New edition updated by Jonathan Allday, PhD

A fascinating look at the revolution in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology and neurophysiology, and the scientists whose startling theories changed our understanding of how the universe works.

For hundreds of years scientists believed that the universe is a subtle machinery of interacting parts—from the smallest subatomic particle to larger collections like human beings and galaxies. In Looking-Glass Universe John Briggs, F. David Peat and Jonathan Allday recreate the mind-boggling journeys taken by several prominent scientists who challenged this age-old given. In lively non-technical language, the authors describe how scientists in diverse fields hit upon theories that revolutionized not only their disciplines, but the way all of us think about reality.

The ‘looking-glass’ theories propose that we are at this very moment living in an Alice-in-Wonderland universe where each part is in fact the whole, where scientists conducting an experiment are themselves the experiment, and even inanimate objects contain consciousness. These theories give scientific meaning to the ancient mystical idea that the universe is One.

In this new edition, physicist Jonathan Allday fills readers in on how science has evolved in the 40 years since Looking-Glass Universe appeared in 1984 by reviewing the progress towards a looking-glass view of the universe and updating aspects of the text in line with current scientific thinking.

Fully illustrated with original drawings by Lucinda Tavernese—a note of whimsy that every serious looking-glass universe needs.