Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics [Hardcover]

Frank Wilczek (Author), Betsy Devine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 1987

"Occasionally, there comes along a popular science book that both scientists and non-scientist can read with pleasure and profit, and this is one."—The New Yorker

Devoted to sharing their own delight and awe before the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos, Frank Wilczek (winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics) and science writer Betsy Devine also have a serious purpose: to reveal to the lay reader how a heightened perception can respond to timeless themes of the physical universe. For example, they show that even the most exotic theories always confirm that physical laws are precisely the same throughout the universe, and they explain how we have learned that the most massive molten stars and the tiniest frozen particles are in physical harmony. In their descriptions of the workings of the half-known universe, Wilczek and Devine bring all of us face to face with the beauty of eternal order and the inevitability of rational ends and beginnings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title here sums up today's Big Bang scientists at sea among the theoretical dissonances and paradoxes they've tried to express in their GUTS (Grand Unified Theories), which ask the question Leibnitz posed long ago: Why is there something rather than nothing? Wilczek, physics professor at UC Santa Barbara, and his coauthor wife are only the latest but certainly among the most original writers who have tried to capture the current physics scene in a book. They sum up, in somewhat the form of "themes and variations"the authors are music loverssuch challenging problems of "quantal reality" as cosmic uniformity, interchangeability, etc. Sharply knowledgeable, they discuss the nature of light (they transform "waves" and "lumps" to a new word, laves) and run the gamut from quarks, colour (they choose the British spelling), mesons, gluons et al. to deep views on matter, antimatter and what may be the most exciting and seminal concept in the new physics: symmetry. Here they have a crack at answering Leibnitz's questionan arresting climax to a book loaded with astounding insights and riddles. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wilczek (physics, University of California, Santa Barbara) and Devine (a former Guggenheim fellow) point out that modern physics is organized around a limited number of themes. They try to show that as a composer creates music by blending together esthetically pleasing variations, scientists create theories of the universe by developing intellectually pleasing concepts; new results disproving old theories create disharmonies that must be erased by superior theory. While this idea is basically correct, the musical analogy is forced and gets lost; but this is a nice exposition of modern physics for readers with some science background. Harold D. Shane, Baruch College of CUNY
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (December 17, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393024822
• ISBN-13: 978-0393024821
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long for Harmony No More!, January 18, 2005

By 

K. C. Cole (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (Paperback)

Longing for the Harmonies: That's what physicists do. This book, in fact, pretty much sums up what physics is, at heart, about: a search for connection and clarity, a series of variations on themes, the interplay of tension and release, mystery and discovery--the universe's own fugue. Frank Wilczek-who recently won the Nobel prize for puzzling out how quarks glom together-and Betsy Wilczek-writer, blogger, math whiz--have composed an entrancing work that captures both the substance and process of understanding.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars always one of my favorites, January 21, 2005

By 

L. Krauss (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (Paperback)

This has long been one of my favorite expositions on the nature of science, written by scientists. Wilczek and Devine present one of the most creative and playful discussions of physics, from the basic to the forefront that I have seen. I am very happy that this book has been re-released because now many more people will have an opportunity to share the joy I had reading it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good time will be had by all., February 1, 2005

By 

R. MacKenzie - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (Paperback)

Longing for the Harmonies is subtitled "Themes and variations from modern physics". I would have added "and beyond": I doubt there's another popularization of quantum mechanics and particle physics that also touches upon Keats, ancient Babylon and child psychology, to name but a few.
The book actually strikes me as two intertwined books. First, there are the "preludes" which are thought-provoking excursions here, there and everywhere. At times they seem quite off the wall and impossibly far from fundamental physics, but they always whet the appetite for what's to come, a bit like (to use the musical analogy which is the book's main metaphor) a solo which seems out of place until it ties back into the main body of the song.
Second, the "main body" of the book, although also laden with references and analogies from far and wide, exposes and (in so far as is possible!) demystifies quantum mechanics and fundamental physics in all its glory, both the large (cosmology and astrophysics) and the small (atoms and subatomic particles). The two domains, of course, are intimately related: the early Universe, devoid of complicated structures such as planets, stars and human beings, was a soup of elementary particles, and its evolution (and, perhaps, birth) was dictated by rules of the game established by particle physics.
A review wouldn't be a review without at least a minor complaint; not an easy task with this book, but here is mine: the table of contents strikes me as a bit too cryptic. Chapter headings such as "Inevitability" or "Radical uniformity in microcosm" do little to explain what the chapter is about; more straightforward headings would probably help guide the reader through the grand tour they are on and help them get a sense of perspective of how the different subject inter-relate. Fortunately, the remaining three hundred-odd pages of the book are packed with enjoyable reading.
Among the many, many gems in the book are a musical analogy of why particle physics doesn't obviate all of macroscopic physics, the "lave" concept (a combination of "lump" and "wave" descrbing the dual nature of matter), and a personal account of the discovery of a cornerstone of the interaction between quarks and gluons known as asymptotic freedom (for which one of the authors was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics last year). But open the book just about anywhere and it's a good bet that you will find a fascinating take on something -- whether from particle physics or beyond. Give it a whirl!