The reality is not as it appears. The elementary structure of things (Q2925489)

This is an excellent book and should be made available to a much large audience through an english translation. The author is one of the leaders in theoretical physics and is also interested in the philosophical implications of the scientific achievements about basic concepts like space, time and matter.NEWLINENEWLINEPart 1 gives a splendid review of the developments of the fundamental ideas of space and matter from ancient times to the beginning of nineteenth century.NEWLINENEWLINEPart 2 discusses the revolutionary changes in the description of nature due to Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Dirac. The remarkable peculiarity of such reviews is that the high competence displayed, also from a historical point of view, is accompanied by the passion with which the subject is discussed.NEWLINENEWLINEAs it rarely happens in science expositions addressed to a large audience, the review is centered on the few really fundamental ideas which marked the crucial developments, a choice which requires an unusual deep knowledge and mastering of the matter.NEWLINENEWLINEPart 3 deals with the recent developments for the problem of combining quantum mechanics and general relativity, a field where the contributions of the author, one of the founders of Loop Quantum Gravity, are fundamental. The proposed theory is still under investigation and it is not yet part of the standard education in theoretical physics. Thus, it may also be of interest also to graduate students, research fellows and theoretical physicists as a general introduction to revolutionary ideas like quantum space time, space quanta, non-existence of time.NEWLINENEWLINEPart 4 discusses the implications of Loop Quantum Gravity on Cosmology and it closes with the open question of the role of thermodynamics and information.