Newspaper Article

Tough subjects to begin with

Reviewed by Chuah Guat Eng Note: TITLE: Quantum Theory For Beginners. AUTHOR: J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate. PUBLISHER: (Icon Books, 176 pages)., TITLE: Postmodernism For Beginners. AUTHOR: Richard Appignanesi and Chris Garratt with Ziauddin Sardar and

1996

Overview

Do you wish you knew a little bit more about Quantum Theory, Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Niels Bohr's Non-Locality, Schroedinger's Cat, John S. Bell's Inequality Principle, the Chaos Theory, and the EPR Paradox? But then these are tough subjects and can befuddle even the learned editors of academic journals. (Remember the recent brouhaha when the cultural studies journal Social Text published an article called `Transgressing the Boundaries - Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity' by NYU mathematical physicist Alan Sokal? And how shortly afterwards, Sokal himself revealed that it was \"liberally salted with nonsense\" - a satirical academic hoax, in other words?) So perhaps we should be glad that the authors of Quantum Theory and Postmodernism take our anxiety to learn seriously and don't talk down to us, beginners though we are. J.P. McEvoy admits at the end of Quantum Theory for Beginners: \"Quantum theory cannot be explained. Physicists and mathematicians from Bohr to Roger Penrose have admitted that it doesn't make sense. What one can do is discover how the ideas developed and how the theory is applied. Our book has concentrated on the former.\"

• Publisher: The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad