Karen B. Alaniz

LQG for the masses, November 26, 2011

Depending on your background, the introductory book on Loop Quantum Gravity by Gambini and Pullin is very readable and nicely succint. As a non-specialist who likes keeping current with today's foundation physics, I found my previous readings from the following sources to be pretty essential:

For Gambini's and Pullin's chapters 2 and 3:

1) "A Short Course in General Relativity" by J. Foster and J. D. Nightingale.

For Gambini's and Pullin's chapters 4-6:

2)"Quantum Field Theory," 2nd ed., by L. H. Ryder (or an equivalent text), the first seven chapters. I like Ryder, but Peshkin and Schroeder is one alternative among many.

3)… Read more

Free updated version available at akalaniz@gmai.com, November 27, 2008

The 2nd ed. is significantly improved thanks to many great reviews.

Thanks,

Alex

free PDF at akalaniz@gmail.com

Also free translation from the French of a Le Clezio short (Le Clezio was the Nobel Laureate forWandering Star (Lannan Translation Selection Series) 2008 in Literature).

What you would be able to teach an amnesiac about religion and God? Get him a copy of Gates' book., August 28, 2007

Suppose that it was your task to teach an intelligent man or woman suffering amnesia all about religion, and you had to start from scratch, as well as teach him or her about the nature of "your" Christian faith, perhaps even persuade this person about the righteousness of your faith in your Christian god. Author Todd Gates captures how such a dialogue might go in a very readable and enjoyable way.

In one dialogue the Christian, Chris, states to Scott, the amnesiac, that, "Faith, my friend, is the way we make our choices. It honestly takes faith to believe anything--it even takes a certain measure of faith to believe that Abraham Lincoln existed, and did what people say he did."… Read more