The marvelous complexity of the Universe emerges from several deep laws and a handful of fundamental constants that fix its shape, scale, and destiny. There is a deep structure to the world which at the same time is simple, elegant, and beautiful. Where did these laws and these constants come from? And why are the laws so fruitful when written in the language of mathematics?
Peter Atkins considers the minimum effort needed to equip the Universe with its laws and its constants. He explores the origin of the conservation of energy, of electromagnetism, of classical and quantum mechanics, and of thermodynamics, showing how all these laws spring from deep symmetries. The revolutionary result is a short but immensely rich weaving together of the fundamental ideas of physics. With his characteristic wit, erudition, and economy, Atkins sketches out how the laws of Nature can spring from very little. Or arguably from nothing at all.
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“Atkins provides readers with a solid understanding of modern physics in this entertaining unpacking of the notion that ‘nothing is the foundation of everything.’”
— Publishers Weekly
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Peter Atkins is a fellow of Lincoln College in the University of Oxford and the author of about seventy books for students and a general audience. A frequent lecturer in the United States and throughout the world, he has held visiting professorships in France, Israel, Japan, China, and New Zealand. He was the founding chairman of the Committee on Chemistry Education of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and was a member of IUPAC’s Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division. Peter was the 2016 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Grady-Stack Award for journalism.
Chris Sorenson has worked extensively as an actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He studied at the Rutgers Professional Actor Training Program and is an original member of the Present Company, producers of FringeNYC. The Thin Air Theatre Company of Colorado considers him their playwright-at-large and have produced ten of his plays over the past eleven years. His screenplays The Roswell Project and Classic Rock are both currently in production, and his horror script Suckerville is currently in development. He has received three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and his recording of Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix was selected by AudioFile as one of the Best Audiobooks of 2010.