The Comprehensible Cosmos: Where Do the Laws of Physics Come From?
Stenger (Has Science Found God?), emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii, goes to great lengths to explain that, although he is not completely convinced that the laws of physics as we know them have objective reality, he doesn't subscribe to the postmodernist notion that there is no such thing as objective reality. Stenger explains that the power of currently accepted models of physics arises from what he calls "point-of-view invariance," i.e., they have the ability to make the same predictions regardless of where or when an observer is taking measurements. While this point is well made and important, Stenger's descriptions of the models of physics and his discussion of cosmology will be largely incomprehensible to the average reader. A third of the book consists of eight mathematical supplements designed for "anyone who has taken the major courses in a four-year curriculum of undergraduate physics, chemistry, engineering, or mathematics." B&w illus.(July)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.