A dense, technical, but well-written argument for a new scientific interpretation.
A contrarian approach to understanding some fundamental concepts in physics.
In this debut science book, retired engineer Hardison makes arguments for re-evaluating the work of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Max Planck, and others who developed the basic principles that physics students are still taught. Specifically, he advocates a new understanding of the universe under a different paradigm. However, he isn’t writing for general readers but for committed science buffs who can follow the hundreds of equations he uses to elucidate elements of his theory, which rests on the assumption that the speed of light is not a fixed number but “essentially infinite.” This, he says, is because light is transferred from one atom to another instead of moving through space. Hardison’s theory does away with such concepts as wave/particle duality and mass as a relative quality of matter. Although the analysis is extremely detailed and technical, relying on variable-laden equations and depictions of multidimensional space, the author recounts his work in a casual, often wry, tone. At one point, for example, he explains that “I will have more to say on this subject (with some difficulty)”; later, he summarizes an argument with the phrase, “I tweak my nose at negative potential energy.” The author’s conclusions matter mainly on a theoretical level; cellphones, for example, will continue to work and the Earth’s orbit will remain unchanged whether the speed of light is constant or infinite. Physicists’ understanding of the forces that shape the universe would be shaken, though, if Hardison’s analysis is correct. That, however, isn’t something that most readers are in a position to judge, so it will be left to peer review and further research to determine the validity of the book’s central theory. In the meantime, readers with strong groundings in mathematics and physics may find this to be a thought-provoking approach to key questions about the nature of the universe and how it came to be and the conclusions that one may reach by re-evaluating basic assumptions.
A dense, technical, but well-written argument for a new scientific interpretation.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-615-37746-9
Page Count: 314
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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