When new physics books come out by Five Books interviewees and popular authors, we'll list them here. Please email us if a new physics book you like is missing! editor@fivebooks.com.
Supernova
by Or Graur
In his book Supernova Or Graur, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, introduces his field. Graur does research on Type Ia supernovae but has also spent a lot of time doing public education and outreach, including working with high school students. The book is interesting, informative and very clear. It makes you want to go out and look at the night sky.
Quantum Reality: The Quest for the Real Meaning of Quantum Mechanics
by Jim Baggott
Science writer Jim Baggott has devoted his working life to making quantum physics accessible to the rest of us. As he mentions in the preamble, he has been called 'depressingly sane'. He is a strong advocate for a bigger role for philosophy in science, as we reach the limits of what our minds can get our heads around and wild speculation has taken the place of empirical evidence. In this book, he explores the relationship between quantum physics and reality.
At The Edge of Time
by Dan Hooper
At The Edge of Time by astrophysicist Dan Hooper is a popular science book that explains, in lay person's terms, not only what we know out about the universe to date, but also what we don't know about it. "Right now, there’s a culmination of mysteries in cosmology that need to be told as a coherent story," he says in his Five Books interview on the Big Bang. "Maybe we’re in the 1904 of cosmology right now, and we're going to tear down everything we think we know to the ground and build something entirely new."
The World According to Physics
by Jim Al-Khalili
***Shortlisted for the 2020 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize***
"This book is an ode to physics. I first fell in love with physics when I was a teenager" —Jim Al-Khalili.
In The World According to Physics, theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili continues his mission to explain physics so that the rest of us can understand it, taking readers through the three 'pillars' of modern physics: relativity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics.
Read our updated interview with Jim Al-Khalili on the physics books that inspired him.
