Brian’s esteemed Scientist (radio astronomer – and more) friend, Marcus Chown, is about to launch his new book, “The Magicians” – yet another intriguing title.
The Magicians: Great Minds and the Central Miracle of Science: The visionaries who demonstrated the miraculous predictive power of science [AMAZON]
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Faber & Faber; Export – Airside ed edition (20 Feb. 2020)
Language: English ISBN-10: 0571346391
A scintillating portrait of the most significant eureka moments in scientific history by the bestselling popular science writer. What does it feel like to understand something about the universe that no one has ever known before? ‘Marcus Chown rocks!’ Brian May How does it feel to know something about the universe that no one has ever known before? And why is mathematics so magically good at revealing nature’s secrets?
This is the story of the magicians: the scientists who, using mathematics, predicted the existence of unknown planets, black holes, invisible force fields, ripples in the fabric of space-time, unsuspected subatomic particles, and even antimatter. The journey from prediction to proof transports us from seats of learning in Paris and Cambridge to the war-torn Russian front, to bunkers beneath nuclear reactors, observatories in Berlin and California, and huge tunnels under the Swiss-French border. From electromagnetism to Einstein’s gravitational waves to Wolfgang Pauli’s elusive neutrino, acclaimed science writer Marcus Chown takes us on a breathtaking, mind-altering tour of the major breakthroughs of modern physics and highlights science’s central mystery: its astonishing predictive power.
Praise for Marcus Chown:
‘What good popular science writing is all about.’ Jim Al-Khalili
‘Pretty wonderful.’ Richard Dawkins
‘Entertaining and at times mind-boggling.’ The Times
Marcus Chown is an award-winning science writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is now cosmology consultant for the New Scientist. His acclaimed books include What a Wonderful World, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, We Need to Talk about Kelvin and The Ascent of Gravity (Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017). He is also the author of Solar System for iPad, which won The Bookseller 2011 Digital Innovation of the Year. www.marcuschown.com @marcuschown
Marcus was a regular guest on the BBC4 comedy-science show, It’s Only A Theory, with Andy Hamilton and Reginald D. Hunter, and often appears on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. He has appeared at a variety of events from the Cheltenham Literary Festival to the Sydney Writers Festival, from the National Theatre to the Wilderness Festival. And he has done stand-at comedy at a variety of venues from an upturned inflatable cow on London’s South Bank to a glass-bottomed boat in a shark tank at the Brighton Sealife Centre.
Marcus lives in London with his wife, a Macmillan nurse. Whereas she does a very socially useful job, Marcus writes about things that are of absolutely no use to man or beast! Can time run backwards? Are there an infinity of universes playing out all possible histories? Was our Universe made as a DIY experiment by extraterrestrials in another universe?