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Liberating Science: The Early Universe, Evolution and the Public Voice of Science is a presentation of science for the general reader, with an emphasis on correcting widely held misconceptions, and a call to liberate science from 'private ownership' in cultural terms.
List of contents
- 1: A candid friend
- 2: What is a quantum field?
- 3: Quantum fluctuation?
- 4: The vacuum as a dynamical system
- 5: The very early Universe
- 6: Nothing comes of nothing
- 7: Rubble and randomness
- 8: What science can and cannot do
- 9: Science, science fiction and the multiverse
- 10: Could it simply be?
- 11: Religious imagery
- 12: Sinking the selfish gene
- 13: The magician's box
- 14: Stepping out
- 15: Angels with dirty faces
- 16: Science and sensibility
- 17: Great is the power of steady misrepresentation
- 18: Fruit pie
- 19: Contemporary thought and evolution
- 20: Brightland
- 21: Getting past Brightland
About the author
Andrew Steane is a Professor of Physics at Oxford University. He performed pioneering experiments on the quantum physics of ultra-cold atomic clouds and established the ion trap quantum computing work in Oxford. He discovered quantum error correction and the CSS (Calderbank Shor Steane) codes, is an author of three undergraduate physics textbooks and three science and religion books. He is a recipient of the Maxwell Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Trotter Prize of Texas A&M University.
Summary
Liberating Science: The Early Universe, Evolution and the Public Voice of Science is a presentation of science for the general reader, with an emphasis on correcting widely held misconceptions, and a call to liberate science from 'private ownership' in cultural terms.
Quantum fields and the physics of the early universe are described in non-technical language, showing what science can and cannot say about origins. Darwinian evolution is then discussed, giving due weight both to variation and to the constraints which shape the possible outcomes.The text provides a liberating view of what science is telling us about the natural world and offers the next generation a balanced and liberating view of their own moral stature.
