Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics
Pub date: January 2006A history of physics for armchair scientists and other curious readers
By Jennifer Ouellette
Physics, once known as “natural philosophy,” is the most basic science, explaining the world we live in, from the largest scale down to the very, very, very smallest, and our understanding of it has changed over many centuries. In Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, science writer Jennifer Ouellette traces key developments in the field, setting descriptions of the fundamentals of physics in their historical context, as well as against a broad cultural backdrop. Newton’s laws are illustrated via the film Addams Family Values, while Back to the Future demonstrates the finer points of special relativity. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” serves to illuminate the mysterious nature of neutrinos, and Jeanette Winterson’s novel Gut Symmetries provides an elegant metaphorical framework for string theory. An enchanting and edifying read, Black Bodies and Quantum Cats shows that physics is not an arcane field of study but a profoundly human endeavor—and a fundamental part of our everyday world.
Here’s what people are saying about Black Bodies and Quantum Cats:
“… bursts with answers for curious adults…. Ouellette shines when she pulls analogies from real life to explain, for example, why blackouts are more likely since the deregulation of the power industry…. [I]n prose that is engaging and economical....”—Washington Post Book World
“… [Ouellette’s] delightful history of scientific principles and her pop-culture speckled explanation of physics from, well, quantum cats to string theory soothes the inner science geek and enlightens the curious.”
—Washington Post Express
“… remarkably fresh and immensely readable….”—Publishers Weekly
"...an entertaining guide to the history of physics that should interest science buffs. Scientists can have fun with the book, too, getting acquainted with the Addams family and other staples of pop culture."
—Phillip Manning, San Francisco Chronicle
“… fuses whimsical pop-culture references with important lessons about the concepts of physics in such a way that you can’t help thinking that she’d be the most awesomely cool science teacher since Mr. Kerber kicked it old-school in Better Off Dead.”—DCist
“Ouellette writes with an engaging informality. Her style is conversational rather than merely breezy, painstakingly lucid rather than irresponsibly simplified. She can write as clearly about nuclear fission as about nanotechnology. … Readers will close this book with an invigorating sense of having spent a weekend with a fascinating and very lively companion.”
—Michael Sims, author of Adam’s Navel [for Book Page]
“[A]n engaging overview of key advances in physics from the early 1500s to today. …Ouellette's method of drawing interesting and sometimes vaguely weird parallels between snippets of pop culture and physics… keeps the reader captivated.”
—Library Journal Review [starred review]
“Ouellette's entertaining explications of physics encourage generalists to give physics a try.”—Booklist
“It's a masterful mix of theory and practice, facts and fun stuff, and the result is a highly readable text that will teach readers about physics in a manner that goes beyond useful to enjoyable and memorable.”
—Bookselling This Week
“To Jennifer Ouellette, physics is more human and intriguing and less arcane than people think, as she proves with her smart and varied collection of stories from the farther reaches of physics, written with a light touch.”
—Sidney Perkowitz, Candler Professor of Physics, Emory University, and author of Empire of Light
“I was so hooked by the end of the first chapter that I read it straight through. Black Bodies and Quantum Cats is a captivating look at how physicists think about the world. Even non-scientists may find themselves starting to think that way.”
—Robert L. Park, professor of physics, University of Maryland, and author of Voodoo Science
“… almost a perfect book.”—Washington (DC) City Paper
“In an astonishing performance, Jennifer Ouellette manages to weave [disparate] elements together in a fascinating blend of history, science and literary allusion…. [S]he brings an unusual set of talents to the creation of a unique work… Jennifer has mastered the difficult art of writing about science in a way that is both clear and correct, and beyond the science is her exceptional talent for telling a good story. There are many good popular science books to choose from, but none quite like this one.”
—From the Foreword by Alan Chodos, PhD