Condensed matter physics (liquid state & solid state physics) – The Bell Bookshop

The magick of matter

Emma — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As heard on BBC Radio 4 Start The Week’Felix Flicker brilliantly reveals the secrets behind the modern-day magic we call physics’ Marcus du SautoyImagine you had a crystal that lit upon your command: magic must be at work, and you must surely be a wizard. But what if you discovered that you routinely cast such spells? Are the spells no longer magic … or are you a wizard?The modern term for wizardry is condensed matter physics. It is the study of the world around us – the states of matter and how they emerge from the quantum realm. Thanks to its practical magic we can make lasers which cut through solid metal, trains which hover in mid-air, and crystals which light our homes. It is one of the best-kept secrets in science; a third of all physicists work on it, yet its story has never been told.Join Felix Flicker as he introduces the magic of condensed matter physics. It will be a journey that reveals the subtle spells that conjure crystals from chaos and create new particles that have never before existed.The Magick of Matter will revolutionise what you know about physics and reality; you’ll never see the world in the same way again.

The Magick of Matter

Emma — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘Felix Flicker brilliantly reveals the secrets behind the modern-day magic we call physics’ Marcus du Sautoy’The world is already telling you its spells; the purpose of this book is to help you listen’Imagine you had a crystal that lit upon your command: magic must be at work, and you must surely be a wizard. But what if you discovered that you routinely cast such spells? Are the spells no longer magic … or are you a wizard?The modern term for wizardry is condensed matter physics. It is the study of the world around us – the states of matter and how they emerge from the quantum realm. Thanks to its practical magic we can make lasers which cut through solid metal, trains which hover in mid-air, and crystals which light our homes. It is one of the best-kept secrets in science; a third of all physicists work on it, yet its story has never been told.Join Felix Flicker as he introduces the magic of condensed matter physics. It will be a journey that reveals the subtle spells that conjure crystals from chaos and create new particles that have never before existed.The Magick of Matter will revolutionise what you know about physics and reality; you’ll never see the world in the same way again.

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch

Emma — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘Witty, approachable and captivating’ – Robin Ince
‘A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is’ – Sean Carroll
‘A delightfully fresh and accessible approach to one of the great quests of science’ – Graham Farmelo
‘Lays out not just what we know, but how we found out (and what is left to be discovered’ – Katie Mack

‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe’ – Carl Sagan

Inspired by Sagan’s famous line, How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch sets out on a journey to unearth everything we know about our universe: how it started, how we found out, and what we still have left to discover.

Will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of the world we inhabit? What is matter really made of? How did anything survive the fearsome heat of the Big Bang?

In pursuit of answers, we meet the scientists, astronomers and philosophers who brought us to our present understanding of the world – offering readers a front-row seat to the most dramatic journey human beings have ever embarked on.

Harry Cliff’s How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch is an essential, fresh and funny guide to how we got to where we are now – and what we have to come.

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch

Emma — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.’ – Carl Sagan

Inspired by Sagan’s famous line, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch is a brilliantly accessible introduction to today’s physics by academic and educator Harry Cliff.

‘A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is, and the journey matter takes from the Big Bang, through exploding stars, ultimately to you and me.’ – Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden

We probably all have a vague idea of how to make an apple pie: mix flour and butter, throw in some apples and you’re probably most of the way there, right? Think again. Making an apple pie from scratch requires ingredients that definitely aren’t available in the supermarket, ovens that can reach temperatures of trillions of degrees, and a preparation time of 13.8 billion years.

Physicist Harry Cliff ventures out in search of the ultimate apple pie recipe, tracing the ingredients of our universe through the hearts of dying stars and back in time to a tiny fraction of a second after our universe began. Along the way, he confronts some really big questions: What is matter really made of? How does the stuff around us escape annihilation in the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? And will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of our universe?

In pursuit of answers, Cliff ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy’s Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the ‘Antimatter Factory’ where this stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we’re close to knowing whether it falls upwards). And he reveals what the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider may be telling us about the fundamental ingredients of matter.

Along the way, Cliff illuminates the history of physics, chemistry, and astronomy that brought us to our present understanding of the world, while offering readers a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic intellectual journeys human beings have ever embarked on.

A transfixing deep dive into origins of our world, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch doesn’t just put the makeup of our universe under the microscope, but the awe-inspiring, improbable fact that it exists at all.