Seeking Ultimates is yet another, but it is a book with a difference. Part personal memoir, part philosophy and part history, it introduces readers to both basic and advanced topics in modern physics while at the same time illustrating the limitations of science.
The inability of science to explain in a completely satisfactory manner the world in which we find ourselves is accomplished by Landsberg in a variety of ways, from presenting the inexplicable, such as Ober's paradox, to addressing, within the context of thermodynamics and cosmology, whether God exists. His conclusion regarding the latter is that this proposition is ''G .
odelian'', that is, can neither be proved nor disproved.
Landsberg is a charismatic Professor Emeritus at Southampton University in the UK, and has an impressive command of the subjects presented in his book. Through prose, anecdotes, and imaginative illustrations his personality shines through and adds to the text a lively cadence. For example, he points out that ''wasting energy'' is not sound science (energy is conserved), and suggests that it would be more correct to admonish the 'energy-waster' for generating unnecessary entropy. And within his discussion of the scientific principal of Chaos he injects economist Malthus' assertion that poverty is the inevitable consequence of a population growth that exceeds the food supply.
Seeking Ultimates is filled with anecdotes that serve to enlighten while at the same time providing a sense of perspective to those responsible for shaping the course of modern physics. Particularly interesting is the reproduction of a 1902 classified advertisement placed by Albert Einstein offering to tutor students in math and physics (with a free trial lesson!). Other historical anecdotes are less amusing but more profound, adding depth to the subjects covered.
The topics included in Seeking Ultimates are treated intuitively, that is, without equations, and this will be appreciated by those who possess only limited facility in mathematics. For those with a strong technical background, it sometimes happens