Monday, December 12, 2011

What is Brian Clegg reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Brian Clegg, author of How to Build a Time Machine.

His entry begins:
My reading involves a lot of popular science for research and reviews, and most recently I’ve enjoyed The Quantum Universe by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Cox has recently received a lot of media attention in the UK, becoming the best-known TV science presenter after David Attenborough, which is reflected in the book’s sales, pushing into the bestseller list. I loved the book, but a lot of those readers are going to be dissapointed. This isn’t the light and fluffy popular science of a TV show, it’s real, in-depth and gritty stuff. Allegedly many of those who bought Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time gave up pretty quickly. By comparison with The Quantum Universe, Hawking’s book is an easy bedtime read. I think the ideal use of this book would be as a primer for someone about to do a physics degree. It has a lot of meat – but it’s not really popular science.

I try to alternate with something lighter. Often this is...[read on]
About How to Build a Time Machine, from the publisher:
A pop science look at time travel technology, from Einstein to Ronald Mallett to present day experiments. Forget fiction: time travel is real.

In How to Build a Time Machine, Brian Clegg provides an understanding of what time is and how it can be manipulated. He explores the remarkable possibilities of real time travel that emerge from quantum entanglement, superluminal speeds, neutron star cylinders and wormholes in space. With the fascinating paradoxes of time travel echoing in our minds will we realize that travel into the future might never be possible? Or will we realize there is no limit on what can be achieved, and take on this ultimate challenge? Only time will tell.
Learn more about How to Build a Time Machine.

Follow Brian Clegg on Twitter, and visit his website and blog.

Writers Read: Brian Clegg (September 2009).

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Brian Clegg and Goldie.

Writers Read: Brian Clegg.

--Marshal Zeringue