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WORK TITLE: Quantum Fuzz
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1939
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781633882393&view=print * http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3201/1
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2016099547
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Walker, Michael S., 1939-
Variant(s): Walker, Michael Stephen, 1939-
Birth date: 1939-12-16
Found in: Quantum fuzz, ©2017: ECIP title page (Michael S. Walker)
data view (a retired physicist, materials scientist,
engineer, inventor, and project manager, who holds
degrees from MIT and Carnegie Mellon University;
research has been mainly focused on the development of
superconductors and superconducting power applications
of a scale to light cities; is the author or coauthor of
more than seventy technical papers and holds a dozen
patents; in 1989, he was voted Inventor of the Year by
the Eastern New York Patent Law Association for
conceiving and developing a unique way of separating
minerals using magnetic fluids; birth date: December 16,
1939)
OCLC database, July 27, 2016 (access point: Walker, Michael
Stephen, 1939- ; usage not given) (access point: Walker,
M. S.; usage not given)
IEEE/CSC & ESAS European Superconductivity News Forum, no.
20, April 2012, viewed July 27, 2016 (Dr. Michael S.
Walker (Mike), graduated in 1961 with a B.Sc. in
Metallurgy from MIT; in 1970 he was awarded a Ph.D. in
Physics from Carnegie Mellon University; left
Westinghouse in 1976 after 14 years to lead project at
Intermagnetics General Corporation (IGC) in Albany, NY)
Associated language:
eng
================================================================================
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PERSONAL
Born December 16, 1939.
EDUCATION:Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.Sc., 1961; Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D., 1970.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked variously as an author, project manager, physicist, inventor, engineer, and scientist.
AWARDS:Inventor of the Year, 1989, Eastern New York Patent Law Association.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Before retirement, Michael S. Walker concentrated his work largely within the realm of scientific study. He has been involved in the field as a project manager, physicist, inventor, and engineer. He has also written extensively for his field, having created several essays during his time as an inventor. His work earned him an inventor’s award by the year 1989.
Walker’s book, Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us, serves as a crash course in quantum mechanics. He wrote Quantum Fuzz specifically with non-scientists in mind, to be used as an educational tool. Walker goes over the chronology of the subject from every angle, including its founders and innovators as well as all of the principles that make quantum mechanics tick. To help make the subject easier to understand, Walker refrains as much as possible from using mathematical principles to explain the subject. Additionally, Walker also details just how quantum mechanics can be applied to the real world. According to Walker and the research of several mentioned quantum physicists, the subject closely aligns with the creation of the universe and our world in itself. Walker delves into just how quantum physics played its part in the Big Bang, and what conditions led to this monumental event.
Walker starts off Quantum Fuzz from a historical standpoint. He gives biographical information on several of the scientists that paved the way for our current understanding of quantum mechanics, in addition to detailing some of their most important innovations. The book travels from the “who” of this subject to the “how” and “why.” Walker covers some of the controversies related to the subject, as well as the effort that went into establishing what we now know to be fact. He goes on to explain how quantum physics has shaped our current world and the innovations and technology we’ve become familiar with, some of which got their start earlier on in the 20th century but weren’t given a real use until the 21st. In covering all things related to quantum mechanics and its connection to the real world, Walker also goes over some of the potential innovations the discipline could help to produce, such as an elevator capable of delivering us into the far reaches of space. He additionally provides relation of the subject to simpler forms of science, such as chemistry and how quantum mechanics intertwines with the periodic table. All in all, the book is meant to provide a deeper understanding of quantum physics to those who are less familiar with it, as well as a stronger appreciation of its purpose and what it has brought and can bring to the world. A reviewer in an issue of California Bookwatch called the book “a lively, accessible title […] for general-interest individuals.” A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “Walker’s book is most likely to excite engineers and other detail-oriented readers who already have a background in science.” Jeff Foust, a writer on the Space Review website, commented: “For those looking for a basic introduction to quantum mechanics without detailed math or physics discussions, this book can help explain the quantum universe and its importance to actions on far larger scales.” On the self-titled Fred Bortz blog, writer Fred Bortz stated: “Guided by Mike’s careful, clear, and comfortable writing, you will discover a new way of understanding matter, energy, and the universe as a whole.” A SFcrowsnest reviewer expressed that Quantum Fuzz “acts as a good refresher course on basic chemistry.” A contributor to the Tonstant Weaders Review blog stated that “Quantum Fuzz is filled with interesting information.” On the Astro Guyz website, David Dickinson called the book “a fascinating exploration into modern physics.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
California Bookwatch, March, 2017, review of Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us.
Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2016, review of Quantum Fuzz, p. 44.
ONLINE
Astro Guyz, http://astroguyz.com/ (April 21, 2017), review of Quantum Fuzz.
Fred Bortz, https://fredbortz.scienceblog.com/ (January 23, 2017), Fred Bortz, review of Quantum Fuzz.
Random House, http://www.randomhouse.com/ (August 30, 2017), author profile.
SF Crowsnest, http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/ (February 16, 2017), review of Quantum Fuzz.
Space Review, http://www.thespacereview.com/ (March 27, 2017), Jeff Foust, review of Quantum Fuzz.
Tonstant Weader Reviews, https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/ (January 15, 2017), review of Quantum Fuzz.*
Michael S. Walker, PhD, is a retired physicist, materials scientist, engineer, inventor, and project manager, who holds degrees from MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. His research has been mainly focused on the development of superconductors and superconducting power applications of a scale to light cities. He is the author or coauthor of more than seventy technical papers and holds a dozen patents. In 1989, he was voted Inventor of the Year by the Eastern New York Patent Law Association for conceiving and developing a unique way of separating minerals using magnetic fluids.
Quantum Fuzz
(Mar. 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Quantum Fuzz
Michael S. Walker
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, NY 14228-2197
9781633882393, $28.00, www.prometheusbooks.com
Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us provides a history of the "quantum revolution" and the scientists who fostered it, and comes from a veteran physicist who explains the basics of the subatomic world and how it relates to everyday life. Chapters discuss the many inventions that have stemmed from quantum theory, survey the science behind these discoveries, and reveal how scientists and researchers apply quantum mechanics to new discoveries, making this a lively, accessible title not just to science readers, but for general-interest individuals.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Quantum Fuzz." California Bookwatch, Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490986743&it=r&asid=4d918312997cf57d414d237c58c30928. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490986743
Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us
263.46 (Nov. 14, 2016): p44.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us
Michael S. Walker. Prometheus Books, $28 (420p) ISBN 978-1-63388-239-3
Walker, an inventor and retired physicist, joins a crowded field with his survey of quantum physics and its applications, offering a concise and "math-free," yet dense and somewhat passionless, overview of such fields as cosmology, computer memory, and encryption. After delivering a promising and poetic image of humanity as "quantum beings" in a "quantum world," Walker dives into a brisk review of the early history of quantum mechanics that covers the basics, including atomic structure, Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect, Bell's theorem, and "instant action at a distance." After this introduction, Walker covers a range of topics in a non-intuitive order. Quantum computing gives way to a lengthy chapter on "Galaxies, Black Holes, Gravity Waves, Matter, the Forces of Nature, the Higgs Boson, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and String Theory," including a "Sightseeing Bus Tour Through the Universe," an attempt at whimsy in a book that doesn't feel at all comfortable with it. Arguments and explanations are largely made with passive sentences, giving the whole thing the feel of an old-fashioned textbook. Lucid but heavy, Walker's book is most likely to excite engineers and other detail-oriented readers who already have a background in science. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us." Publishers Weekly, 14 Nov. 2016, p. 44. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA473459019&it=r&asid=798f04e699df2ba6c6f431d218fd443d. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A473459019
Review: Quantum Fuzz
by Jeff Foust
Monday, March 27, 2017
Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us
by Michael S. Walker
Prometheus Books, 2017
hardcover, 420 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63388-239-3
US$28.00
Bring up the subject of quantum mechanics, and words like “difficult” and “counterintuitive” come to mind. The subject has notoriously baffled generations of students, whose grasp of how things work at the macro scale provides little guidance to how they work in the subatomic realm. Yet quantum mechanics is critical to our understanding of how the universe works and also benefits modern-day society.
In Quantum Fuzz, retired physicist Michael Walker offers a welcoming introduction to the field and its importance. Largely devoid of equations and technical jargon, Walker provides a historical overview of the development of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century and its application in various areas. It’s familiar territory for those who have already grappled with quantum mechanics, but useful for those who have not.
He even briefly mentions the concept of the space elevator in a discussion about carbon nanotubes, but isn’t a fan of the idea: “I don’t expect you to take this too seriously,” he notes.
Part of that is an examination of our understanding the universe. One section of the book looks at cosmology, including models of the Big Bang and how it’s influenced by quantum mechanics and conditions in the instant after the Big Bang. This is all incorporated into a single chapter in the book, running about 70 pages—far longer than other chapters in the book—yet feeling a little rushed at times as Walker tries to include everything from the cosmic microwave background to gravitational waves (which he incorrectly calls “gravity waves” in the book.)
Other sections of the book examine other, more practical, applications of quantum mechanics, from chemistry to semiconductors. He even briefly mentions the concept of the space elevator in a discussion about carbon nanotubes, but isn’t a fan of the idea: “(I don’t expect you to take this too seriously,)” he parenthetically notes before a passage about how a space elevator could work.
Quantum Fuzz is not the book you’d want to read first if you’re just looking for a discussion of astrophysics or cosmology. And the book’s style may leave something to be desired, with frequent sidebars and passages rendered in a different, smaller font for reasons not always clear. The use of a “bus tour” approach in the extended chapter on cosmology is also not particularly effective. However, for those looking for a basic introduction to quantum mechanics without detailed math or physics discussions, this book can help explain the quantum universe and its importance to actions on far larger scales.
Book Recommendation: Quantum Fuzz
January 23, 2017 by Fred Bortz
Quantum Fuzz: The Strange True Makeup of Everything Around Us
by Michael S. Walker
(Prometheus, 420 pages, $28, February 14, 2017)
Recommended by Dr. Fred Bortz
Dr. Fred Bortz
For my science book reviews, see the Science Shelf Book Review Archive
Note: This recommendation is the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies for their own use. For permission to publish or print multiple copies, please contact the author by e-mail.
coverLearn more about Quantum Fuzz at Amazon.com.
Regular readers of my blog know that most of my recent posts are book reviews. In this case, that is not possible. It is impossible for me to view this book through an unbiased eye.
Full disclosure, I have known Mike Walker since our long-ago days in graduate school, studying Physics at Carnegie Mellon University (which was Carnegie Tech when we started). More recently, over a period of about three years, I had the delightful task of consulting with him on this book. I even suggested its title after looking at the necessarily fuzzy diagrams of quantum wave states he planned to include.
So rather than a review, this is a recommendation with a bit of a discussion of the book’s back story, to be followed by a blurb that is longer than the one attached to my name on the back of the book’s dust jacket.
Other reviewers will surely praise the readability and liveliness of Mike’s prose, and the way he brings clarity to a difficult and challenging topic. I note here that those qualities did not come easily. Mike applied an intense focus on both his subject matter and his readers’ need throughout the process. He knew when to accept my advice and when to follow his own clear vision. He was merciless in polishing his writing and finding and correcting the manuscript’s flaws.
When his editor challenged him to add content on topics about which he was not fully familiar, he pursued the research with a doggedness and thoroughness that matched what I have seen in his graduate-school and professional investigations. He may not have been an expert before starting to write those sections, but he certainly became one when it came time to put “pen to paper” in the electronic sense.
I was not surprised by the final product, which I know will find an audience of appreciative science readers. This leads me to the blurb.
When Mike Walker and I were graduate school classmates at Carnegie Mellon University, we came to appreciate this philosophy: When observations seem counter-intuitive, the proper response is to retrain our intuitions rather than to force the evidence to fit our previous way of thinking. I recommend that approach to readers of Quantum Fuzz. Guided by Mike’s careful, clear, and comfortable writing, you will discover a new way of understanding matter, energy, and the universe as a whole–and, not incidentally, some of the reasons why I have valued the author as a friend for five decades.
Quantum Fuzz by Michael S. Walker (book review)
February 16, 2017 | By UncleGeoff | Reply
Having reviewed several books on quantum mechanics over the years here, it’s a subject that I do have some understanding about. Although, as is often pointed out by physicists, just because you think you know something about quantum mechanics, doesn’t mean you know anything.
Michael S. Walker’s book, ‘Quantum Fuzz’, combines the history of the subject with the physicists who worked on it with the theory with a promise to keep the maths to a minimum. This must also be the first book I’ve come across where you can mostly read text, photo and diagrams in order without having to switch back and forth between them. Mostly. Occasionally, Walker will refer to a photo of a physicist that you’ve already seen or a diagram on the previous or next page but that’s rare. It’s a little disconcerting when he shifts to smaller size print of biographies and referenced material because your brain will tend to think the information is of secondary importance and it really isn’t.
The potent message in the Foreword by David Toback is quoting Carl Sagan in that we are living in a science and technological world and yet few people know much about how any of it really works. I suspect that’s even more true today. Whether or not it’s true of SF readers is more questionable but we should never be afraid about knowing more about these things to widen our knowledge.
Quantum mechanics is deeply involved in all our silicon-based technology which means everything from your watch, television, phone, tablet, computer and anything which has a silicon-chip working it depends on this knowledge. Without the discoveries from the 24 physicists in this book at the time they did them, you wouldn’t have any of them. I would add on top of that that this would probably have happened eventually, just not with many of the names you should know from this book. As is pointed out, many of them didn’t receive Noble Prizes because they aren’t rewarded to the dead. Considering how many dead people are exonerated after their demise these days, a little late praise in that department is long over-due.
Don’t forget, quantum mechanics also opened up the possibilities in Science Fiction for alternative realities. Teleportation is possible but only as far as sending the information to configure matter to an appearance like the original. It did present me with an original thought that if teleportation was ever to become possible it would need a new level of scientific understanding and laws which would revolutionise what we know. Teleportation has the same problem as time travel, namely you have to take into account the distance the universe has expanded to where you are going to appear, unless you like dying in a vacuum, so has to be part of any equation. Of course, entanglement might get around this.
By far, the biggest chapter in the book looks at the structure of the universe and looking at Nobel Prize winners Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias discovery of the constant microwave noise of the universe by accident was ahead of the scientists trying to find the link. This makes a strong argument not to limit scientific investigation or access to information.
Although chemistry has its place in quantum mechanics, it felt like old times being run through the basics of the Periodic Table and chemical bonding and being totally engrossed for nearly an hour.
The last sections of the book devote themselves to practical application which means the silicon chip/semiconductors, superconductors and graphene. If you thought the later was a new material, then you’ll be surprised to find it was originally discovered in 1962 but not rediscovered until 2004. Considering its the strongest and lightest material, it’s an over-sight long needed to be rectified.
As I said at the beginning of this review, you can never know enough about quantum mechanics. Walker even references some of the books I’ve covered here in the past and if you’re followed any of those, then this one shouldn’t create too many problems reading it. This book is even easier to grasp. If nothing else, it acts as a good refresher course on basic chemistry even if it did look a little odd seeing the Periodic Table upside-down. Understanding the nature of matter makes it easier to make use of it in our technology. The younger generations amongst us might be inspired to take up quantum mechanics applications for a career.
GF Willmetts
February 2017
(pub: Prometheus Books. 417 page illustrated indexed hardback. Price: $28.00 (US), $29.50 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-63388-239-3. Ebook: Price: $11.99 (US), $13.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-63388-240-9)
Quantum Fuzz by Michael S. Walker
Quantum Fuzz by Michael S. Walker
Quantum Fuzz is a bit of a quantum book, if you ask me. It is definitely in more than one state at a time. It’s a history of the development of quantum physics, rich with the details of the many conferences and debates between the many scientists who first struggled with and eventually developed the basics of quantum mechanics. It is also a wide-ranging overview of this, that, and the other quantum thing, cramming what might be a textbook into two paragraphs, sort of like a quantum computer, but with words. Then it is an engineer’s Disneyland of quantum applications in technology and engineering. All in one book, all at the same time.
The history of conferences and debates is some of the most familiar and most interesting. There’s a curious blend of too much and too little detail. At times it feels like a tick-tock of the events of a day at a conference, then we get the life of Einstein in a couple paragraphs. Still, you get a feeling for the passions and personalities of these scientists who overturned our understanding of the world.
The next part looks at the implications of quantum mechanics, things like quantum computing, decryption, encryption. Part Three is a section on the Big Bang and all this astronomical info that is presented a bus tour, but it’s no Hitchhiker’s Guide. Concept after concept is introduce in a paragraph or two. I do like imagining our expanding universe as raisins in bread batter. It is one of the best analogies in the book. The fourth part is how we understand the elements now that we understand atoms differently than we did back when the periodic table was created and what that means in chemistry and materials science.
Much of the book is in the fifth section which covers many of the exciting technologies and applications that derive from quantum mechanics, all about conductivity, superconductors, nanotubes, graphene, and fusion. The possibilities seem to be expanding like our universe.
3-stars
Quantum Fuzz is filled with interesting information but it tries to do too much too quickly. It becomes overwhelming and often confusing. Walker spends more time explaining the basic concepts which are much more commonly and widely understood than on the more obscure and unfamiliar. It seems as though he thinks once we get the basics, the other stuff will be a snap. For me, this was just the opposite of what I needed. I am fascinated by this stuff and have a decent understanding of the basics so I was impatient with the deliberate instruction in the first section, painstaking explanation of all the more widely understood concepts.
But then we get to the chemistry and the elements and explanation becomes more cursory, more reliant on formulae and math. There are fewer analogies, it begins to feel rushed, as though he is packing it all in with no room to spare. The four appendices at the end of the book would have been so much more useful integrated into the text they elucidate. If I had known, I would have read the appendices when I was reading those topics in the book itself instead of at the end.
I am torn with this book. It is about material that fascinates me, that I enjoy reading about. It is full of information about exciting applications of quantum physics. It is also incredibly confusing and seems written more for engineers and scientists, not lay readers. Actually, the beginning feels like it was written for lay readers and then it feels as though Walker got tired of slowing down for us and started writing for his peers when he began writing about the chemistry and the elements. Then he remembered us towards the end, talking about superconductor trains, Bitter magnets (I am so disappointed it was named after a person rather than some anthropocentric emotion of magnetism.), MRIs and all the wonderful things we can do now we better understand our quantum universe.
So, should you read this book? Of course. Just check out those appendices earlier. Forgive yourself when the chemistry gets too complex and roll your eyes at the formulae and just enjoy the magnificent possibilities or mysterious and constantly changing world.
Quantum Fuzz will be released February 14th, 2017. I was provided an advance e-galley by the publisher through Edelweiss.
Quantum Fuzz at Prometheus/Penguin Random House
Review: Quantum Fuzz
April 21, 2017 By David Dickinson 2 Comments
On sale now!
Feeling lost in the world of quantum physics? It has been said that only a few human brains on the planet truly understand the bizarre world on the quantum scale. It is true that it involves a fair amount of “mathiness” to even grasp much more than the basic predictions of quantum physics.
Are physicists making this all up? Nope, and nothing short of our modern technological world relies on the predictions of quantum physics being true. Now, you can arm yourself with knowledge of all things quantum by reading Quantum Fuzz: The Strange Makeup of Everything Around Us by Michael S. Walker, out now from Prometheus Books. Quantum Fuzz takes you through the world of classical physics, through the birth of quantum mechanics and explores its ramifications in the modern technological world and our understanding of the very fabric of the Universe itself, and where the forefront of modern physics may be headed.
Designed as a course textbook, we found Quantum Fuzz to a very readable study on modern physics.
History of the Quantum
The arcane world of quantum physics sprang from the end of the classical Newtonian physics era of the early 20th century. Famous slit experiments showed that something truly strange was going on with the nature of light, something that could only be explained by both the wave and particle theory of light transmission. Stranger still, the very act of observation seemed to be determining the outcome of the experiment (!).
Implications: The book also makes a deep dive in to the predictions and implications of quantum physics, and the limitations it puts on what we can know about things on the subatomic level. I’d advise the reader to take the book in slowly (like say, a chapter a day) to really grasp what’s going on. To me, one of the most interesting facets of quantum physics it what it says about the nature of each element and their place on the periodic table. It’s amazing to me still that humans figured this stuff out at all, a periodic table we can now photocopy and hand out students.
Applications: The book also explores the current and future applications for quantum physics. The advent of the diode is one of the most famous, an electronic valve of sorts that makes modern technology possible. Next up, look for quantum computing and quantum encryption on the technological horizon.
The book also tackles one of the very weirdest facets of the world of the quantum: quantum entanglement. This is a real and experimentally proven phenomenon. Just how can two particles behave in unison, even if they’re light years apart? Clearly, there’s some key underpinning in the quantum world we’ve yet to discover… now, if we could ever manage to exploit quantum entanglement to instantaneously send information (or even people, like teleporters in Star Trek), now that’d make for a cool phone App!
Be sure to check out Quantum Fuzz for a fascinating exploration into modern physics.