Mr. Aczel writes books about concepts that at times border on those barely understood, and in this case, still are being debated, by some of the greatest minds in their associated fields of study. This does not mean the same issues are completely off limits to the non expert. There are several writers of science and its history that are able to share enough of a topic or field of study to share the wonder of it without requiring the decades of study that those who are the experts have invested in their quests. At the same time I would imagine those with an above average understanding of these topics would be better served by reading advanced texts and the papers that are issued by scientific journals.
"ENtanglement", is a book that is full of concise biographies of dozens of men and women who have pursued this realm of Science that has been deemed everything from strange to weird to magic. Einstein spent a good deal of his time attempting to disprove many of his colleagues as he always felt, "God does not play dice", and the world of the Quantum would require that He did. As the author explains he used this format to continually reinforce complex ideas so the reader would have a path. He also explains that while he has included formulas that are famous in the scientific world, they are not likely to be understood by the more casual reader, but keeping to the text will not penalize the reader either.
Some of the traditional ideas anyone who has taken a Physics course and has accepted as fact gets tossed in the world of the Quantum. In this world Light is a wave and a particle, and if a single photon is offered the alternative of traveling through one of two slits in a barrier, choice no longer is an option, it is not either this opening or that one, rather both. Mr. Aczel takes the reader from the world of here or there to the world of here and there, to a world where action taken on a given particle will affect another particle no matter how far apart they may be. He even takes you to a lab where they have teleported a photon. Now if this brings to mind a certain science fiction program, you are on the correct path as the author refers to the same program several times during the book. Science is in no manner approaching the teleportation of a human. But just as what was a Science Fiction a decade or a Century ago, may once again be science fact again in 10 or 50 or 100 years.
I can understand how this book may be too much for some and too little for others. I enjoyed the book as it gives the non-expert a glimpse at the "magic" that scientists all around the world are exploring and discovering in their labs.
