The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science's Strangest Phenomenon (Hardcover)

by Brian Clegg (Author) "Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Bell, Anton Zeilinger, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Science writer Clegg (A Brief History of Infinity), discussing the field of quantum mechanics, asserts that "[e]very experiment takes us a step closer to realizing just how strange the world is at the quantum level." Quantum entanglement is the oddest of them all. As Clegg explains it, entanglement occurs when two particles (photons, atoms, electrons, etc.) become so intensely linked together that for all intents and purposes they become part of one unit. The mystifying thing is that this link continues even if the two particles are in different parts of the universe: "Make a change to one particle, and that change is instantly reflected in the other(s)—however far apart they may be." Clegg does an excellent job of explaining this complex situation in nontechnical terms; he details the many experiments that have consistently suggested that entanglement is real. The implications for future technological advances are huge, and Clegg is at his finest as he embeds potential advances in a broad historical context. Data could be encrypted in unbreakable codes; computers could become thousands of times more powerful than today; objects, and maybe even living organisms, could be instantaneously transported. While highly speculative, these possibilities could change our notion of reality. 27 b&w illus. (July 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–While written in laypersons' terms, this book requires some understanding of physics. The opening chapters set up the discovery of quantum entanglement, which occurred during the professional debate between Max Bohr and Albert Einstein as they discussed the nature of quantum physics. Clegg then provides historical understanding and the potential applications of entanglement to advance current technologies. Those chapters read like a science-fiction novel–an unbreakable secure communications system, teleportation, and supercomputers that think all become possibilities. The author's writing is well organized and succinct. Later chapters can be read independently. While the foundation for quantum entanglement may be difficult for some students to grasp, its potential will fascinate them.–Brigeen Radoicich, Fresno County Office of Education, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312343418
• ISBN-13: 978-0312343415
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #176,213 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #88 in

  Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Quantum Theory

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars the mediocre effect, July 25, 2006

By	Dr. Fred J. Mbogo "mbogo" (san francisco) - See all my reviews

Wow. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but somehow my negative review just disappeared from this page. Perhaps the book was not selling enough. What's up with that, Amazon? I really didn't like the book and the review didn't contain anything inappropriate. In an attempt to reconstruct the review...I thought that the book lacked an audience. There was not remotely enough detail for a regular reader of popular science books. The single chapter on entanglement in Brian Greene's "Fabric of the Cosmos" was much more enlightening than this entire book. I also don't see how a beginner would get anything out of this book. Too many things were just glossed over. Despite the dearth of detail about the main topic, the author saw fit to pad it with descriptions of Cantor's work, which is covered in many other books, including one of Mr. Clegg's. When referring to the uncountability of irrationals, he refers to them as "decimal fractions" and at one point, misleadingly, as simply "fractions", which are of course rational and countable. The book is a perfect example of the trend toward small, rapidly and inexpensively produced 250-page popular science books. Mr. Clegg is not a practicing scientist. He appears to be more of an entrepreneur and this shows in the quality of the book. I think my original review might have been pulled because I mentioned that I felt cheated because I bought the book on the 5-star recommendation of a particular UK popular science website, which appears to be an objective book review site. I found out that this site, which heavily pushes Mr. Clegg's books (he is always the featured author), appears to be controlled by him. He gives all of his books very high ratings of course. This seems incredibly deceptive to me. He has recently changed "featured author" to featured author/editor", though, perhaps in response to my original review. The web site is mentioned at the front of this book. So Amazon, in pulling the one bad review for this book (I've read about 100 popular science books in the past few years) left only the good reviews, including the first few 5-star reviews which are quite obviously planted by concerned parties. This seems deceptive also. Put your money into books that are a bit more substantial and took a bit more effort to write. BTW, the title is an unoriginal ripoff of Leon Lederman's wonderful "The God Particle". Mr. Clegg's book is a mediocre book about one of the most interesting (possibly the most interesting) phenomena in science. If this book had been written by Simon Singh, it would have been a winner.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, August 11, 2006

By	Homie G (Planet 9) - See all my reviews

If you are a physics major or well versed and well read on the subject this might not be the best book for you.

If you are someone interested in the subject but don't have a lot of time or brain power to get really deep into physics this is a great book for you.

Accessible, with deep yet clear examples, Clegg's book takes the reader on an interesting ride into physics, quantum entanglement and the possibilities.

I found this book to be a fun read and his explanations were direct and easily comprehendible. Most books on this subject can be dry and down right boring. This book is different in that it keeps the reader interested, educates and elucidates possibilities and ideas, and I learned a little bit about the social world of physics and the characters of that stage.

The only thing that did distract me was the title. Having nothing, or maybe everything, to do with "God", nor mentioning the phenomenon, I thought it a little off the mark. But it is a catchy title and if you let you mind wander the possibilities are definitely there.

Fun read!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A peek inside the engines of creation..., November 30, 2006

By	Steve Reina (Troy Michigan) - See all my reviews

Although this book has been justly criticized it remains nonetheless a serviceable examination of one of nature's most interesting phenomenon: quantum engtanglement.

Momentarily, the book's shortcomings, but first, it's strength.

Quantum entanglement is sort of the platypus of physics...so unlike the phenomenon around it that it forces us to ask essential questions about the nature of physics itself. As has been commonly discussed in other popular physics works, there are four fundamental forces of nature. Two of them operate at the macroscopic level being gravity and electromagnatism and the other two operate miscroscopically at the nuclear level being the strong and weak nuclear forces.

Significantly, each force has some type of distance limitation attached to it. So, to move a ball I have to somehow come into contact with it. Or likewise to move and electron I have to somehow sub atomicly come in to contact with it.

However, such is not the case with quantum entanglement where as Albert Einstein observed we see a "spooky action at a distance." In other words, when two particles have been mated they immedaitely assume like properties (in the case of sub atomic particles for example, a like spin or orientation). Once entangled, one has merely to effect the orientation of one partner to the mating to effect the other.

That's exactly the aspect of entanglement that made Einstein an ardent opponent of entanglement because ostensibly it seemed to violate his notions that light speed was the ultimate speed limit. Remember: in quantum entanglement effecting the orientation of one partner immediately effects the other partner. Einstein also saw as noxious the idea that this seemed to violate his notions of local action like me effecting a ball by somehow making contact with it.

While quantum entanglement is great stuff for science fiction plots, it has some basic limitations that seriously curtail its applications...all of which are discussed by Clegg. Most significantly, it's properly called a quantum effect because it is just that...something uniquely naturally peculiar to the sub atomic world. The reason is that when the mated particles are set free, their orientations can be changed by ANY examination...including those typically done by nature.

So, let's we were to recall Shroedinger's cat for another experiment (hopefully he's still alive!), and we were to want to entangle the entire cat. Our first biggest problem would be the natural interactions occuring between the cat and his environment between our attempt at entangling him and our attempt to unentangle him at the end of the process.

Significantly, this most important potential application of entanglement -- teleportation -- is touched upon by Clegg.

Also significantly, Clegg manages to cover the main entanglement issues as they exist at the time of his writing.

However, and this where his limitations show themselves. Though his book clearly has some very lucid moments and helpful discussion, it also contains some distracting segeways and inclusions of material put there perhaps most likely to pad the length of the manuscript. Also, the titling of the work as "The God Effect" seems nothing more than an attempt to create a provocative title to encourage book sales.

Even despite these limitations, the book is still on the whole well written and highly serviceable and undeniably discusses one of the most interesting phenomenon in nature. So, while this may be a good first book to read on the topic, by all means do not make it your last.