The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe by Roger Penrose, Jonathon Cape, 29 July 2004, 1094 pages
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The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose is over 1000 pages long, and provides the most comprehensive account of our present understanding of the physical universe for the general reader, and its underlying mathematical theory.
The Road to Reality provides the essential mathematical background for understanding physical theories at the same level as working scientists. The aim is to convey something of an overall understanding - a feeling for the deep beauty and philosophical connotations of the subject, as well as of its intricate logical interconnections.
Clearly, Roger Penrose's book is challenging, but there is enough descriptive material to carry the less mathematically inclined reader through, as well as some 450-500, mostly hand-drawn, figures. The Road to Reality provides an overview of all the key issues and deep current controversies, and counters the common complaint that cutting-edge science is fundamentally inaccessible.
The topics covered in The Road to Reality include: the roles of different kinds of numbers and of geometry in
physics; the ideas - and magic - of calculus and of modern geometry; notions of
infinity; the physics and mathematics of relativity theory; the foundations and
controversies of quantum mechanics; the standard model of particle physics;
cosmology; the big bang; black holes; the profound challenge of the second law
of thermodynamics; string and M theory; loop quantum gravity; twistors; fashions
in science; and new directions.
Nothing less than a comprehensive guide to the universe, this is arguably the
most important work of science, aimed at the general reader, to be published in
living memory.