By Vasant Natarajan
World Scientific
This book is a collection of essays on various physics topics, which the author aims at presenting in a manner that is accessible to non-experts and, specifically, to non-physics science and arts students at the undergraduate level. The author is motivated by the conviction that understanding fundamental concepts of other subjects facilitates out-of-the-box thinking, which can result in making original contributions to one’s chosen field.
The selection of topics is very personal: some basic-physics concepts, such as standards for units and oscillation theory, are placed next to discussions about general relativity and the famous twin paradox. The author uses an informal style and has particular interest in dispelling some myths about science.
The final chapters cover topics from his area of research, atomic and optical physics, focusing on the Nobel Prizes assigned in the last two decades to scientists in these fields.
Even though the use of equations is kept to a minimum, some mathematics and physics background is required of the reader.
