Description

As heard on BBC Radio 4 Start The Week

‘Felix Flicker brilliantly reveals the secrets behind the modern-day magic we call physics’ Marcus du Sautoy

Imagine you had a crystal that lit upon your command: magic must be at work, and you must surely be a wizard. But what if you discovered that you routinely cast such spells? Are the spells no longer magic … or are you a wizard?

The modern term for wizardry is condensed matter physics. It is the study of the world around us – the states of matter and how they emerge from the quantum realm. Thanks to its practical magic we can make lasers which cut through solid metal, trains which hover in mid-air, and crystals which light our homes. It is one of the best-kept secrets in science; a third of all physicists work on it, yet its story has never been told.

Join Felix Flicker as he introduces the magic of condensed matter physics. It will be a journey that reveals the subtle spells that conjure crystals from chaos and create new particles that have never before existed.

The Magick of Matter will revolutionise what you know about physics and reality; you’ll never see the world in the same way again.

Publisher Review

The Magick of Matter explicitly sets out to stop us taking ordinary, everyday stuff for granted, and to restore our sense of wonder at the wizardry of the world -- Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 * Start the Week * Conversational and lively ... the author's wonder and sense of excitement shine through ... a fascinating tale of an often-overlooked pillar of modern science * Nature Physics * Well-handled and consistently engaging. It combines fascinating facts with real insights into what are in some cases relatively unfamiliar aspects of physics. -- Peter Forbes * Popular Science * Felix Flicker brilliantly reveals the secrets behind the modern-day magic we call physics. A beautifully crafted book to inspire the next generation of scientific wizards and to help the current generation to understand the bizarre universe we inhabit -- Marcus du Sautoy, author * Thinking Better * Playful, profound and penetrating: an exhilarating gallop through the mystical world of matter -- Charles Foster, author * Being a Human * The Magick of Matter is a fascinating, enlightening, and altogether delightful book. Once you fall under its spell, you will find it hard to put it down. -- Fritjof Capra, author * The Tao of Physics * A must-read for anyone wanting to understand how the spells of physics have transformed our world. Felix Flicker not only sees the magic in the ordinary but can explain the extraordinariness of magic too -- Femi Fadugba, author * The Upper World *