly bad) jokes, Kakalios ably relates the most baffling of theorems --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

James Kakalios is a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota. The popularity of his seminar titled Everything I Know about Physics I Learnt by Reading Comic Books led to the publication of The Physics of Superheroes in 2005. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Duckworth
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0715643819
• ISBN 13: 9780715643815
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336