jThis thoroughly updated and revised text contains a selection of well-written essays based on Silvermans work on a wide range of topics, including: quantum mechanics, including atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids. Presenting a personal odyssey in physics, Silverman investigates processes for which no visualizable mechanism can be given, or that seem to violate fundamental physical laws (but do not). The discussions use little mathematics, and anyone with a little college physics will be able to read the book with pleasure. -Engagingly written -Easily understandable by both the general reader and the seasoned physicist -Covers a diversity of subjects from "hot" topics in contemporary physics to less widely known but subtle and intriguing issues in physics -Discusses real physical systems whose behavior provokes, surprises and challenges the imagination -This second edition is newly revised and updated
Mark P. Silverman is Jarvis Professor of Physics at Trinity College. He received a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and has since pursued a wide range of experimental and theoretical studies concerning the structure of matter, the behavior of light, and the dynamics of stars and galaxies. His investigations of quantum phenomena have included electron interferometry, radiofrequency and microwave spectroscopy, coherent laser spectroscopy, atomic beams and nuclear spectroscopy. Attracted by the physical beauty of optical phenomena, he has engaged in extensive studies of the reflection, refraction, diffraction, polarization, and scattering of light. Particularly noteworthy are his studies of the interaction of polarized light with chiral materials, i.e. substances displaying an asymmetry between left and right handedness, a property that is a hallmark of the chemistry of all terrestrial life forms. His theoretical studies of the internal structure of highly massive collapsed stars have led to the prediction of new classes of stellar end states and novel insights into the nature of the dark matter thought to pervade the universe.
Dr Silverman has been a guest scientist and invited speaker at many institutions. Among his appointments, he has been Joliot Professor of Physics at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris, Erskine Fellow in Physics at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand, and first foreign Chief Researcher in quantum physics at the Hitachi Advanced Research Laboratory in Tokyo. He is author of six books and numerous scientific papers.
