Tom Siegfried

320 pages, 6 x 9, 2002.

Joseph Henry Press (JHP)
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0-309-08407-5	hardcover	24.95	19.96

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Scientists studying the universe find strange things in two places—out in space and in their heads. This is the story of how the most imaginative physicists of our time perceive strange features of the universe in advance of the actual discoveries.

It is almost a given that physics and cosmology present us with some of the grandest mysteries of all. What weightier questions to ponder than, "How does the universe work?" or "What is the universe made of?" There are any number of bizarre phenomena that could provide clues or even answers to these queries. The strangeness ranges from unusual forms of matter and realms of existence to wild ideas about how time and space are related to one another. Many of these proposals may well turn out to be wrong. But how many will be proven to be right?

This book speaks for the scientific theorists who are bold enough to imagine and predict the impossible. New ideas are percolating in their heads every day. One physicist may dream of subatomic particles that could resolve a variety of cosmological conundrums while another may study the likes of "funny energy," which may explain how rapidly the universe is expanding. This is the stuff of Strange Matters.

In broad terms, this book is about a variety of discoveries that theorists of the past imagined before the observers and experimenters actually saw them. Moreover, it is about the things that today’s are now imagining—but haven't yet been discovered or confirmed by the observers. Strange Matters artfully mixes the present with the past and future, reporting from the frontiers of research where history is in the process of being made.

Each chapter examines a different step along the twisted path we've walked to gain our rudimentary understanding of the universe, incorporating historical examples of successful "prediscoveries" with current stories that relate brand new ideas. We come to see the universe not only in terms of what has already been discovered, but also in terms of what has yet to be observed.

Strange Matters is a guide to the discoveries of the twenty-first century, a series of visions dreamt by the most imaginative scientists of our time merged with the achievements of the past—to point the way towards even greater accomplishments of the future.



"Tom Siegfried...takes readers on an extraordinary journey into the world of physics and the universe, explaining the thoughts of scientists who fashion theories and then set out to prove them. His pace is light, and the writing is clever."
-- Newsday, July 2, 2002

"Making sense of these fascinating but complex ideas for the general reader is a difficult task, one that science journalist Siegfried accomplishes deftly, with wit and insight. ... Siegfried brings clarity and a great deal of enthusiasm to the search for understanding. ... Along the way, he presents a thoroughly engaging, if just a big eclectic, history of physics. Siegfried has turned a difficult subject into a book that is difficult to put down."
-- Publishers Weekly, July 1, 2002

"Despite ideas as expansive and far reaching as the universe itself, Siegfried manages to convey his message in an easily digestible, down to earth way. The reader will be provided with an intriguing preview to what may be the next version of science's continually changing truth."
-- Foreword Magazine, September 2002

"...a penetrating study of how some of the most brilliant scientific minds have perceived and anticipated reality. ... Laudable effort to bridge the gap between ordinary readers and science at its weirdest."
-- Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2002

"The author, science editor at the Dallas Morning News, is a journalist by trade, but he writes about science like a pro, making complex ideas seem straightforward. ... There are lots of mind-bending ideas in here, but nowhere does the author get bogged down in convoluted explanations or high-tech prose. A light, energetic introduction to cutting-edge physics and cosmology."
-- Booklist, August 2002

"...a very readable study that should give intelligent lay readers a good idea of what theorists are up to and why they are venturing into this remarkably challenging terrain. Recommended for college and large public libraries."
-- Library Journal, August 2002

"Tom Siegfried provides a cook's tour of the current menagerie of wild ideas and theories that have been developed. With clarity and a fluid style, he captures the breadth of current thinking, based on discussions with many of today's active physicists. Thought provoking and fun."
-- Lawrence M. Krauss, author of Atom: A Single Oxygen Atom's Journey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond and The Physics of Star Trek

"With the seasoned authority of Dan Rather, the dry wit of Mark Twain and a prescience that puts astrology to shame, Tom Siegfried makes the perfect guide on this rollicking good ride to the frontiers of truly weird science--and beyond. Describing discoveries that have yet to be made, but probably should be, Siegfried homes in on the throbbing heart of things--the exciting if sometimes fuzzy frontier where science really is stranger than fiction. Will strangelets inherit the Earth? Is the universe a hologram? Does time swing both ways? Read on."
-- K.C. Cole, author the The Universe and the Teacup and The Hole in the Universe

"Tom Siegfried takes the reader on a fascinating tour of some of the strange things that have been discovered in the universe--and some of the even stranger ideas that have been conjectured by scientists in seeking to understand the universe better. Surely not all of the wild ideas described here will pan out--but probably some of them will!"
-- Edward Witten, Simonyi Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey



Tom Siegfried has been science editor of the Dallas Morning News since 1985. In 1993 he received the American Chemical Society’s James H. Grady-James T. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. In 1997 he received the American Psychiatric Association's Robert T. Morse Writer's Award. He is the author of The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to M Theory—The New Physics of Information, which Booklist called "a volume of remarkable sweep." Tom lives in Arlington, Texas, with his wife Chris.