A mind-bending book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes. What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did--and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. This is the story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories with their own sense of reality--effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space.--From publisher description.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (1900 - 1958) were two of the greatest thinkers of modern times. Jung is the founder of Analytical Psychology and is one of the best known researchers in the field of Dream Interpretation and Symbolization. Pauli was one of the pioneers of Quantum Physics. In 1945, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics after being nominated by Albert Einstein for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle" involving spin theory underpinning the structure of matter and the whole of chemistry. Together they collaborated on this book that was First published in 1952 in German as Naturerklarung und Psyche. C. G. Jung: Synchronizitat als ein Prinzip akausaler Zusammenhange. W. Pauli: Der Einfluss archetypischer Vorstellungen auf die Bildung naturwissenschaftlicher Theorien bei Kepler. However, our reviewer, himself an eminent professor of mathematics, concludes, "After thoroughly studying their writings for many months now, I have come to see clearly that they are both utterly mad.""

In this book, Robert Wald provides a coherent, pedagogical introduction to the formulation of quantum field theory in curved spacetime. He begins with a treatment of the ordinary one-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator, progresses through the construction of quantum field theory in flat spacetime to possible constructions of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, and, ultimately, to an algebraic formulation of the theory. In his presentation, Wald disentangles essential features of the theory from inessential ones (such as a particle interpretation) and clarifies relationships between various approaches to the formulation of the theory. He also provides a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the Unruh effect, the Hawking effect, and some of its ramifications. In particular, the subject of black hole thermodynamics, which remains an active area of research, is treated in depth. This book will be accessible to students and researchers who have had introductory courses in general relativity and quantum field theory, and will be of interest to scientists in general relativity and related fields.