In this age of superstring theories and Big Bang cosmology, we're used to thinking of the unknown as impossibly distant from our everyday lives. But in A Different Universe, Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin argues that the scientific frontier is right under our fingers. Instead of looking for ultimate theories, Laughlin considers the world of emergent properties-meaning the properties, such as the hardness and shape of a crystal, that result from the organization of large numbers of atoms. Laughlin shows us how the most fundamental laws of physics are in fact emergent. A Different...

We all agree that the free flow of ideas is essential to creativity. And we like to believe that in our modern, technological world, information is more freely available and flows faster than ever before. But according to Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin, acquiring information is becoming a danger or even a crime. Increasingly, the really valuable information is private property or a state secret, with the result that it is now easy for a flash of insight, entirely innocently, to infringe a patent or threaten national security. The public pays little attention because this vital information is...

Wir leben in einer Wissensgesellschaft, die freien Zugang zu Informationen ermöglicht. Doch ist längst eine paradoxe Situation entstanden: Wissen ist gefährlich. Die Möglichkeiten, Wissen zu erwerben, können zu erheblichen Konflikten führen. "Was darf ich wissen?" Diese Frage könnte in unserem Informationszeitalter zu einer Schlüsselfrage werden. Wer Wissen erwirbt, noch dazu technisches Wissen, kann schnell an den Rand der Legalität geraten. Je mehr Technologien vermögen, desto weniger wird das Wissen über diese Technologien frei verfügbar. Wir müssen uns daher mehr und mehr mit...