In search of the multiverse
Subtitle: parallel worlds, hidden dimensions, and the ultimate quest for the frontiers of reality
By: John Gribbin
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Hoboken, N.J
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780470613528
Description: "Critical acclaim for John Gribbin    "The master of popular science."  --Sunday Times (London)      "Gribbin explains things very well indeed, and there's not an equation in sight."  --David Goodstein, The New York Times Book Review (on Almost Everyone's Guide to Science)      "Gribbin breathes life into the core ideas of complexity science, and argues convincingly that the basic laws, even in biology, will ultimately turn out to be simple."  --Nature magazine (on Deep Simplicity)      "Gribbin takes us through the basics [of chaos theory] with his customary talent for accessibility and clarity. [His] arguments are driven not by impersonal equations but by a sense of wonder at the presence in the universe and in nature of simple, self-organizing harmonies underpinning all structures, whether they are stars or flowers."  --Sunday Times (London) (on Deep Simplicity)      "In the true quantum realm, Gribbin remains the premier expositor of the latest developments."  --Booklist (on Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality)"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgements.; title: Preface: The Search.; title: Introduction: In an Infinite Universe, Anything Is Possible.; title: 1. The Coming of the Quantum Cats.; title: Neither wave nor particle; A quantum of uncertainty; The only mystery; Interpreting the unimaginable; The mother of all quantum cats; The many worlds of Hugh Everett; The branching tree of history; Everett comes in from the cold.; title: 2. Cosmic Coincidences Revisited.; title: The carbon coincidence; Why is the Universe so big?; Nuclear efficiency; The incredible lightness of gravity; Cosmology's coincidental constant; Ripples in a smooth cosmic sea; Three dimensions good, more dimensions bad; The lottery of life.; title: 3. Quantum Bits and Time Slips.; title: Being in two minds; In search of the quantum computer; The killer application; Practicalities; Where does it all happen?; A metaphor for the Multiverse; When does it all happen?;Timeslips; Broader horizons.; title: 4. Infinite in All Directions.; title: Arrows of time; The heat death of the Universe; Every conceivable accident; Time and distance; Time and thermodynamics; The cosmic arrow and the gravitational sink; Bouncing back?; Back to the future.; title: 5. (Just Like) Starting Over.; title: The particle connection; Nothing comes from nothing; Inflating the Universe; The return of the Steady State?; Bubbles on the River of Time; Eternal inflation and simple beginnings; Boltzmann's brain, the arrow of time, and causal patch physics; To infinity - and beyond!; title: 6. The String's the Thing.; title: Gravity grabs attention; Two approaches plus a third way; Compact but perfectly formed; The magic of M; Revisiting the incredible weakness of gravity; When worlds collide; By its bootstraps; The bottomless pit; There's lots of places like home; Exploring the cosmic landscape; The return of Schrödinger's cat.; title: 7. Faking It? Or Making It?; title: Is it science?; Inside information; The fakers; Black holes and baby universes; Selecting universes naturally; A new perspective; Makers of universes; Evolution in designer universes; Universes by design.; title: Further Reading.; title: Glossary.; title: Index.