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Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces | 
| Author: Frank Wilczek
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $17.79
You Save: $9.16 (34%)
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 6122
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0465003214
Dewey Decimal Number: 531.1
EAN: 9780465003211
ASIN: 0465003214
Publication Date: August 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Physicist’ understanding of the essential nature of reality changed radically over the past quarter century. Frank Wilczek has played a lead role in establishing the new paradigms. Transcending the clash and mismatch of older ideas about what matter is, and what space is, Wilczek presents here some brilliant and clear syntheses. Space is a dynamic material, the engine of reality; matter is a subtle pattern of disturbance in that material. Extraordinarily readable and authoritative, The Lightness of Being is the first book to unwrap these exciting new ideas for the general public. It explores their implications for basic questions about space, mass, energy, and the longed-for possibility of a fully unified theory of Nature. Along the way, Wilczek presents new perspectives on many strange aspects of our fantastic universe. Pointing toward new directions where the great discoveries in fundamental physics are likely to come, he envisions a new Golden Age in physics.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 The Lightness of Reading a Nobel Laureate's Writings December 2, 2008
C. L. Vash (Altadena, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the clearest explanation of multitudes of basic theoretical elements for NON-experts in physics that I've ever read! And while he openly admits to no great desire to integrate science with art and/or an abstract (non-personified) form of religion, I sense a couple of starter-possibilities someone else might use in trying that. Already I've gone on to his earlier book -- Longing for the Harmonies -- to search for more clarity on several relevant ideas. Right now, Wilczek is right up there near Henry Stapp on my ranking of best-tentative-directions-in-grasping a multiverse that MAY have started with MIND versus MATTER but so far we really don't know which.
The best fundamental physics book in a generation. November 13, 2008
Varro (SF Bay Area)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book reaches out to a wide audience: communicating with wit, skill, and remarkable truthfulness. In this it is better than any other popular account of fundamental physical reality that I know--bringing you into the mind of a top-level theorist, connecting you with how he thinks, what is actually known, what the questions are, what will be learned in the next few years. The book is intense, entertaining, extremely honest. There is no BS. Bob Laughlin said it: the book is both fun, and *right*.
 Quite technical, but very interesting October 30, 2008
Amazon Fan (FL/MA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The author is a very brilliant person. This book is not light reading. On the other hand, the subject matter is quite complex. For physicists, the book is a five plus. I am glad that I labored through it, although at times, I was tempted to put it aside. It took a lot of work and concentration to read it.
The Lighness of Being October 25, 2008
Christophe C. G. (Pleasant Hill, CA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Lighness of Being by Wilczek.
Great booik. Not quite done with it yet. Very good on the Core Theory (or Standard Model). Very understandbly written.
Chris G.
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