This text systematically presents the basics of quantum mechanics, emphasizing the role of Lie groups, Lie algebras, and their unitary representations. The mathematical structure of the subject is brought to the fore, intentionally avoiding significant overlap with material from standard physics courses in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. The level of presentation is attractive to mathematics students looking to learn about both quantum mechanics and representation theory, while...

At what point does theory depart the realm of testable hypothesis and come to resemble something like aesthetic speculation, or even theology? The legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a phrase for such ideas: He would describe them as "not even wrong," meaning that they were so incomplete that they could not even be used to make predictions to compare with observations to see whether they were wrong or not. In Peter Woit's view, superstring theory is just such an idea. In Not Even Wr...

In this "provocative" book (New York Times), a contrarian physicist argues that her field's modern obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science.Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the fou...

**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“An informed and entertaining guide to what science can and cannot tell us.” —The Wall Street Journal“Stimulating . . . encourage[s] readers to push past well-trod assumptions […] and have fun doing so.” —Science Magazine**From renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series “Science without the Gobbledygook,” a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to life’s biggest questions, and wrestles with w...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal*“A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American*“Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—ScienceThe most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blo...

In this approachable and fascinating biography of the galaxy, an astrophysicist and folklorist details everything humans have discovered—from the Milky Way's formation to its eventual death, and what else there is to learn about the universe we call home.After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, Th...

An insider’s view of science reveals why many scientific results cannot be relied upon – and how the system can be reformed.Science is how we understand the world. Yet failures in peer review and mistakes in statistics have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless – or, worse, badly misleading. Such errors have distorted our knowledge in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, physics, nutrition, education, genetics, economics, and the search for extrat...

**In A Brief History of Black Holes, award-winning University of Oxford researcher Dr Becky Smethurst charts five hundred years of scientific breakthroughs in astronomy and astrophysics.'A jaunt through space history . . . with charming wit and many pop-culture references' – BBC Sky At Night Magazine**Right now, you are orbiting a black hole.The Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole, the str...

Shortlisted for the 2024 British Academy Book PrizeA new history of mathematics focusing on the marginalized voices who propelled the discipline, spanning six continents and thousands of years of untold stories."A book to make you love math." —Financial TimesMathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong—warped like the sixteenth-century map that enl...

By the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a "brilliant" and "beautifully told" new natural history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us[New Scientist; The Times UK]National Bestseller • Top 10 Nonfiction of the Year: Kirkus • Best Science Book of the Year: The Times UKWe humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has r...

"A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book ReviewAn Editor's Choice, New York Times Book ReviewLonglisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science WritingLonglisted for Goodreads Choice AwardEvery physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, ...

By the star physicist and author of multiple #1 Sunday Times bestsellers, a major and definitive narrative work on black holes and how they can help us understand the universe.At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster so deadly it can bend space, throwing vast jets of radiation millions of light years out into the cosmos. Its kind were the very first inhabitants of the universe, the black holes.Today, across the universe, at the heart of every gala...