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The Magick of Matter - Felix Flicker ****

This is a book about condensed matter physics, surely a particularly boring-sounding name for one of the most interesting parts of the subject. It's about the physics of things we encounter. When you think about it, it's quite odd that most popular physics books are about things like quantum physics and cosmology and particle physics that don't deal with things we can put our hands on or see. Of course quantum physics impacts lots of everyday objects through electronics etc., but it's still driven by particles we can't see or experience in a normal sense.

Felix Flicker introduces us to two key aspects of the physics of tangible stuff - emergence and chaos (though in practice, chaos only gets a passing mention). Because, as he points out, the problem with purely looking at the particle level is that stuff really is the more than the sum of its parts. The chaos and uncertainty part was handled excellently in Tim Palmer's recent The Primacy of Doubt, but this book works very much alongside that by focussing more on emergence, rather them competing in any way. 

We start off on the states of matter and, somewhat unexpectedly, magnetism, with Flicker making the kind of statement that needs a lot more unpacking than it gets 'A magnet does everything you'd expect a state of matter to do.' we then move on to phase transitions and so on. Flicker keeps things interest by leaping about and pulling in unexpected little side illustrations and examples, such as the way that a field of bleating virtual sheep that can influence its neighbours' colour.

We then get onto crystals and the special characteristics of the crystalline state - something that extends far beyond our typical association with shiny transparent things to take in metals and polarising materials, lattices and symmetry. A section on thermodynamics seems to me to be cheating a bit - because quite a lot of what's covered is about interactions at an atomic or molecular scale, though you can see that there's an element of emergence involved. I felt the same to a degree about the next chapter on quantum physics. But we do then get into more dramatically emergent stuff with superconductors, Josephson junctions and the like. With the exception of the aspect I'm about to moan about, this is all well-handled and consistently engaging. It combines fascinating facts with real insights into what is in some cases relatively unfamiliar aspects of physics.

So far so good, but there was one aspect of this book that several times inclined me to throw it against the wall - and the four stars are despite, rather than thanks to this. Flicker has decided to try to make condensed matter physics more approachable by framing it as having parallels with magic. (Thankfully, in the text, as opposed to the title, we largely avoid that twee spelling 'Magick'.) This means, for example, that the chapters begin with some frankly pretty unreadable lowest-common-denominator swords-and-sorcery-without-the-swords fantasy writing. It's (thankfully) possible to skip over these and not lose anything, but unfortunately Flicker also regularly brings magic and woo in to give us reference points as he talks about physics. (He seriously includes the sound of one hand clapping.) But the whole point of the book should be that this topic doesn't need gimmicks. It's genuinely interesting in its own right. Why, oh why?

I'm recommending the book despite, rather than because of its magical flummery. This is a really interesting topic. But you may have to restrain that book throwing urge too.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly digest for free here

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