Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

Refreshingly humorous
Reflects scientific opinions held by majority of experts
Clearly distinguishes facts from hypotheses
Profusely illustrated with full-colour figures, including tongue-in-cheek drawings by the author

Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

Description

Enjoy Our Universe is a guide for an enjoyable visit to the Universe. The "Universe" refers to all "observable things," ranging in size from the entire cosmos to elementary particles. This small tome on fundamental physics, cosmology, Higgs bosons, time travel and all that, is unlike any other analogous book. Its scientific statements are correct or, at least, they coincide with the opinions held by the vast majority of experts. It establishes clear distinctions between things we know for sure -- in the sense of having strong observational support for them -- and things that we know that we do not know, or we do not understand. In this sense, it is scientifically honest.

In descriptions of our Universe and of the way it functions, beauty is a recurring word. In an attempt to portray its beauty from the eyes of the beholder, the book is profusely illustrated. Its offbeat, tongue-in-cheek illustrations greatly enhance its readability, particularly in those chapters whose understanding, admittedly, requires a little extra effort. This book's idiosyncracies remind us of our own smallness and eccentricities even as we read about the logic, function and magnificence of the Universe.

Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

1. Preface
2. Physics as an art form
3. Science as a sport
4. The bothersome question of units
5. The scientific method
6. The three relativities
7. A first fast visit to the universe
8. More on the fundamental forces and their 'carriers'
9. Everything, so far
10. A parenthesis on quantum mechanics
11. Understanding relativity and quantum mechanics
12. Spin, statistics, supernovae, neutron stars and black holes
13. Parallel realms
14. A parenthesis on relativistic R2QFTs
15. The unification of forces
16. A parenthesis: Is basic science useful?
17. Back to twins
18. Some instruments of macro-physics
19. The discovery of gravitational wave emission
20. The direct detection of gravitational waves
21. Some instruments of micro-physics
22. The LHC and its detectors
23. The 'Higgs' boson, and its field in the 'vacuum'
24. Today's Standard Models of particles and gravity
25. The expansion of the Universe
26. Finding cosmic fossils
27. Where is the Cosmic Antimatter?
28. More on the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR)
29. Problems with the 'old' Big Bang Cosmology
30. Inflation
31. Limitations and peculiarities of the fundamental interactions
32. The discreet symmetries of the fundamental interactions
33. Dark Matter
34. The origin of structures
35. The fate of the Universe
36. Back to the ether?
37. The crash
38. In spite of our admitted ignorance

Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

Author Information

Alvaro De Rujula, CERN, Geneva

Alvaro De Rujula was born in Madrid, where he studied physics and obtained his PhD. He has worked in Italy (International Institute of Theoretical Physics, Trieste), France (Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques), the USA (Harvard and Boston Universities) and CERN (in various positions, from Summer Student to leader of the Theory Division). He also is currently at the Instituto de Fisica Teorica of the Autonomous University of Madrid (IFT/UAM/CSIC). In the 1970's he contributed to the consolidation of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, mainly QCD and its charmed quarks. He has also worked on neutrinos (mass measurements and Earth tomography), the absence of antimatter in the Universe, how to discover the Higgs...

Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

Reviews and Awards

"...a truly original and unconventional essay for agile minds. There are no doubts that this book will be appreciated not only by the public but also by undergraduate students, teachers and active scientists." -- CERN Courier

"... the author tries successfully to condense everything from theoretical physics, to astronomy, to elementary particles and everything in between in a small book meant for the uninitiated." --Nature Astronomy

"Alvaro De Rújula takes us on an exciting trip from the Big Bang, to the Expanding Universe, to the intricacies of Quantum Physics, telling us both how much we know, and how much we don't know. He does this very personally, and with humor, insight and almost no mathematics. What a fantastic journey!" -- Barry Barish, Nobel Laureate in Physics, California Institute of Technology

"Enjoy Our Universe is a spectacularly wide-ranging introduction to the disciplines lying at the ends of the ladder of size: particle theory and cosmology. De Rújula's light touch and imaginative illustrations should make many fascinating aspects of these fundamental sciences accessible to the canonical well-educated lay reader. He offers a scientifically scrupulous description of all you might care to know about our marvellous universe." -- Sheldon Lee Glashow, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Boston University

Enjoy Our Universe

You Have No Other Choice

Alvaro De Rujula

From Our Blog

Enjoying our Universe [slideshow]

What do we mean by 'the Universe'? In the physics community, we would define 'the Universe' as all 'observable things', ranging from the entire cosmos to stars and planets, and to small elementary particles that are invisible to the naked eye. Observable things would also include recently made discoveries that we are slowly coming to understand more, such as the Higgs boson, gravitational waves, and black holes.

Posted on July 17, 2018

Read the blog post