A daring new vision of quantum theory from one of the leading minds of contemporary physics
Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of
atoms radiation and so much else from elementary particles and basic forces to the behavior
of materials. But for a century it has also been the problem child of science: it has been
plagued by intense disagreements between its inventors strange paradoxes and implications
that seem like the stuff of fantasy. Whether it's Schrödinger's cat--a creature that is
simultaneously dead and alive--or a belief that the world does not exist independently of our
observations of it quantum theory challenges our fundamental assumptions about reality. In
Einstein's Unfinished Revolution theoretical physicist Lee Smolin provocatively argues that
the problems which have bedeviled quantum physics since its inception are unsolved and
unsolvable for the simple reason that the theory is incomplete. There is more to quantum
physics waiting to be discovered. Our task--if we are to have simple answers to our simple
questions about the universe we live in--must be to go beyond quantum mechanics to a
description of the world on an atomic scale that makes sense. In this vibrant and accessible
book Smolin takes us on a journey through the basics of quantum physics introducing the
stories of the experiments and figures that have transformed our understanding of the universe
before wrestling with the puzzles and conundrums that the quantum world presents. Along the way
he illuminates the existing theories that might solve these problems guiding us towards a
vision of the quantum that embraces common sense realism. If we are to have any hope of
completing the revolution that Einstein began nearly a century ago we must go beyond quantum
mechanics to find a theory that will give us a complete description of nature. In Einstein's
Unfinished Revolution Lee Smolin brings us a step closer to resolving one of the greatest
scientific controversies of our age.
