The Nature of Reality

That Morris is a master at popular science writing was evidenced by his The Fate of the Universe and Time's Arrows. Yet in this short attempt to summarize the exciting discoveries and increasingly wild new speculations made by physicists who have been wallowing in a world of quarks, mesons, gluons and tantalizing virtual particles through the 1970s and up to this day, he has fallen victim to the elusive mysteries of his subject. His chronological scenario shows how scientists have progressed from an understanding of the electron and the concept of ""fields,'' moving from theory to experiment to theory at a speed unheard of in ancient times when ether was believed real. But Morris's effort at capturing what scientists know about reality (note the reversible title) brings him precisely to where quantum physics is right now: at sea in a boat named The Uncertainty Principle, rocked by echoes of the Big Bang and contemplating ideas (many universes?) once scorned as metaphysical. 20,000 first printing; $15,000 ad/promo. (October 27)