The God Effect

We are used to hearing that “Einstein’s greatest mistake” had been his throwing in the cosmological constant to explain the expansion of the universe. Though these days this seems less of a mistake. But he definitely didn’t get one fact right — that’s quantum entanglement. In fact, it was Einstein who for once was mistaken, and entanglement has proved to be one of science’s strangest phenomena.

The book begins with some background information — Einstein’s original “entanglement busting” paper, early attempts to show whether or not entanglement existed and the experiments that demonstrated it in action. Clegg makes a great job of explaining what is going on in layman’s terms, and bringing alive the major characters not widely known outside this field such as John Bell and Alain Aspect. The book really triumphs when he moves on to the remarkable applications of entanglement that have started to be developed over the last few years. Overall, this is a superb exploration of this weird and wonderful physical phenomenon and the ways it could change our lives. The book is well-written and can be approached without any technical background. It may also appeal to undergraduates as entanglement tends to get very limited coverage on physics courses. RECOMMENDED - The Telegraph, Calcutta

Brian Clegg, a science writer from Wiltshire in the UK, provides a clear, non-technical guide to entanglement and its fascinating implications. Clegg explains how the concept, and controversy, of entanglement emerged in the famous 1935 paper by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in which instantaneous action at a distance was dismissed with the following: “No reasonable definition of reality could be expected to permit this.” But entanglement could not be cast aside that easily, and its intricacies are now on the verge of making revolutionary applications in computing and cryptography possible. Physics World

We are used to hearing that “Einstein’s greatest mistake” had been his throwing in the cosmological constant to explain the expansion of the universe. Though these days this seems less of a mistake. But he definitely didn’t get one fact right — that’s quantum entanglement. In fact, it was Einstein who for once was mistaken, and entanglement has proved to be one of science’s strangest phenomena.

Science writer Clegg (“A Brief History of Infinity”), discussing the field of quantum mechanics, asserts that "[e]very experiment takes us a step closer to realizing just how strange the world is at the quantum level." Quantum entanglement is the oddest of them all...  Clegg does an excellent job of explaining this complex situation in nontechnical terms; he details the many experiments that have consistently suggested that entanglement is real. The implications for future technological advances are huge, and Clegg is at his finest as he embeds potential advances in a broad historical context. Data could be encrypted in unbreakable codes; computers could become thousands of times more powerful than today; objects, and maybe even living organisms, could be instantaneously transported. While highly speculative, these possibilities could change our notion of reality.” - Publishers Weekly

It is a delightful book. The author does a superb job of presenting the story of a remarkable concept – quantum entanglement – in a relaxed and entertaining style. He succeeds admirably in steering the reader through a number of mind boggling features of the quantum world and their fascinating applications. Professor Artur Ekert, Leigh Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics, Cambridge University
 
A masterful account of the phenomenon Einstein thought so crazy it could not possibly be true (Only it is!)  Marcus Chown, author of The Universe Next Door

A marvellously clear and engaging account of the people and ideas involved in trying to understand the deepest mysteries of the quantum world and convert them into a useful technology. Gregory Chaitin, author of Meta Math! The Quest for Omega