Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray

Hossenfelder, Sabine

ISBN 10: 0465094252 / ISBN 13: 9780465094257

Edité par Basic Books (edition Illustrated), 2018

With dust jacket. It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting. N° de réf. du vendeur 0465094252-8-1-29

Synopsis :

In this "provocative" book (New York Times), a contrarian physicist argues that her field's modern obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science.

Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades.

The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

À propos de l?auteur: Sabine Hossenfelder is a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, where she studies the phenomenology of quantum gravity. She has published more than fifty research articles on physics, cosmology, and quantum mechanics. She resides in Frankfurt, Germany.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
Éditeur : Basic Books (edition Illustrated)
Date d'édition : 2018
Reliure : Hardcover
Etat : Very Good
Etat de la jaquette : Jaquette
Edition : Illustrated.