AMA | September 2024

In 'Where Mathematics Comes From', George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez argue that mathematics is not a transcendent entity but rather a product of human cognition, rooted in conceptual metaphors derived from our physical interactions with the world. They examine how these metaphors underlie various mathematical concepts, from arithmetic to infinity. The book challenges traditional views of mathematics as an independent, Platonic realm, instead emphasizing its embodied nature.

In 'Life as No One Knows It,' physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. This is an urgent issue for efforts to make life from scratch in laboratories and missions searching for life on other planets. Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life, culminating in a bold proposal for a new theory for identifying and classifying life that applies to any instance of life in the universe. The book celebrates the mystery of life and the explanatory power of physics.

In this book, Sean Carroll delves into the basics of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, explaining how the world is fundamentally composed of fields rather than particles. He addresses key concepts such as measurement, entanglement, spin, symmetry, Feynman diagrams, and the Higgs mechanism. Carroll's approach goes beyond analogies, providing a detailed and accessible explanation of the mathematical essence of these theories. The book challenges common misconceptions about quantum mechanics, such as its applicability only to the subatomic world, and discusses the scalability of quantum physics. It is part of Carroll's series, The Biggest Ideas in the Universe, and is designed to help readers understand the profound truths about the universe through a uniquely accessible approach.