Literate Scientist

I’m in love with QFT. I noticed this planned monumental 6-volume work some time ago but I bought this book from Amazon UK (I give the link to Amazon US here) after reading Quantum Field Theory Demystified and looking for more thorough ab initio treatment of QFT. Upon its arrival I immersed myself into it and in my opinion the first volume is like The Road to Reality but more mathematically oriented with proofs, numerous examples, historical notes, generous citations and references.

Quantum Field Theory I: Basics in Mathematics and Physics: A Bridge between Mathematicians and Physicists (v. 1)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

This was a nice short book for me to see some derivations and mathematics behind physical concepts discussed in more popular books that I read before such as The Road to Reality, Deep Down Things and The Great Design, Not Even Wrong and the Trouble With Physics and The Comprehensible Cosmos. Although I accelerated a bit skipping some derivations by the end of the book I was able to grasp most of them including explanations of Feynman rules and path integrals. Because I have never read anything mathematical about QFT some additional reading will definitely improve understanding. Perhaps I come back to this book again for a second read. For now, I start reading another book: A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics.

Quantum Field Theory Demystified

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I own the other square box book “The Art of Looking Sideways”. This is how I noticed the bigger square box book in a local bookshop. My art education was very weak and I decided to buy the book. Later I also bought the portable “The Story of Art” from the same publisher. 

“30,000 Years of Art” contains pictures and reproductions of 1,000 artistic works arranged by time. I consider it also as a color complement to Ideas book. Now I read 10 pages every evening before going to sleep. Highly recommended to get the sense of history right. For example, before reading this book I had the impression that before 2,000 BC the art was at the level of cave paintings and venuses, but that level was actually long time before.

30,000 Years of Art

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I read this book in a few days briefly glancing at problem solutions because my aim was to review QM I studied long time ago. Highly recommended for a quick review. I noticed some misprints in derivations even during quick read but all explanations (physical semantics) are very clear. Now I venture into mathematics and physics of Quantum Field Theory Demystified that I hope to finish in a few days too. Here detailed mathematics (especially derivations) of QFT is almost unfamiliar to me so I expect to learn something new here and my future book review will reflect this reading and learning experience.

Quantum Mechanics Demystified

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

As soon as I finished Linear Algebra Demystified I started reading this book and read it in a week. This book is about general relativity, only a few pages cover special one. Lots of equation derivations which I mostly skipped while approaching the end of the book. The algebraic treatment of tensors is refreshing after The Road to Reality which uses mostly graphical notation devised by Roger Penrose. I finally understood what Christoffel symbols are for and the distinction of holonomic and nonholonomic coordinate bases. I would say that this book is very heavy on the syntax of physics and has less discussion of physical semantics. I’ve started reading Quantum Mechanics Demystified and then I plan to start with Quantum Field Theory Demystified. After that I approach a bit more semantics by reading A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics by Ian Lawrie.

Relativity Demystified

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

It is interesting to compare core school subjects in 70-80s USSR with those in UK and Ireland. I certainly missed any religious education and many art-isms. Physical education (games) was also different except football and climbing a rope. So I bought this book in a local bookshop a few months ago to align my basic school education and finished reading yesterday while waiting in a queue in Irish visa office near Dublin O’Connell Bridge:

Homework for Grown-ups: Everything You Learnt at School…and Promptly Forgot

It was also useful for me to learn some English words from basic biology, classics and geography.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I bought this book a month ago when I was browsing the list of new books on Amazon and was intrigued by title description. I also don’t know much about population genetics, anthropology and this is another reason why I’m reading this book now.

The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I bought a dozen Demystified books a few years ago to teach myself several subjects I missed from my education or to quickly refresh my knowledge. One of them was:

Linear Algebra Demystified

I read it quickly yesterday and it really refreshed my knowledge and cleared some confusion aroused from reading more advanced applied mathematics books. My next reading sequence is Relativity Demystified, Quantum Mechanics Demystified and Quantum Field Theory Demystified.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I bought this book in a local bookshop yesterday and just started reading it, considering it as a structured idea-centered overview compliment to a history-centered idea development book I’m finishing soon: Ideas and Modern Mind (Modern Mind is still on my reading list):

Ideas That Matter: A Personal Guide for the 21st Century

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -