Books about Enigmas from Amazon.com

In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. Quantum Enigma explores what that implies and why some founders of the theory became the foremost objectors to it. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all of this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, with an emphasis on what is and what is not speculation. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is controversial. Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer a sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves.
"A remarkable and readable presentation of the basic mysteries of science, our universe, and human life. Critically important problems in our understanding are interestingly discussed with perception, depth, and careful objectivity."
--Charles Townes, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
"Lively and thought-provoking."
--The Washington Times
"This book is unique. The clearest expositions I have ever seen."
--George Greenstein, Professor of Astronomy, Amherst College
"An immensely important and exciting book."
--Raymond Chester Russ, editor of Journal of Mind and Behavior
"Exposes the hidden skeleton in the physicist's closet."
--Nick Herbert, author of Quantum Reality.
Price: $11.02 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $7.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the tradition of Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris gives us an intimate look at how religious life fills a gap in the soul. Her poetic sensibilities internalize the monastery as a symbol of spirituality, with its sanctity and humor, questioning and uncertainty, rhythm and vigor. Beyond moral precepts and Bible stories, Cloister Walk is a very personal account of religion lived fully. It depicts a depth and beauty of spirituality in monastic life that has survived the vicissitudes of Roman Catholic politics and pomp..
Price: $4.28 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993, it electrified the world of mathematics After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste of the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians..
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A gripping World War II mystery novel with a cryptographic twist, Enigma's hero is Tom Jericho, a brilliant British mathematician working as a member of the team struggling to crack the Nazi Enigma code. Jericho's own struggles include nerve-wracking mental labor, the mysterious disappearance of a former girlfriend, the suspicions of his co-workers within the paranoid high-security project, and the certainty that someone close to him, perhaps the missing girl, is a Nazi spy. The plot is pure fiction but the historical background, Alan Turing's famous wartime computing project that cracked the German U-boat communications code, is real and accurately portrayed. Enigma is convincingly plotted, forcefully written, and filled with well drawn characters; in short, it's everything a good technomystery should be..
Price: $2.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Provides a valuable insight into the development of ideas that were to shape Hitler's foreign policy after 1933."-Jeremy Noakes, The Times Literary Supplement

"The text bears all of Hitler's hallmarks, along with a terrifying, sustained belief in war and violence as a means to ensure that Germany would flourish."-Publishers Weekly

"He envisaged the German people becoming involved in a series of wars for Lebens-raum culminating in an epic battle against America."-Michael Smith, Daily Telegraph

"The Second Book is in many ways more important than Mein Kampf."-Guardian

"I have never known anyone to say this is a forged document."-Volker Berghahn, The New York Times

"Hitler admires the young, racially select' American people and the nation's restrictive immigration policies at the time."-The New York Times

"Far more than Mein Kampf, the Second Book establishes the grandiose scale of Hitler's ambitions."-Dennis Showalter, Colorado College

"More clearly than ever, Hitler sketched out the worldwide struggle against the Jews which he and his party had to lead."-Richard Overy, Guardian

Hitler's Second Book is the first complete and annotated edition of the manuscript Hitler dictated shortly before his rise to power four year after publishing Mein Kampf. It contains a catalog of shocking policy statements and previously undisclosed plans of world conquest at the core of Nazi ideology that Hitler concluded were too provoca-tive for publication.

.
Price: $8.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $18.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $13.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]