Popular Science Feature - Four Way Interview - Marcus Chown

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Four Way Interview - Marcus Chown - October 2006

Our four-way interviews give a quick insight into the current thinking of a popular science author.

Marcus Chown has recently published The Quantum Zoo, an introduction to quantum theory, with general relativity thrown in for good measure.

Why science?

It blows my mind. I'm constantly amazed by how much stranger it is than anything we could have made up.

Why this book?

I've read loads of popular books on relativity and quantum theory and been totally baffled - and I have a background in physics! So I thought: "there's got to be a better way to explain this stuff."

So that's what I tried to do - explain all this amazing stuff to my own satisfaction. I hope I've succeeded. But that's for the reader to decide!

What’s next?

I've written a book called "The Never-ending Days of Being Dead" (Faber, January 2007). It's about ultimate questions... What happened before the big bang? Can we live forever? What's beyond the edge of the universe? Is Elvis alive and kicking and living in another space domain? (The answer is yes - in fact, he's alive and kicking in an infinite number of places!)

What’s exciting you at the moment?

The thought that there is some very big idea missing in physics. I mean, we currently have no idea what 96% of the mass of the universe is. What's more, the main component - the dark energy - has an energy which is 1 followed by 123 zeroes smaller than our best theory of physics predicts. This is the biggest discrepancy between a prediction and an observation in the history of science. I can't help thinking that all accepted ideas about our universe and our place in it are on the brink of being blown out of the water.

See more on Marcus Chown's books.

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