In paperback for the first time, this compact volume presents quantum
mechanics for the general reader. It offers a lucid description of the
intellectual challenges and disagreements in the study of the behavior
of atomic and sub-atomic particles--a field that has completely changed
our view of the physical world, but that is still the subject of
unresolved debate about its own fundamental interpretation. The work is
accessible to those with no background in higher mathematics, but will
also interest readers who have a more specialized knowledge of
scientific topics.
The author has spent most of his working life as a theoretical
elementary particle physicist and from 1968 to 1979 was Professor of
Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge. In 1979 he resigned
to train for the ministry of the Church of England, and he is now an
ordained priest. Here he describes a theory that has been spectacularly
successful in predicting the behavior of objects the size of atoms and
smaller but that has aroused conflicting views about the nature of
reality and the degree of independence between the world around us and
ourselves as observers.