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Knocking on Heaven's Door

How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World

Lisa Randall

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Knocking on Heaven's Door
 

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Lisa Randall

Lisa Randall is Professor of Physics at Harvard University. She is one of today’s most influential and highly cited theoretical physicists, and has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions. Her work has been featured in Time magazine, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vogue, the Economist, Scientific American, and elsewhere. Randall is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Physical Society, and is the recipient of several honorary degrees. When not solving the problems of the universe, she can be found rock climbing, skiing, or contributing to art-science connections. Hypermusic Prologue, a small opera for which she wrote the libretto, premiered in the Pompidou Center in 2009, and Measure for Measure, an art exhibit she co-curated, opened in Los Angeles in 2010.
 

 



Photo Credit: Christopher Kim


 

Backlist

Warped Passages
Warped Passages
Lisa Randall
  • Hardcover
  • 9780060531089
  • 8/30/2005
  • $27.95 ($35.99 Can.)
  • Marketing Code: AV
Warped Passages
Warped Passages
Lisa Randall
  • Trade PB
  • 9780060531096
  • 9/19/2006
  • $15.95 ($19.95 Can.)
  • Marketing Code: AV
 

Also Available

Knocking on Heaven's Door
Knocking on Heaven's Door
Lisa Randall
  • E-Book
  • 9780062096890
  • 9/20/2011
  • $14.99
 

Extras


Quotes

"Startlingly honest [and] beautifully written. . . . Randall's calm authority and clarity of explanation are exemplary. . . . Like being taken behind the curtain in Oz and given a full tour by the wizard."


- New Scientist
"[Randall is] one of the more original theorists at work in the profession today. . . . She gives a fine analysis of the affinity between scientific and artistic beauty, comparing the broken symmetries of a Richard Serra sculpture to those at the core of the Standard Model."


- New York Times Book Review
"[A] whip-smart inquiry into the scientific work being conducted in particle physics. . . . [Randall] brings a thrumming enthusiasm to the topic, but she is unhurried and wryly humorous. . . . [Knocking on Heaven's Door] dazzles like the stars."


- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[Randall's] eloquent book details the trials and tribulations of the [Large Hadron Collider], from conception to implementation, and takes us on a grand tour of the underlying science."


- Nature
"Offers the reader a glimpse of the future. . . . An enlightening and exciting read."


- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"Valuable and engaging. . . . Randall's generous cornucopia of ideas, her engaging style, and above all her deep excitement about physics make this a book that deserves a wide readership."


- American Scientist
"Beautifully written. . . . An impressive overview of what scientists (of any kind) get up to, how they work and why science is an inherently creative endeavor."


- Times Higher Education (London)
"An exciting read about the very edge of modern science. . . . [Knocking on Heaven's Door] inspires a sense of awe, appreciation and excitement for what the future holds."


- Daily Texan
"Very accessible, readable, and appealing to a broad audience. . . . Randall's passion and excitement for science and physics is infectious and welcome in our digital age."


- New York Journal of Books
"Full of passion and jaw-dropping facts. . . . A fascinating account of modern particle physics, both theoretical and practical."


- The Independent on Sunday
"A deep and deeply wonderful explanation of how science-and the rest of the known universe-actually works."


- Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness
"Lisa Randall is the rarest rarity-a theoretical physics genius who can write and talk to the rest of us in ways we both understand and enjoy. This book takes nonspecialists as close as they'll ever get to the inner workings of the cosmos."


- Lawrence H. Summers, President Emeritus of Harvard University
"Science has a battle for hearts and minds on its hands: a battle on two fronts-against superstition and ignorance on one flank, and against pseudo-intellectual obscurantism on the other. How good it feels to have Lisa Randall's unusual blend of top flight science, clarity, and charm on our side."


- Richard Dawkins
"Many books call to mind superlatives, but this one has them all. It explains the greatest scientific endeavor in history-one that is exploring the earliest, smallest, largest, and most powerful phenomena in the universe, and that may answer the deepest questions about the nature of physical reality. Lisa Randall's lucid explanations of concepts at the frontiers of physics-including her own dazzling ideas-are highly illuminating, and her hearty defense of reason and science is a welcome contribution to the contemporary world of ideas. Read this book today to understand the science of tomorrow."


- Steven Pinker
"As a biologist I found Knocking on Heaven's Door a very timely dive into modern physics and in particular the inner workings of the Large Hadron Collider where soon some of the biggest experiments in physics are about to take place. Lisa Randall does a great job of explaining to the non-physicist the basic science approaches of modern physics and what the latest experiments might reveal. She explains in very readable terms the notion of scale from the inner structure of the atom to the universe and how many of the basic principals were discovered. This is a must read to appreciate what is coming in our future."


- J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.