Books
Books are an excellent way to provide us with knowledge: from a non-technical introduction to a basic topic to a specialized monograph that summarizes the state of the art in a field of research. Books are available in hardcover and pdf formats. Some books are also available in kindle format (contact us for availability). General instructions are described in the how to buy page: how to buy.
Review of ten keys to reality
Description: Review and analysis are an important part of scientific research. This is an in-depth technical review of Fundamentals: ten keys to reality by the theoretical physicist, mathematician, and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek. Contrary to what Wilczek promises, we will not find 'ten broad principles' in his book, but rather a conflation of some truly fundamental facts —including that all matter in the universe is made up of combinations of very few ingredients—, with unimportant comments like the universe is huge, and with common misconceptions about quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, field theory, thermodynamics, and general relativity. A common misconception found in Ten keys to reality is the claim that the observable universe has a radius of 13800 million light-years, because light was only able to travel 13800 million years. Overall, Wilczek's book not only provides a rather flawed and outdated view of what modern physics says about nature, but also contains serious mistakes and incomplete data on chemistry, biology, and other disciplines beyond physics. It is shocking to see a Nobel laureate affirm that 'table salt' is a regular array of two types of atoms, when even chemistry courses for kids explain that salt is an ionic component made up of an equal number of anions (negative ions) and cations (positive ions). Ten keys to reality is also littered with rewrites of the history of physics and amusing claims about technology. A couple of parts of his book are enjoyable, specially the one where, contrary to most of his colleagues, Wilczek openly admits that even in the hypothetical case that we did achieve a complete understanding of the fundamental laws of nature, this would be neither the theory of everything nor the end of science. No prior reading of Wilczek's book is necessary, but the parts, chapters, sections, subsections, and the appendix in this review correspond to those in Wilczek's book for ease of comparison. The author of this review has conducted multidisciplinary research ranging from the biogeochemistry and hydrodynamics of estuaries to the development of a new formulation of quantum mechanics without wavefunctions and an alternative to the dark matter paradigm. This book is the second in a series of popular science book reviews.
Review of the God equation
Description: Review and analysis are an important part of scientific research. This is an in-depth technical review of 'The God equation: the quest for a theory of everything' by the theoretical physicist, futurist, and science popularizer Michio Kaku. The bottom line is that Kaku rewrites the history of physics, exposes his misconceptions about the foundations of established physical theories —including general relativity, thermodynamics, and quantum field theory—, presents a distorted and unfair view of string theory, and reveals a lack of familiarity with hot topics in physics research. Kaku also makes invalid claims on topics in chemistry and biology. The search for a theory of everything is a futile exercise. Furthermore, it is dishonest to keep promoting string theory as a perennial candidate for a theory of everything, when it cannot explain anything we already know or predict anything new. Kaku and other string theorists have made countless failed predictions, most recently that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would have observed 'higher vibrations or octaves of the superstring' verifying string theory. String theory was born as a genuine but invalid attempt to explain hadrons and the strong interaction, but it has become hyperspace-level absurdity that is no longer about the original strings, although the term 'string theory' is still used for marketing purposes. No prior reading of Kaku's book is necessary, but the chapters and sections in this book correspond to chapters and sections in Kaku's book for ease of comparison. The author of this review has conducted multidisciplinary research ranging from the biogeochemistry and hydrodynamics of estuaries to the development of a new formulation of quantum mechanics without wavefunctions, and has also closely followed the development of string theory during the last three decades. This book is the first in a series of popular science book reviews.