Fundamentals, Frank Wilczek

 

Fundamentals: Ten keys to reality by Frank Wilczek.  I keep finding myself drawn back to books that describe the fundamental principals of physics.  It feels like they are changing (though they are not), so I think it is useful to see them from many different perspectives.

Started: 7/5/2021
Completed: 7/6/2021
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: I think I read a review that was favorable, but I may have just seen the title and author.

Review:

In an effort to be inclusive, Wilczek includes religion and quotes a lot of Christianity.  I find this off-putting.  Religion is a matter of faith--belief without evidence.  Science is about extracting an understanding from the evidence.  I think it is nice that there are scientists who can reconcile religion and science (it seems like Wilczek cannot really do this as he disputes the basic concepts of miracles, prayer, and even "magical thinking").  When I open a book by a physicist, I expect physics.  Finding religion mixed in is, well, off-putting.

So, the basic concepts, the fundamentals, are well and properly explained.  My failure to understand chromatics is not forgetting, it probably was not taught when I was in college.  Recently I read some texts and a few papers to try to understand how it worked and this is a book by one of the founders of QCD, so I kind of hoped it would have more.  What it did have was quite helpful.  I have trouble recommending this book because of the tie-ins with religion.