Reviews for Physics of Dense Matter

The average rating for Physics of Dense Matter based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-10 00:00:00 Jhone Linas Dr. Eric J. Chaisson is a brilliant man. Having completed his Masters and Doctorate work at Harvard, he teaches physics, astrophysics and astronomy at Harvard. His latest book- Cosmic Evolution, The Rise of Complexity in Nature is an amazing work. It is not an easy read, especially for those who avoided science during their undergraduate education. In fact, this is not a book for the people who do not like science or math. To quote Dr. Chaisson: "...I have assumed an undergraduate knowledge of natural science, especially statistical and deterministic physics........The mathematical level includes integral calculus and differential equations, with a smattering of symbolism throughout..." So this is not a book for the reader with a poor math/science background. As harsh as it may sound- this is as it should be. Science is not easy. Real science, not pop science. Galileo Galilei once said "The book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics". So is this book. I also admire Dr. Chaisson for his unabashed atheism. Again a quote: "...this is not a New Age book with mystical overtones however embraced or vulgarized by past scholars, nor one about the history and philosophy of antiquated views of Nature. It grants no speculation on the pseudo-science fringe about morphic fields or quantitative vitalism or interfering deities all mysteriously affecting the ways and means of evolution; nor do we entertain epistemological discussions about the limits of human knowledge or post-modernist opinions about the sociological implications of science writ large. This is a book about mainstream science, pure and simple, outlining the essence of an ongoing research program admittedly multidisciplinary in character and colored by the modern scientific method's unavoidable mix of short-term subjectivity and long-term objectivity." This is a book about the science of Evolution. Evolution not only in the biology sense, but also evolution as change. From the formation of the universe to the creation of stellar masses and then eventually to planets and then life- this is a pattern of rising complexity. Dr. Chaisson takes us through the formative stages of the universe. Using the Arrow of Time he shows us how the Big Bang occurred and then the rise of different states of complexity. The books starts with an introspective and quite interesting look at the nature of Change itself and how it relates to Cosmic Evolution. Then we are introduced to the three main sections of this book- Matter, Radiation and Life. These three sections are full of equations explaining everything from the Big Bang to thermodynamics, Equilibrium, Open systems to looking at the various states of Radiation and how eventually matter was formed. Taking sections from physics, biology and chemistry the author shows us the means, methods and consequences for evolution throughout the cosmic universe. Dr. Chaisson mirrors my views on religion and takes great pains to point out (while never being disparaging or demeaning to religious people a la Dr. Dawkins) there is no anthropocentric agenda to this book. Human beings are not the culmination of the cosmic-evolutionary process. There is no arrow or line that leads from the creation of the universe to us as humans. The best part is his emphasis on the Copernican Principle denying Sun, Earth and life any special status- in time, space or complexity. So if you ever wanted a pure science explanation for life, the universe, pretty much anything having to do Cosmic evolution-this is the book for you. I truly enjoyed it, but I must point that I was always a good student and the math in this book wasn't overly taxing-though it did slow down my reading considerably. If you are not comfortable with science, math or just have no background in it-then this is a book where you can still read it, but will miss significant chunks of it. So if you have the math or the patience-then I can NOT recommend this book enough. A brilliant look at evolution and cosmic changes.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-23 00:00:00 Shahid Logan As a grand evolutionary synthesis, this book by Chaisson does a fine job; a fine job that is, if your definition of "grand" excludes mind, consciousness, interiority, experience, and everything that is NOT matter, energy, space, and time (physics, chemistry, biology). Chaisson gives us an outstanding review of what's currently understood as the big picture of evolution in the realms of the natural sciences, a kind of updated version of similar books from 1980s systems theory such as Laszlo's Evolution: The Grand Synthesis and Jantsch's The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications. And as a physicist-astronomer, he can be forgiven for focusing solely on the third-person-objective-materialist aspects of human experience since, well, since that's what he's trained to do (focus here, ignore there). If you want a book that defines "grand evolutionary synthesis" there's no better place to go than the books of Ken Wilber (despite their shortcomings), a synthetic genius who takes all of what Chaisson presents and couples it with the co-evolution of interiority, mind, and consciousness (see his Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution). Wilber's synthesis is vast and brings together huge areas of human knowledge that have hitherto been separate such as western developmental psychology, eastern nondual philosophy, postmodern intersubjective perspectives, complex systems theory, states of consciousness research, and more. Wilber's work however has suffered from charges of teleology, over-emphasis on hierarchical levels, reliance on a contemporary version of the Great Chain model, and a lot of writing not grounded in careful research, referencing, and scholarship. But so much of Wilber's work is hugely valuable, if only his distinction of the difference between "cosmos" and "Kosmos", the former being what Chaisson is talking about, i.e., the material cosmos only, and the latter, Kosmos, what Wilber writes about which includes four interrelated, interdependent aspects of evolution: the objective organism, the subjective mind, the interobjective environment, and the intersubjective culture. Probably the best and most careful work on synthesizing the interior/mind and exterior/matter aspects of evolution is the work by the embodied mind cognitive science folks who are also incorporating complex systems theory into their work such as Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, Andy Clark, Alva Noe, Alicia Juaerro, Daniel Hutto, Shawn Gallagher, Terrance Deacon, and many others (see my Embodied Cognition listopia list for more ). Thompson's book Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind is an outstanding contribution to a view that can truly be called "grand synthesis," a view that incorporates subjective phenomenological first-person experience with objective third-person knowledge of biological systems organization. For a (slightly technical) romp through the materialist version of the evolutionary grand synthesis, Chaisson delivers admirably. But for those of us who can't ignore interiority, consciousness, and first-person perspectives in our view of grand synthesis I suggest digging into the literature on embodied mind cognitive science, particularly the enactive approach pioneered in the Varela-Thompson-Rosch's The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience.