Roger Penrose

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Roger Penrose

Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
(born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus

Emeritus

Emeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop or other professional. Emerita was used for women, but is rarely used today....
Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics

Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics

The Rouse Ball Professorship of Mathematics is one of the senior Chair in the Mathematics Departments at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford....
at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity

General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the Geometry Theoretical physics of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916....
and cosmology

Physical cosmology

Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of our universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution....
. He is also a recreational mathematician

Recreational mathematics

Recreational mathematics is an umbrella term, referring to mathematical puzzles and mathematical games.Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often piques the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study of mathematics....
and philosopher.

in Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is a town, and the largest settlement within the Colchester , in Essex, England.It has a population of List of English cities by population....
, Essex

Essex

Essex is a counties of England in the East of England England. The county town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, Essex, close to the Hertfordshire border, which reaches ....
, England, Roger Penrose is a son of Lionel S. Penrose

Lionel Penrose

Lionel Sharples Penrose was a Great Britain psychiatrist, medical geneticist, mathematician and chess theorist, who carried out pioneering work on the genetics of mental retardation....
and Margaret Leathes.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Roger Penrose'

Start a new discussion about 'Roger Penrose'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS

Royal Society

Emeritus

Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity

General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the Geometry Theoretical physics of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916....
and cosmology

Physical cosmology

Recreational mathematics

Career

Born in Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is a town, and the largest settlement within the Colchester , in Essex, England.It has a population of List of English cities by population....
, Essex

Essex

Lionel Penrose

Oliver Penrose

Oliver Penrose is a United Kingdom mathematician. He is the son of the scientist Lionel Penrose, brother of the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, and brother of chess master Jonathan Penrose....
and correspondence chess grandmaster

International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster

International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is a title created by the FIDE in 1953, second only to that of world correspondence champion. Now awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation....
Jonathan Penrose

Jonathan Penrose

Jonathan Penrose, Order of the British Empire is an England chess player, emeritus Grandmaster , and International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster who won the British Chess Championship ten times between 1958 and 1969....
. Penrose was precocious as a child. He attended University College School

University College School

University College School, known generally as UCS, is an independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited much of that institution's progressive and secular views....
. Penrose graduated with a first class degree in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
from University College London

University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
. In 1955, while still a student, Penrose reinvented the generalized matrix inverse (also known as Moore-Penrose inverse, see Penrose, R. "A Generalized Inverse for Matrices." Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 51, 406-413, 1955). Penrose earned his Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
at Cambridge

Cambridge

The city status in the United Kingdom of Cambridge is a College town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about 50 miles north of London....
(St John's College

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1511....
) in 1958, writing a thesis on "tensor methods in algebraic geometry" under algebraist and geometer John A. Todd. In 1965 at Cambridge, Penrose proved that singularities

Singularity theory

In mathematics, singularity theory is the study of the failure of manifold structure. A loop of string can serve as an example of a one-dimensional manifold, if one neglects its width....
(such as black hole

Black hole

In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including electromagnetic radiation , can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon....
s) could be formed from the gravitational collapse of immense, dying star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous ball of Plasma that is held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth....
s (Ferguson, 1991: 66).

In 1967, Penrose invented the twistor theory

Twistor theory

The twistor theory, originally developed by Roger Penrose in 1967, is the mathematical theory which maps the geometric objects of the four dimensional space-time into the geometric objects in the 4-dimensional complex space with the metric signature ....
which maps geometric objects in Minkowski space

Minkowski space

In physics and mathematics, Minkowski space is the mathematical setting in which Albert Einstein theory of special relativity is most conveniently formulated....
into the 4-dimensional complex space with the metric signature (2,2). In 1969 he conjectured the cosmic censorship hypothesis

Cosmic censorship hypothesis

The weak and the strong Cosmic Censorship Hypotheses are two mathematical conjectures about the structure of gravitational singularity arising in general relativity....
. This proposes (rather informally) that the universe protects us from the inherent unpredictability of singularities

Singularity theory

Event horizon

In general relativity, an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime, most often an area surrounding a black hole, beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer....
. This form is now known as the "weak censorship hypothesis"; in 1979, Penrose formulated a stronger version called the "strong censorship hypothesis". Together with the BKL conjecture and issues of nonlinear stability, settling the censorship conjectures is one of the most important outstanding problems in general relativity

General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the Geometry Theoretical physics of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916....
. Also from 1979 dates Penrose's influential Weyl curvature hypothesis

Weyl curvature hypothesis

The Weyl curvature hypothesis, which arises in the application of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity to physical cosmology, was introduced by the British mathematician and theoretical physicist Sir Roger Penrose in an article in 1979 in an attempt to provide explanations for two of the most fundamental issues in physics....
on the initial conditions of the observable part of the Universe and the origin of the second law of thermodynamics

Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
. Penrose wrote a paper on the Terrell rotation

Terrell rotation

Terrell rotation is the name of a mathematical and physical effect. Specifically, Terrell rotation is the distortion that a passing object would appear to undergo, according to the special theory of relativity if it were travelling a significant fraction of the speed of light....

Roger Penrose is well known for his 1974 discovery of Penrose tiling

Penrose tiling

File:Penrose Tiling .svgA Penrose tiling is a nonperiodic tessellation generated by an aperiodic tiling of prototiles named after Roger Penrose, who investigated these sets in the 1970s....
s, which are formed from two tiles that can only tile

Tessellation

A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of the parts of the plane or of other surfaces....
the plane nonperiodically, and are the first tilings to exhibit fivefold rotational symmetry. In 1984, such patterns were observed in the arrangement of atoms in quasicrystal

Quasicrystal

Quasicrystals are structure that are both ordered and nonperiodic. They form patterns that fill all the space but lack translational symmetry. Crystallographic restriction theorem allows only 2, 3, 4, and 6-fold rotational symmetries, but quasicrystals display symmetry of other orders ....
s. Another noteworthy contribution is his 1971 invention of spin network

Spin network

In physics, a spin network is a type of diagram which can be used to represent states and interactions between particle physics and quantum field theory in quantum physics....
s, which later came to form the geometry of spacetime

Spacetime

In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and Time in physics into a single continuum . Spacetime is usually interpreted with space being Three-dimensional space and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort than the spatial dimensions....
in loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity , also known as loop gravity and quantum geometry, is a proposed quantum theory of spacetime which attempts to reconcile the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity....
. He was influential in popularizing what are commonly known as Penrose diagram

Penrose diagram

In theoretical physics, a Penrose diagram is a two-dimensional diagram that captures the causal relations between different points in spacetime....
s (causal diagrams). In 2004 Penrose released The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe

The Road to Reality is a book on modern physics by the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, published in 2004. It covers the basics of the standard model of modern physics, discussing general relativity and quantum mechanics and then expands on the possible unification of these two theories....
, a 1,099-page book aimed at giving a comprehensive guide to the laws of physics

Physical law

A physical law or scientific law is a scientific generalization based on empiricism observations of physical behavior . Laws of nature are observable....
. In the June 2005 issue of Discover magazine, Penrose outlined his interpretation

Penrose interpretation

The Penrose interpretation is a prediction of Sir Roger Penrose about the mass scale at which standard quantum mechanics will fail. This idea is inspired by quantum gravity, because it uses both the physical constants and Gravitational Constant....
of quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
. Penrose is the Francis and Helen Pentz Distinguished (visiting) Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, Land-grant university, space grant college public research university located in State College, PA, Pennsylvania, United States....
.

Penrose is married to Vanessa Thomas, with whom he has one child. He has three sons from a previous marriage, to American Joan Isabel Wedge (1959).

Physics and consciousness

Penrose has written controversial books on the connection between fundamental physics and human consciousness. In The Emperor's New Mind
The Emperor's New Mind

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics is a 1989 book by mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose.Penrose presents the argument that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine-type of digital computer....
(1989), he argues that known laws of physics are inadequate to explain the phenomenon of human consciousness. Penrose hints at the characteristics this new physics may have and specifies the requirements for a bridge between classical and quantum mechanics (what he terms correct quantum gravity, CQG). He claims that the present computer is unable to have intelligence because it is a deterministic system that for the most part simply executes algorithms, as a billiard table where billiard balls act as message carriers and their interactions act as logical decisions. He argues against the viewpoint that the rational processes of the human mind are completely algorithm

Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
ic and can thus be duplicated by a sufficiently complex computer -- this is in contrast to views, e.g., Biological Naturalism

Biological naturalism

Biological naturalism is a monism theory about the relationship between mind and body , and hence an approach to the mind-body problem. It was first proposed by the philosopher John Searle in 1980 and is defined by two main theses: 1) all mental event from Pain and nociception, tickles, and itches to the most abstruse thoughts are caused by...
, that human behavior but not consciousness might be simulated. This is based on claims that human consciousness transcends formal logic systems because things such as the insolubility of the halting problem

Halting problem

In computability theory , the halting problem is a decision problem which can be stated as follows: given a description of a computer program and a finite input, decide whether the program finishes running or will run forever, given that input....
and Gödel's incompleteness theorem restrict an algorithmically based logic from traits such as mathematical insight. These claims were originally made by the philosopher John Lucas

John Lucas (philosopher)

John Randolph Lucas British Academy is a British philosopher....
of Merton College

Merton College, Oxford

Merton College is one of the Colleges of Oxford University of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III of England and later to Edward I of England, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it....
, Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
, and were also discussed by the mathematician H. J. Pringle.

In 1994, Penrose followed up The Emperor's New Mind with Shadows of the Mind
Shadows of the Mind

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness is a 1994 book by mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, and serves as a followup to his 1989 book The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics....
and in 1997 with The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, further updating and expanding his theories. Penrose's views on the human thought process are not widely accepted in scientific circles. According to Marvin Minsky

Marvin Minsky

Marvin Lee Minsky is an United States Cognitive Science in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy....
, because people can construe false ideas to be factual, the process of thinking is not limited to formal logic. Furthermore, he says that artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Major AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
(AI) programs can also conclude that false statements are true, so error is not unique to humans.

Penrose and Stuart Hameroff

Stuart Hameroff

Stuart Hameroff is an anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his promotion of the scientific study of consciousness, and his speculative theories of the mechanisms of consciousness....
have speculated that human consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
is the result of quantum gravity effects in microtubule

Microtubule

Microtubules are one of the components of the cytoskeleton. They have a diameter of 25 Nanometre and length varying from 200 nanometers to 25 micrometers....
s, which they dubbed Orch-OR

Orch-OR

Orch OR is a theory of consciousness, which is the joint work of theoretical physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff. Mainstream theories assume that consciousness emerges from the brain, and focus particularly on complex computation at connections known as synapses that allow communication between brain cells ....
(orchestrated objective reduction). But Max Tegmark

Max Tegmark

Max Tegmark is a Sweden-United States physical cosmology. Tegmark is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he belongs to the scientific directorate of the Foundational Questions Institute....
, in a paper in Physical Review E, calculated that the time scale of neuron firing and excitations in microtubules is slower than the decoherence

Quantum decoherence

In quantum mechanics, quantum decoherence is the mechanism by which quantum systems interact with their environments to exhibit probabilistically additive behavior....
time by a factor of at least 10,000,000,000. The reception of the paper is summed up by this statement in his support: "Physicists outside the fray, such as IBM's John Smolin, say the calculations confirm what they had suspected all along. 'We're not working with a brain that's near absolute zero. It's reasonably unlikely that the brain evolved quantum behavior', he says." The Tegmark paper has been widely cited by critics of the Penrose-Hameroff proposal. It has been claimed by Hameroff to be based on a number of incorrect assumptions (see linked paper below from Hameroff, Hagan and Tuszynski), but Tegmark in turn has argued that the critique is invalid (see rejoinder link below). In particular, Hameroff points out the peculiarity that Tegmark's formula for the decoherence time includes a factor of in the numerator, meaning that higher temperatures would lead to longer decoherence times. Tegmark's rejoinder keeps the factor of for the decoherence time.

Awards and honours

Penrose has been awarded many prizes for his contributions to science. He was elected a Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. Historically, the term fellow was also used to describe a man, particularly by those in the upper social classes....
of the Royal Society of London

Royal Society

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking Companion of Honour, Commander of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy is a British Theoretical physics....
and Penrose were jointly awarded the Eddington Medal

Eddington Medal

The Eddington Medal, named after Arthur Stanley Eddington, is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society nominally once every two years for investigations of outstanding merit in theoretical astrophysics....
of the Royal Astronomical Society

Royal Astronomical Society

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomy research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV of the United Kingdom....
. In 1985, he was awarded the Royal Society

Royal Society

Royal Medal

The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal, is a silver gilt medal awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge" and one for "distinguished contributions in the applied sciences" made within the Commonwealth of Nations....
. Along with Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking Companion of Honour, Commander of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy is a British Theoretical physics....
, he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Foundation Prize for Physics

Wolf Prize in Physics

The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Wolf Prize in Agriculture, Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Wolf Prize in Mathematics, Wolf Prize in Medicine and Wolf Prize in Arts....
in 1988. In 1989 he was awarded the Dirac Medal and Prize

Dirac Prize

The Dirac Prize is the name of three prominent awards in the field of theoretical physics, computational chemistry, and mathematics, awarded by different organizations....
of the British Institute of Physics

Institute of Physics

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics and is the UK and Ireland's main British professional bodies for physicists....
. In 1990 Penrose was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal

Albert Einstein Medal

The Albert Einstein Medal is an award presented by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern. First given in 1979, the award is presented to people who have "rendered outstanding services" in connection with Albert Einstein each year....
for outstanding work related to the work of Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
by the Albert Einstein Society

Albert Einstein Society

The Albert Einstein Society was founded on 28 June 1977 by Max Fl?ckiger. It is located in Bern, Switzerland and is most noted for awarding the Albert Einstein Medal....
. In 1991, he was awarded the Naylor Prize of the London Mathematical Society

London Mathematical Society

The London Mathematical Society is one of the UK's Learned society for mathematics ....
. From 1992 to 1995 he served as President of the . In 1994, Penrose was knighted

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Chivalric order....
for services to science. In 1998, he was elected Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."...
. In 2000 he was appointed to the Order of Merit. In 2004 he was awarded the De Morgan Medal

De Morgan Medal

The De Morgan Medal is a prize for outstanding contribution to mathematics, awarded by theLondon Mathematical Society . The Society's most prestigious award, it is given in memory of Augustus De Morgan, who was the first President of the LMS....
for his wide and original contributions to mathematical physics. To quote the citation from the :

His deep work on General Relativity has been a major factor in our understanding of black holes. His development of Twistor Theory has produced a beautiful and productive approach to the classical equations of mathematical physics. His tilings of the plane underlie the newly discovered quasi-crystals.

In 2005 Penrose was awarded an honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) by Warsaw University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is the Flemish offshoot of the oldest university in the Low Countries which was originally founded in 1425 ....
(Belgium), and in 2006 by the University of York

University of York

The University of York is a campus university located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, York has expanded to more than 30 departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects....
. in 2008 Penrose was awarded the Copley Medal

Copley Medal

The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"....
. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association

British Humanist Association

The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism . The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect....
.

Works

Techniques of Differential Topology in Relativity (1972, ISBN 0-89871-005-7)
Spinors and Space-Time: Volume 1, Two-Spinor Calculus and Relativistic Fields (with Wolfgang Rindler, 1987) ISBN 0-521-33707-0 (paperback)
Spinors and Space-Time: Volume 2, Spinor and Twistor Methods in Space-Time Geometry (with Wolfgang Rindler, 1988) (reprint), ISBN 0-521-34786-6 (paperback)
The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and The Laws of Physics
The Emperor's New Mind

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics is a 1989 book by mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose.Penrose presents the argument that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine-type of digital computer....
(1989, ISBN 0-14-014534-6 (paperback); it received the Rhone-Poulenc science book prize in 1990)
Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
Shadows of the Mind

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness is a 1994 book by mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, and serves as a followup to his 1989 book The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics....
(1994, ISBN 0-19-853978-9 (hardback))
The Nature of Space and Time (with Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking Companion of Honour, Commander of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy is a British Theoretical physics....
, 1996, ISBN 0-691-03791-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-691-05084-8 (paperback))
The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Stephen Hawking, 1997, ISBN 0-521-56330-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-65538-2 (paperback), Canto edition: ISBN 0-521-78572-3)
White Mars or, The Mind Set Free (with Brian W. Aldiss, 1999, ISBN 978-0-316-85243-2 (hardback))
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe

The Road to Reality is a book on modern physics by the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, published in 2004. It covers the basics of the standard model of modern physics, discussing general relativity and quantum mechanics and then expands on the possible unification of these two theories....
(2004, ISBN 0-224-04447-8 (hardcover), ISBN 0-09-944068-7 (paperback))

Penrose also wrote forewords to Quantum Aspects of Life
Quantum Aspects of Life

Quantum Aspects of Life is a science text, with a foreword by Roger Penrose, which notably explores the open question of the role of quantum mechanics at molecular scales of relevance to biology....
and Zee

Anthony Zee

Anthony Zee is a Chinese American physics, writer, and currently a professor at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the physics department of the University of California at Santa Barbara, California....
's book Fearful Symmetry.

External links

Tegmark, Max. 2000. "". Physical Review E. vol 61. pp. 4194-4206.

"" -(a disputation of Tegmark's result by Hagan, Hameroff, and Tuszynski)

– D. Trull about Penrose's lawsuit concerning the use of his Penrose tilings on toilet paper

Roger Penrose

Career

Physics and consciousness

Awards and honours

See also

Works

External links