From Quantum to Cosmos

In this visionary book, Neil Turok explores the great discoveries of the past three centuries - from the classical mechanics of Newton; to the nature of light; to the bizarre world of the quantum; to the evolution of the cosmos; and even the recent findings of Higgs bosons at the Large Hadron Collider. Each new discovery has, over time, yielded new technologies that have transformed society. Now, he argues, we are on the cusp of another major change: the coming quantum revolution that will supplant our digital age. Facing this new world, Turok calls for creatively re-inventing the way advanced knowledge is developed and shared, and opening access to the vast, untapped pools of intellectual talent in the developing world. Scientific research, training, and outreach are vital to our future economy, as well as powerful forces for peaceful global progress. Elegantly written and highly inspirational, The Universe Within is, above all, about the future - of science, of society, and of ourselves.

Neil Turok is one of the world's leading physicists. Currently the director of the cutting-edge Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, he was a professor of physics at Princeton and held a Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge. He was awarded the 1992 James Clerk Maxwell medal of the U.K. Institute of Physics, and was recently honoured with a prestigious TED Prize and a 'Most Innovative People' award at the 2008 World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WSIE). Born in South Africa, the son of ANC activists who were jailed under apartheid and then forced into exile, Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of centres for education and research.