Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe [Paperback]

Leon M. Lederman (Author), Christopher T. Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2008

When scientists peer through a telescope at the distant stars in outer space or use a particle-accelerator to analyse the smallest components of matter, they discover that the same laws of physics govern the whole universe at all times and all places.Physicists call the eternal, ubiquitous constancy of the laws of physics symmetry. Symmetry is the basic underlying principle that defines the laws of nature and hence controls the universe. This all-important insight is one of the great conceptual breakthroughs in modern physics and is the basis of contemporary efforts to discover a grand unified theory to explain all the laws of physics. Nobel Laureate Leon M Lederman and physicist Christopher T Hill explain the supremely elegant concept of symmetry and all its profound ramifications to life on Earth and the universe at large in this eloquent, accessible popular science book. They not only clearly describe concepts normally reserved only for physicists and mathematicians, but they also instil an appreciation for the profound beauty of the universe's inherent design.Central to the story of symmetry is an obscure, unpretentious, but extremely gifted German mathematician named Emmy Noether. Though still little known to the world, she impressed no less a scientist than Albert Einstein, who praised her 'penetrating mathematical thinking'. In some of her earliest work she proved that the law of the conservation of energy was connected to the idea of symmetry and thus laid the mathematical groundwork for what may be the most important concept of modern physics. Lederman and Hill reveal concepts about the universe, based on Noether's work, that are largely unknown to the public and have wide-reaching implications in connection with the Big Bang, Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and many other areas of physics. Through ingenious analogies and illustrations, they bring these astounding notions to life. This book will open your eyes to a universe you never knew existed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The concept of symmetry has seen increasing service in science popularizations as a metaphor to convey the intuitive appeal of physics, a vogue that continues in this dense treatise. Nobel Laureate Lederman (The God Particle) and theoretical physicist Hill deploy mathematical symmetry as a unifying theme in a tour of physics from Newton's laws to quarks and superstrings. Sometimes, as in a demonstration that the invariance of physical laws through time implies the law of conservation of energy, this approach yields insights. But usually, as in their confusing exposition of special relativity, symmetry considerations get in the way. The authors keep things readable with lots of physics-for-poets bits, including some tie-ins to environmentalism, comparisons of modern cosmology with ancient Greek myths, and a fictional dialogue—partly in Italian—between two newlywed physicists and Galileo's ghost. Unfortunately, symmetry is a forbiddingly abstract branch of mathematics that was peripheral to the development of much of physics and gives little tangible feel for its substance, and the point where it becomes indispensable to discussions of modern physics is also the tipping point where the book, like many others, topples into total incomprehensibility to laypeople. Readers who think symmetry implies clarity and grace will be disappointed. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"The authors have done an excellent job; the book is fascinating and is an important contribution to the subject.... Strongly recommended." -- Choice

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Product Details

• Paperback: 363 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591025753
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025757
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leon M. Lederman, Nobel Laureate (Batavia, IL), is Resident Scholar at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the author of the highly acclaimed The God Particle, the editor of Portraits of Great American Scientists, and a contributor to Science Literacy for the Twenty-First Century. Dr. Lederman and coauthor Christopher T. Hill are also the coauthors of Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best introduction to modern physics for humanities majors, October 2, 2004

By 

Bill Mondello "mondo" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe (Hardcover)

One of the problems I face in teaching at a small liberal arts college is providing for our english, theatre, and music majors, a substantive introduction to modern physics. We have to get beyond the basics of heat, light and sound, and we have to talk about quarks, and black holes, relativity, the quantum theory, and the whole wonderful universe. Finally, a book has arrived that does all of this, and wonderfully unifies all of physics under its main mast of symmetry. These things captivate our students. Yet it also helps to have heros (especially some female scientist and mathematicians), and to still be a lyrical and readable account of things, but not to trivialize the subject. Finally, Professor Leon Lederman and Dr. Christopher Hill have risen to the cause. This is the first, and probably the unique, and perhaps the ultimate, attempt to reach out and fill this gap. I can't tell you how happy I am to see this book arrive. I have been using materials from their website, for years, but finally it all comes together in a book that I can assign to my students. This book is great... I repeat, it is great. It isn't easy, but it acheives so much (there are dozens of useless books popularizing science out there). The biography and theme, the life of Emmy Noether, is a perfect lead in to this immense and majestic subject. It is poignant and beautifully written. The appendix, with its humoresque student solving an SAT test problem using symmetry, is probably worth the purchase price of tuition alone. This book will hook my students, and will sit prominently on their bookshelves, in their homes, when they become lawyers, doctors, statesmen, and composers, a ready reference to all that is the mystery of nature, for the rest of their lives.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Beauty Behind Symmetry, December 9, 2004

By 

M. Paschos "Professor" (Dortmund, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe (Hardcover)

We are often delighted by the sight of symmetry when we observe it in a beautiful flower, in hexagonal snowflakes, or in man-made structures such as arches or bridges. But how many of us realize that symmetries are closely related to the conservation laws of physics? Lederman and Hill, 2 well-known and practicing physicists, describe the multiple facets of this topic, discussing how symmetry in the flow of time is related to energy conservation. They use this concept as a springboard to expand upon the importance of energy in this period of our civilization with real facts and figures.

The first few chapters deal with symmetries of space and time and their relation to the conservation of momentum and energy. Fascinating stories like that about perpetual motion machines abound, and there are personal vignettes like one about Amalia Noether, a young lady who discovered the deeper connection between symmetries and physical laws and still suffered trials and tribulations as a woman seeking an academic position.

Hill and Lederman take on the task of describing symmetries throughout physics, from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics, all the way to modern topics of particle physics. The book is intended for readers at an advanced high-school level or non-physics majors at university. Chapter 6, for instance, gives a refreshing account of the law of inertia- how it was formulated (incorrectly) by the ancient Greeks, later to be discovered by Galileo and to become a basic postulate in the relativity theory.
Relativity is expounded upon in Ch. 7, whereby full appreciation of its contents requires some guidance. Other chapters describe
e.g., symmetries of quarks and leptons, which currently stimulate public imagination. This is, in fact, the intent of the authors, "...to [motivate and] convince high school science teachers to include some of the important concepts of symmetry in the core disciplines of phyics, chemistry and biology" and to use it as a text/reference book. Their purpose is well-served, especially by the many anecdotes and numerical estimates that make the book easily approachable for the reader.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book on modern physics, June 8, 2006

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe (Hardcover)

Wow. This is some book. Unlike many books that describe the evolution of modern cosmological theory, this one is dedicated to the understanding of physics itself, both its history and it's collation of knowledge about reality.

Through the course of the text, the history of discoveries in physics is described, giving all contributors from Aristarchis, Galileo and Newton, to Einstein, Feynman and Guth, among others, their just due. That it has been a globe effort is evident from the source nationalities of these intellects, as diverse as Scotland and Japan. The narration clearly illustrates that good science is the result of the cumulative efforts of many different individuals, from many different cultures throughout history.

Interesting too is that the book's basic starting point is the intellectual contribution of a brilliant female mathemation, Amalia Noether, working at about the same time and in the same country as the better known Einstein. It is her theory of symmetry in physics, worked out in mathematical theorems, that created a major connecting link between physics and mathematics. Although the book is not in depth enough to actually make her contribution clearer than "Noether's Theorum," her discoveries are obviously at the core of the entire movement in modern physics. It's nice to know that my old high school math teacher, who so disparaged the math abilities of his female students was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The book is well conceived in its presentation of the information. It begins with the earliest efforts of the ancient Greeks and Romans to understand the workings of nature. Their concepts, sometimes startlingly close to the truth, served as the starting point for later researchers. The character of physics as a discipline is presented from a Newtonian perspective in the earlier portions of the book, and I have to say, while it does not bog one down in detailed formulae, it makes much more sense of basic physics than many books do.

The next few chapters deal with Einstein and Bohr, relativity and quantum mechanics. Probably no other book I've read on these subjects has done as good a job of pulling the whole thing together; particularly the authors manage to connect the concepts of Newtonian and modern physics more clearly for the reader. While many books have attempted to do this, often it seems as though the authors make the assumption that the reader will see how the two are connected and hop from one topic to the next without connecting comments. Lederman and Hill put the entire thing out there for the student, assuming that it is not obvious how the two are connected. This description is in fact the bulk of the book.

The last pages of the book are dedicated to a detailed description of the more recent contributions to physics, particularly the theories relating to sub-atomic particles and their interactions and the concepts behind the Feynman diagrams. I have to admit that this aspect of physics has always been the most confusing to me. The authors went a good distance to clearing up some of the questions I had about the topic. This is, however, the most complex discussion in the book, and one that I will doubtless have to re-read before I am entirely comfortable with it.

A superb book on modern physics, one that I'll re-read. I suggest that it be used as an introductory text to high school physics classes, since it makes the details of Newtonian physics usually taught at this level clearer and introduces advanced physics in a more understandable form.