Conversations About Physics, Volume 1

Conversations About Physics, Volume 1, includes the following 5 in-depth Ideas Roadshow Conversations featuring leading physicists. This collection includes a detailed preface highlighting the connections between the different books. Each book is broken into chapters with a detailed introduction and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

1.The Power of Principles: Physics Revealed - A Conversation with Nima Arkani-Hamed, faculty member Institute for Advanced Study. Nima Arkani-Hamed is one of today's leading particle physicists. This Ideas Roadshow conversation explores how we discover the laws of nature, the "scientific method", the relation between theory and experiment and how we can push our understanding well beyond where experiments can currently reach.


2.Cryptoreality - A Conversation with Artur Ekert, Professor of Quantum Physics, University of Oxford and Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies and Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at NUS. Artur Ekert is one of the pioneers of quantum cryptography. This conversation provides detailed insights into his research and explores mathematical and physical intuition, a detailed history of cryptography from antiquity to the present day, the development of quantum information science, the nature of reality, and more.


3.The Problems of Physics, Reconsidered - A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Tony Leggett, University of Illinois. The basis of this conversation is Leggett's book The Problems of Physics and examines the itemization that he developed of the physics landscape according to 4 basic categories-the very small (particle physics), the very large (cosmology), the very complex (condensed matter physics) and the very unclear (foundations of quantum theory)-while providing a thoughtful follow-up analysis.


4.The Physics of Banjos - A Conversation with David Politzer, Nobel Laureate and the Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech. This conversation examines many of the intriguing aspects associated with the physics of banjos, including the ocarina effect, string-stretching, the subtleties of how we hear pitch, transient growth, and the mysterious ringing sound of banjos; while also touching briefly on contemporary issues in black holes and particle physics.


5. Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals - A Conversation with Paul Steinhardt, the Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Director of the Center for Theoretical Science, Princeton University. This conversation provides a comprehensive account of a marvellous scientific adventure story in the quest for a natural quasicrystal. The reader will be taken on a fascinating ride through the physics of materials, from theory, to the laboratory, to the discovery of a new state of matter, that culminated in Paul Steinhardt's dramatic Siberian expedition.