Jan 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005ejph...26..217h&link_type=abstract
European Journal of Physics, Volume 26, Issue 1, pp. 217 (2005).
Physics
Scientific paper
This second edition of the popular book written by Quang Ho-Kim, Narenda Kumar and Chi Sing Lam, provides a comprehensive and interesting view of ten important topics in modern physics. All the sections have been updated: symmetry, lasers, superconductivity, chaos and fractals, stellar evolution, elementary particles and cosmology, while three new sections have been added to this edition: Bose-Einstein condensates, nanostructures and quantum computation.
It is an impressive feat by the authors to cover such a wide panorama of physics from particles to cosmos and at a consistently high scientific level of information and explanation. This level is excellent and is at the frontier of current research but it does mean that some parts may be quite difficult for the undergraduate student. The ideal reader is probably the mature physicist revisiting familiar lines of thought, and following amazing bridges between distant topics. And if you are an active specialist in one particular topic, this book would give a clear insight on subjects outside your own field, allowing you to at last understand what your university colleague is really doing in a branch of physics with which you are totally unfamiliar.
At the beginning, the style of writing can be disconcerting at this scientific level; equations are almost systematically avoided and illustrations are sparse, which can occasionally make the discussions rather ponderous, but the remarkable level of pedagogy and imaginative conception more than compensates for this. The fundamental ideas of exciting natural phenomena are elegantly discussed, while the authors never forget that physics is an experimental science, and address up-to-date applications in this manner. A brief bibliography is added at the end of each chapter, and a few simple exercises are given with answers. But the great strength of this book, and the main reason why it is worth reading by anyone interested in modern science, lies in the text itself which provides a fascinating and lively guide to the world of contemporary physics. And, as with any guide, this is truly an invitation to go beyond.
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