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About
P. J. E. Peebles is a Nobel Prize–winning physicist and the author of several books, including Cosmology's Century: An Inside History of Our Modern Understanding of the Universe, Principles of Physical Cosmology, Quantum Mechanics, and Physical Cosmology (all Princeton). He is the Albert Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Princeton University.
From the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural science
A century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of the ether to electric and magnetic fields, and from homogeneous matter to electrons and atoms. Today, concepts like dark matter and dark energy further complicate and enrich the search for objective reality. The Whole Truth is a personal reflection on this ongoing quest by one of the world's most esteemed cosmologists.
What lies at the heart of physical science? What are the foundational ideas that inform and guide the enterprise? Is the concept of objective reality meaningful? If so, do our established physical theories usefully approximate it? P. J. E. Peebles takes on these and other big questions about the nature of science, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a leading physicist and using cosmology as an example. He traces the history of thought about the nature of physical science since Einstein, and succinctly lays out the fundamental working assumptions. Through a careful examination of the general theory of relativity, Einstein's cosmological principle, and the theory of an expanding universe, Peebles shows the evidence that we are discovering the nature of reality in successive approximations through increasingly rigorous scrutiny.
A landmark work, The Whole Truth is essential reading for anyone interested in the practice of science. "[An] engaging and inviting account of the history of the physical sciences."---Grace O'Hanlon, Library Journal "This treatment is marked by the author's emphasis on the theory's empirical basis, off eringmany examples of multiple researchers independently arriving at the same conclusion. Such emphasis distinguishes this book from more popularbooks on cosmology, and this alone makes it worth having in a university library."---A. Spero, Choice Reviews "The objective reality of this book is that P. J. E. Peebles is an outstanding cosmologist and a fine writer. To learn what he sees as the objective reality of the universe, please read the book!"-Virginia Trimble, coeditor of The Sky Is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words "Over the past hundred years, our understanding of the structure of our universe as a whole has developed enormously. No one is better qualified to describe these profound and remarkable changes than James Peebles, which he has achieved magnificently in The Whole Truth."-Roger Penrose, author of Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe "A fascinating and authoritative exploration of the development of physical cosmology by a giant of the field. The Whole Truth makes a compelling case for the power of the scientific method to lead us to the ultimate nature of reality. An engrossing read with deep philosophical insights that bed down in one's mind."-Hiranya Peiris, University College London and the Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm "Peebles shares refreshingly generous and open-minded reflections on major milestones in the physics community's century-long efforts to learn about the structure and evolution of our universe."-David Kaiser, author of Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World "Peebles gives us a fascinating firsthand account of how we came to our current ideas about the universe and its workings, and why they have become so compelling. In this thought-provoking book, he elegantly reveals the process of how science gets done and the intriguing wa
From the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural science
A century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of the ether to electric and magnetic fields, and from homogeneous matter to electrons and atoms. Today, concepts like dark matter and dark energy further complicate and enrich the search for objective reality. The Whole Truth is a personal reflection on this ongoing quest by one of the world's most esteemed cosmologists.
What lies at the heart of physical science? What are the foundational ideas that inform and guide the enterprise? Is the concept of objective reality meaningful? If so, do our established physical theories usefully approximate it? P. J. E. Peebles takes on these and other big questions about the nature of science, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a leading physicist and using cosmology as an example. He traces the history of thought about the nature of physical science since Einstein, and succinctly lays out the fundamental working assumptions. Through a careful examination of the general theory of relativity, Einstein's cosmological principle, and the theory of an expanding universe, Peebles shows the evidence that we are discovering the nature of reality in successive approximations through increasingly rigorous scrutiny.
A landmark work, The Whole Truth is essential reading for anyone interested in the practice of science. "[An] engaging and inviting account of the history of the physical sciences."---Grace O'Hanlon, Library Journal "This treatment is marked by the author's emphasis on the theory's empirical basis, off eringmany examples of multiple researchers independently arriving at the same conclusion. Such emphasis distinguishes this book from more popularbooks on cosmology, and this alone makes it worth having in a university library."---A. Spero, Choice Reviews "The objective reality of this book is that P. J. E. Peebles is an outstanding cosmologist and a fine writer. To learn what he sees as the objective reality of the universe, please read the book!"-Virginia Trimble, coeditor of The Sky Is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words "Over the past hundred years, our understanding of the structure of our universe as a whole has developed enormously. No one is better qualified to describe these profound and remarkable changes than James Peebles, which he has achieved magnificently in The Whole Truth."-Roger Penrose, author of Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe "A fascinating and authoritative exploration of the development of physical cosmology by a giant of the field. The Whole Truth makes a compelling case for the power of the scientific method to lead us to the ultimate nature of reality. An engrossing read with deep philosophical insights that bed down in one's mind."-Hiranya Peiris, University College London and the Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm "Peebles shares refreshingly generous and open-minded reflections on major milestones in the physics community's century-long efforts to learn about the structure and evolution of our universe."-David Kaiser, author of Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World "Peebles gives us a fascinating firsthand account of how we came to our current ideas about the universe and its workings, and why they have become so compelling. In this thought-provoking book, he elegantly reveals the process of how science gets done and the intriguing wa