The World According to Physics

"Jim Al-Khalili calls this an ‘ode to physics’. It has a lot in it, but it is a small, accessible and very well written book, beautifully presented in compact form. The author invites us to understand what physics tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. He introduces fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, matter, quantum theory, relativity and thermodynamics. He goes into the array of theories that attempt to explain the world around us, currently quite numerous. Then he goes into the idea of a ‘theory of everything’, in which all theories may potentially be united. A central question here is, how likely is it that this will ever happen? When we look back at the developments in physics over the last 100 or so years, we see electromagnetic unification, which underpins quantum electrodynamics. Once that had been unified, it became obvious retrospectively. If or when a ‘theory of everything’ is deduced, then maybe it will also be obvious with hindsight. Or maybe it just won’t be possible to do it. There’s quite a bit around this holy grail of reductionism. What is the minimal set of rules that explain a system? Will it be possible to do this or not? There is an element in the book which is a rallying call to young people who might be thinking about going into physics or might be undecided—to encourage them to embark on this very challenging mission. As well as its popular appeal, this book may inspire students of the sciences about which direction they might go in to pursue physics and try and find a solution to this central challenge."