A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Physics, Astrophysics & Space Science, Biological Sciences

• Author: Chandre Dharma-wardana
• ISBN: 9789814425438
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
• Publication: March 20, 2013
• Imprint: WSPC
• Language: English

This is a highly interdisciplinary book straddling physics and complex systems such as living organisms. The presentation is from the perspective of physics, in a manner accessible to those interested in scientific knowledge integrated within its socio-cultural and philosophical backgrounds. Two key areas of human understanding, namely physics and conscious complex systems, are presented in simple language. An optional technical presentation is also given in parallel where it is needed.

Contents:

• Part I. The Nature of Physical Law:

  • A Bird's Eye View of Our Quest
  • An Epistemic Hunt for Scientific Truth
  • The Laws of Nature and the Supremacy of Symmetry
  • Maxwell's Magical Trinity — Electricity, Magnetism and Light
  • The Theory of Relativity
  • The Quantum World and 'Reality'
  • Entanglement, Measurement and Quantum Paradoxes
  • Many Particle Systems and the Classical Limit
  • Energy, Entropy and Emergent Properties

• Part II. Complex Systems and Consiousness:

  • Bio-Molecules, the Sub-Slime of Astrochemistry
  • The Cell as the Basic Unit of Life
  • Specialized Cells for Sight, Insight, and Information
  • Exotic, Quantum Explanations of Consciousness
  • Addressing the Enigmatic Questions

Readership: General audience with interest in physics and complex systems biology as well as science academics.
Key Features:

• The book traces developments in astrochemistry and the origin of life, and it provides the reader with our modern understanding of memory and consciousness