Scrooge's Cryptic Carol

When the destination sign in Scrooge's train reads "Heat Death" instead of "Heathrow", when his dead partner Marley's face appears inexplicably as a talking head in a department store TV, and when the street lights outside his luxurious London flat begin acting strangely, it's a sign of a bad night to come. Like his famous ancestor, the modern Scrooge - who hews tightly to the credo "it is enough for a man to understand his own business and look to his own advantage" - is about to be visited by ghosts. But it's not his hard heart that needs opening this time; it's his closed mind. The wisdom these ghosts bring is not love and charity but Science. Physicist Robert Gilmore, author of the popular Alice in Quantumland, here presents a delightful takeoff on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, where the three visitations represent Science Past (the Spirits of Energy and Entropy, who explain the laws of thermodynamics, equilibrium and that troublesome Heat Death sign), Science Present (the Spirit of Time, who tells him of inconstancy, of change and also of creation), and Science Future (the surreal world of quantum uncertainty, where it is the observer or measurement that creates a unique reality). For everyone who wants a playful, painless yet surprisingly sophisticated introduction to the ideas of modern physics, this is a brilliant tour de force and a charming read.