Q Is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics

In the past few months, I have become very interested in Quantum Mechanics. My math background is zilch. I started with Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", found I needed more background to understand it, went to "The Fabric of the Universe", still needed something simpler and ended up with John Gribbin's "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat". I am now reading "Schrodinger's Kittens". Somewhere along the line I purchased "Q is for Quantum". I have found it immensely helpful in explaining concepts or terms that I was confused about, plus explaining new concepts. If I don't understand something I have read in any of the other books, I go to "Q is for Quantum". John Gribbin's explanations are clear and easy to understand. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Quantum Mechanics. I am not sure how useful it would be for a "real" physicist with all the math needed to understand Quantum Mechanics, but for this layperson, it is a terrifically helpful book. It is truely an encyclopedia.

If you read physics popularizations you have noticed (and appreciated) the glossaries that appear in the back of many of these books. If you've wanted a more thorough reference resource for quantum physics terminology -- here it is. Reference texts are not generally going to tempt the reader to start at the beginning and read through the entire volume, but this one will. Gribbin, familiar to many readers of physics books, writes clearly and covers all of the significant developments, personalities, and ideas of particle physics over the past century. An excellent resource, from `Absolute zero' to `Z particles.'

Just diving into this book, I find that I am delighted with my purchase. It was just exactly what I had hoped to find; easy to understand definitions of amazing, sometimes complicated things. As you read the definitions, you may find yourself flipping through the entire book, looking up terms that are unfamiliar and used within individual definitions. Everything is well defined so you can get a true understanding of what's being presented. What I've read so far has been clear, concise and totally acessable. Not at all stuffy or "over-your-head". Important discoveries and discoverers are given attention as well, making the information even more complete and the read even more worthwhile. This is one of those books that makes you feel smarter just by owning it!

This quantum physics encyclopedia is beautifully crafted to be as entertaining as it is informative. John Gribbin is a master at providing an element of human interest to each of the entries in Q IS FOR QUANTUM, along with photographs and illustrations in every place you'd wish for them, in order to further enhance the reading experience. I love browsing through this book any time I have the slightest excuse, and I suspect you will, too!

For all you Douglas Adams fans out there ( The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy) we have now got definitive, non-fictional guides to the Cosmos and the micro-world of Quantum Phenomena.John Gribbin's latest book "Q is for Quantum" is the perfect companion to his 1996 masterpiece "Companion to the Cosmos". Gribbin's presents his work in a well illustrated, encyclopaedic (A to Z) style with nearly all topics having hyperlinks to cross-references elsewhere in the book. He puts great emphasis on the human dimension of science as well as on the purely physical phenomena and theories he describes so well. The mini-biographies of the scientists are fascinating in their own right, particularly when looking at the historical context and the geographic, social and academic connections/parallels that have led to these great advances in human thought.Gribbin guides us along those amazing scientific paths of the past half millennia , from Galileo and Newton to Einstein and Hawking. He has this reader convinced that we are very close to realizing the ultimate dream of a Grand Unifying Theory (GUT) which ties together all the links between the forces of nature. His work is right up to date and includes the latest ideas on M-branes and superstrings.The best way to read the book is to open it at random , find a topic of interest and see how far the hyperlinks can take you. Bliss for a net-head! The real strength of Gribbin's writing is to help us cover that great spectrum (in time and space) between the sub-atomic microworld of Quantum phenomena through to the edges of the Cosmos. Somewhere in the middle is the human dimension, dare I say, the "real world".It was our friend Douglas Adams who posed that trickiest of tri-lemmas ... What is the answer to that ultimate question, that is, the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything ? He told us ... it is 42 ! John Gribbin's agrees - look up his section on Planck. What is the smallest unit of time? Answer: zero, decimal point, FOURTY TWO zeros, one second. Before Planck time nothing much happened ... but then again ...