While marking old science books as keepers or giveaways, I paused to browse through an old favorite and modern classic published in 1979, the famous "physics for philosophers" book, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics" by journalist Gary Zukav.

I have already permanently loaned out my copy of physicist Fritjof Capra's similarly themed, earlier book, "The Tao of Physics," first published in 1975, which I skimmed through a few years ago, long after my excitement over Zukav's book had worn off. Like Zukav, Capra examines parallels between eastern mysticism and modern physics, but he smudges the lines.

Pondering the uncanny correspondences between the realms of consciousness and matter that Zukav delineated so alluringly became a favorite train of thought, that I thrilled to ride into poetic inspiration, back in the day. Zukav's book stirred my wonder over the theories and mysteries of particle physics, quantum mechanics and relativity, and activated my enthused curiosity.

But the first time I heard someone marvel that Zukav or Capra had demonstrated that science was proving the existence of spiritual reality, I suspected that popularizing, "quantum mystical" books like theirs would soon stir up an expanding mass of trouble for science within society, and accelerate the spread of confused misinformation.



For me, Antony Gormley's 30 meter high Quantum Cloud sculpture next to the Millennium Dome in London seems to express more than the artist's comprehension of quantum weirdness. For example, it could be depicting a human being of this day and age attempting to grasp the counterintuitive concepts of the (now often so-called) New Physics.

Of course, Zukav did not illustrate any measurable cause-effect relationships, or even direct connections, between the spiritual and the material by describing intriguing correspondences between modern physics and eastern philosophies. For Zukav, those parallels are meaningful in themselves and, for him and other quantum mystics, meaning is essential.

Direct and/or indirect causal connections between soul and matter may not be provable by science. But the muddying of scientific terms and concepts is causing many provocative discussions to sidetrack away into irrelevant impasses. 

When I find myself confounded amid the realms of classical or modern physics, or tempted to blur distinctions sloppily, I click over to Donald E. Simanek's definitive online reference, "A Glossary of Frequently Misused or Misunderstood Physics Terms and Concepts" for a detailed reality check. At the bottom of the long webpage is a link back to Simanek's home page and hours of entertaining science writing.

Simanek is an emeritus professor of physics at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, who writes on the Web about humor, hoaxes and skepticism as well as astronomy and physics.