東華大學圖書館 |

Language: English

Help

回圖書館首頁

手機版館藏查詢

Back

Switch To: Labeled | MARC Mode | ISBD

The life of the cosmos /

Smolin, Lee, (1955-)

Linked to FindBook

Google Book

Amazon

博客來

The life of the cosmos /

Record Type:	Language materials, printed : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	The life of the cosmos // Lee Smolin.
Author:	Smolin, Lee,
Published:	New York :Oxford University Press, : 1997.,
Description:	viii, 358 p. ;24 cm.
Notes:	First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1998.
Subject:	Cosmology. -
Online resource:	http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0635/96027912-d.html
Online resource:	http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0722/96027912-b.html
ISBN:	019510837X

The life of the cosmos /
Smolin, Lee,1955-

The life of the cosmos /Lee Smolin. - New York :Oxford University Press,1997. - viii, 358 p. ;24 cm.

First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1998.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-341) and index.

Cosmologist Lee Smolin offers a startling new theory of the universe that is at once elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. In The Life of the Cosmos, Smolin cuts the Gordian knot of cosmology with a simple, powerful idea: "The underlying structure of our world," he writes, "is to be found in the logic of evolution." Today's physicists have overturned Newton's view of the universe, yet they continue to cling to an understanding of reality not unlike Newton's own - as a clock, an intricate mechanism, governed by laws which are mathematical and eternally true. Smolin argues that the laws of nature we observe may be in part the result of a process of natural selection which took place before the big bang. Smolin's ideas are based on recent developments in cosmology, quantum theory, relativity and string theory, yet they offer, at the same time, an unprecedented view of how these developments may fit together to form a new theory of cosmology. From this perspective, the lines between the simple and the complex, the fundamental and the emergent, and even between the biological and the physical are redrawn. The result is a framework that illuminates many intractable problems, from the paradoxes of quantum theory and the nature of space and time to the problem of constructing a final theory of physics. As he argues for this new view, Smolin introduces the reader to recent developments in a wide range of fields, from string theory and quantum gravity to evolutionary theory the structure of galaxies. He examines the philosophical roots of controversies in the foundations of physics, and shows how they may be transformed as science moves toward understanding the universe as an interrelated, self-constructed entity, within which life and complexity have a natural place, and in which "the occurrence of novelty, indeed the perpetual birth of novelty, can be understood."

ISBN: 019510837X

LCCN: 96027912 Subjects--Topical Terms:

531904
Cosmology.

LC Class. No.: QB981 / .S694 1997

Dewey Class. No.: 523.1

The life of the cosmos /
LDR:02985cam 2200277 a 4500 001 888095
003 OCoLC
005 20101016130040.0
008 101102s1997 nyu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 96027912
020 $a 019510837X
020 $a 9780195108378
020 $a 0195126645 (pbk.)
020 $a 9780195126648 (pbk.) : $c US24.95
035 $a (OCoLC)35033598 $z (OCoLC)39913025 $z (OCoLC)41582436
035 $a PS-BW-99-N-08
040 $a DLC $c DLC $d UKM $d EZU $d BAKER $d YDXCP $d BTCTA $d VP@ $d UBA $d OCLCG $d UBC $d GEBAY $d NDHU
050 0 0 $a QB981 $b .S694 1997
082 0 0 $a 523.1 $2 20
100 1 $a Smolin, Lee, $d 1955- $3 1060545
245 1 4 $a The life of the cosmos / $c Lee Smolin.
260 # $a New York : $c 1997. $b Oxford University Press,
300 $a viii, 358 p. ; $c 24 cm.
500 $a First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1998.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-341) and index.
520 # $a Cosmologist Lee Smolin offers a startling new theory of the universe that is at once elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. In The Life of the Cosmos, Smolin cuts the Gordian knot of cosmology with a simple, powerful idea: "The underlying structure of our world," he writes, "is to be found in the logic of evolution." Today's physicists have overturned Newton's view of the universe, yet they continue to cling to an understanding of reality not unlike Newton's own - as a clock, an intricate mechanism, governed by laws which are mathematical and eternally true. Smolin argues that the laws of nature we observe may be in part the result of a process of natural selection which took place before the big bang. Smolin's ideas are based on recent developments in cosmology, quantum theory, relativity and string theory, yet they offer, at the same time, an unprecedented view of how these developments may fit together to form a new theory of cosmology. From this perspective, the lines between the simple and the complex, the fundamental and the emergent, and even between the biological and the physical are redrawn. The result is a framework that illuminates many intractable problems, from the paradoxes of quantum theory and the nature of space and time to the problem of constructing a final theory of physics. As he argues for this new view, Smolin introduces the reader to recent developments in a wide range of fields, from string theory and quantum gravity to evolutionary theory the structure of galaxies. He examines the philosophical roots of controversies in the foundations of physics, and shows how they may be transformed as science moves toward understanding the universe as an interrelated, self-constructed entity, within which life and complexity have a natural place, and in which "the occurrence of novelty, indeed the perpetual birth of novelty, can be understood."
650 # 0 $a Cosmology. $3 531904
856 4 2 $3 Publisher description $u http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0635/96027912-d.html
856 4 2 $3 Contributor biographical information $u http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0722/96027912-b.html