The lightness of being [electronic resource] : mass, ether, and the unification of forces / Frank Wilczek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilczek, Frank.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass (Physics).

Matter.

Ether (Space).

Physical Description:

xi, 270 p., [4] p. : ill. (some col.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics offers this readable and authoritative work for the general public. It explores basic questions about space, mass, energy, and the longed-for possibility of a fully unified theory of nature.

Contents:

About the title

Reader's guide

pt. I. The origin of mass

Getting to It

Newton's zeroth law

Einstein's second law

What matters for matter

The hydra within

The bits within the its

Symmetry incarnate

The grid (persistence of ether)

Computing matter

The origin of mass

The music of the grid : a poem in two equations

Profound simplicity

pt. II. The feebleness of gravity

Is gravity feeble? : Yes (in practice)

Is gravity feeble? : No (in theory)

The right question

A beautiful answer

pt. III. Is beauty truth?

Unification : the siren's song

Unification : through a glass, darkly

Truthification

Unification [loves] SUSY

Anticipating a new golden age

Epilogue: A smooth pebble, a pretty shell

Appendix A: Particles have mass, the world has energy

Appendix B: The multilayered, multicolored cosmic superconductor

Appendix C: From "not wrong" to (maybe) right

Glossary.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-258) and index.

ISBN:

0-465-00321-4