The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings (Revised) [Paperback]

Martin Gardner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0716720930 | ISBN-13: 978-0716720935 | Publication Date: September 1991 | Edition: 3 Revised

Martin Gardner takes an entertaining look at one of man's most puzzling questions: Is the universe symmetrical? This book is a popular survey of mirror symmetry (left vs. right) and asymmetry, and the significant roles they play in such diverse fields as mathematics, physics, art, music, poetry, and more!

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company; 3 Revised edition (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716720930
• ISBN-13: 978-0716720935
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For 25 of his 95 years, Martin Gardner wrote 'Mathematical Games and Recreations', a monthly column for Scientific American magazine. These columns have inspired hundreds of thousands of readers to delve more deeply into the large world of mathematics. He has also made significant contributions to magic, philosophy, debunking pseudoscience, and children's literature. He has produced more than 60 books, including many best sellers, most of which are still in print. His Annotated Alice has sold more than a million copies. He continues to write a regular column for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frames superstrings and twistors, April 28, 2000

By 

Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings (Revised) (Paperback)

Every decade Gardner updates this book. The five new chapters in the 1990 edition, including material on twistors and superstrings, are well worth the price. What Gardner does best is frame the new theories within a historical perspective. For example, he says it is impossible not to compare string theory with Lord Kelvin's (W. Thompson) 1958 theory of vortex strings. Vortex string theory was fashionable for at least fifty years. Gardner shows the vortex string theory and the superstring theory to be kissing cousins: Lord Kelvin used perfect fluid to refer to the superstring quantum vacuum -- both referring to the same sub-space area. String theory speaks of vibrating frequencies of energy while vortex rings were also vibrating frequencies that gave the atoms different properties. Instead of quantum foam with jittering virtual particles, vortex theory had vortex sponges with billions of vortex motions whirling in all directions.

Gardner's account of Roger Penrose's twistor theory is short and excellent. Physicists have gotten tangled up trying to speak of deeper down events which are hidden from view due to their sub-Planck length size (10 to the minus 33rd power of a centimeter). Here it is pointed out that "on a sufficiently small scale the concept of a space-time point evaporates in the complex space of twistor theory." Twistor theory, like superstring theory, was merely trying to formulate how the submicroscopic particles come into being. Both theories consist of math and lack any experimental verification. To repeat, the author discusses these obtuse theories in a way that frames their overall direction of thought. Gardner appears to agree with Howard George who calls superstring theory a "recreational mathematical theology." The bottom line -- both twistor and string theory are philosophy -- not physics.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, but somewhat out-of-date (only at the end)., January 15, 2002

By 

Dale Wood "Europamoon" (Alabama, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings (Revised) (Paperback)

I think that THE NEW AMBIDEXTROUS UNIVERSE (1990) is a wonderful book on symmetry and asymmetry in the worlds of everyday life, chemistry, physics, and unification theories. Everything in this book is noteworthy, and also up-to-date except for the last few chapters.
It is a very good updating of the previous (1978) edition, which concluded with many open questions in elementary particle physics that were resolved (and new questions raised) in 1978 - 1989.
It is high time for this book to be updated if Mr. Gardner can manage it (he is rather elderly; born in 1914), and a publisher will take a new edition. Books like this are gueling to revise and update.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review from a non-scientific perspective, January 13, 2002

By 

Sarah (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings (Revised) (Paperback)

I'm not going to say that I understand all of this. Most of it is way over my head, but after reading it, I can say that I understand more now than I did before. I'm planning on attacking it again in a couple years. Overall, however, Gardner does a good job of bring complicated scientific theory down to a plain English level by using diagrams and analogies.