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The World's 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems (Hardcover)
by John R. Vacca (Author)
  4.4 out of 5 stars 29 customer reviews (29 customer reviews)  


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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Featuring Original Contributions from Dr. Stephen Hawking

Unfold the mysteries that vex the greatest minds in science

Gain extensive knowledge of the most challenging scientific problems and learn from more than 60 of the world’s foremost scientists—among them, 40 Nobel laureates! Expand your horizons with a wide range of advanced scientific theories and techniques on problems concerning:

Permanently storing nuclear waste or eliminating it altogether
Harvesting energy from a reaction similar to that of the sun
Earthquake prediction
The creation of the universe
Comprehension of free will
The mystery of dark matter
The cosmological constant problem
The construction of a consistent quantum theory of gravity
And much more

Science has reached dazzling heights of discovery, transforming civilization in the process. And yet, some of the most fundamental questions remain unsolved! In The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems, John Vacca—together with more than 60 of the world’s most highly respected scientists—explains these problems in detail and describes the intellectual and technological hurdles to be overcome in order to solve them.

This book is indispensable for science buffs, teachers, students, and scientists who want to keep pace with the latest developments. The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems delves deep into mysteries such as the creation of the universe, dark matter, the quantum theory of gravity, protein folding, free will, consciousness, earthquake prediction, Fullerenes, the quantum mechanical vacuum, storing or eliminating nuclear waste, and more. No other resource explains science’s most compelling dilemmas with such clarity and authority, and nowhere else can you share the expertise of so many brilliant minds! You’ll find

Complex topics made intelligible, as only experts in their fields can
Coverage of the key problems expected to dominate the next 40 years of scientific research
The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems is must reading for anyone teaching science or performing scientific research. It also will fascinate the moderately technical reader or scientific novice.

From the Back Cover

Featuring Original Contributions from Dr. Stephen Hawking

Unfold the mysteries that vex the greatest minds in science

Gain extensive knowledge of the most challenging scientific problems and learn from more than 60 of the world’s foremost scientists—among them, 40 Nobel laureates! Expand your horizons with a wide range of advanced scientific theories and techniques on problems concerning:

Science has reached dazzling heights of discovery, transforming civilization in the process. And yet, some of the most fundamental questions remain unsolved! In The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems, John Vacca—together with more than 60 of the world’s most highly respected scientists—explains these problems in detail and describes the intellectual and technological hurdles to be overcome in order to solve them.

This book is indispensable for science buffs, teachers, students, and scientists who want to keep pace with the latest developments. The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems delves deep into mysteries such as the creation of the universe, dark matter, the quantum theory of gravity, protein folding, free will, consciousness, earthquake prediction, Fullerenes, the quantum mechanical vacuum, storing or eliminating nuclear waste, and more. No other resource explains science’s most compelling dilemmas with such clarity and authority, and nowhere else can you share the expertise of so many brilliant minds! You’ll find

The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems is must reading for anyone teaching science or performing scientific research. It also will fascinate the moderately technical reader or scientific novice.





See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details
  • Hardcover: 704 pages
  • Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (July 7, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0131426435
  • ISBN-13: 978-0131426436
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars 29 customer reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #518,595 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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Customer Reviews
29 Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating despite some repetition and some fuzziness, January 25, 2006
By Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)      
The problems range from dark matter and dark energy through attempts to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics to problems associated with DNA and proteins, to neuroscientific concerns about free will and consciousness to what to do about nuclear fusion and its waste.

There are other books on cutting edge problems in science that I have read, e.g., John Malone's Unsolved Mysteries of Science: A Mind-Expanding Journey through a Universe of Big Bangs, Particle Waves, and Other Perplexing Concepts (2001) or The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century (2002) edited by John Brockman; but there is only one other that is anywhere near as ambitious as this work. That book would be Magic Universe: The Oxford Guide to Modern Science (2003) by Nigel Calder.

To compare these two books for the reader I would say that Calder's book is not only longer but covers more ground, is better edited and relies on a greater range of scientific authority. But Vacca's book has the virtue of narrowing in on just where the scientific action is while he does a good job of presenting the various opinions. That is, insofar as I, personally, can tell. To be honest, much of the material in all these books is above my level of expertise. Consequently I take most of what I read at face value. Clearly I cannot choose between cosmological models of inflation and quintessence. Nor do I have any firsthand experience with the complications of protein folding, etc. But neither will most readers. However we needn't be critical readers. It is enough to read appreciably about the wonders of science and how such wonders inform our beliefs and enrich our lives.

As for the repetition in the book and the typos and the other errors pointed out by other readers, it is good to und