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WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
ESSENTIAL
GUIDE№1
BRIAN GREENE
STEPHEN HAWKING
ROGER PENROSE
AND MORE
THE
NATURE
OF
REALITY
HOW MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS
AND CONSCIOUSNESS COMBINE
TO DEFINE OUR WORLD
EDITED BY
RICHARD WEBB
NEW
SCIENTIST
ESSENTIAL
GUIDE
THE
NATURE
OF
REALITY
elcome to the very first edition in a new
series, the
New Scientist Essential Guides.
Published five or six times a year,
and derived from material originally
published in
New Scientist
magazine,
we hope they will build up to a collectible
library bringing you what you need to know about the 
hottest areas in science, technology and medicine in a
digestible format that still allows for intellectual depth.
The nature of reality is admittedly an ambitious
choice of topic to kick this series off with. The subject
has challenged knowledge-seekers of many stripes for
millennia, and it is fair to say that the more we have
learned, the more we realise we still have to learn.
We can only hope to scratch the surface here, giving
a flavour of how developments over the past century
or so in mathematics, fundamental physics and
in studies of our own cognition have reshaped the
terms of the debate.
We hope you find this first
New Scientist Essential
Guide
a stimulating read. Feedback is welcome at
essentialguides@newscientist.com. The next edition,
on artificial intelligence, will be available from early
June.
Richard Webb
NEW SCIENTIST
Essential Guides
25 Bedford Street,
London WC2E 9ES
+44 (0)20 7611 1200
© 2020 New Scientist Ltd, England
New Scientist Essential Guides
are published by New Scientist Ltd
ISSN ISSN 2634-0151
Printed in the UK by
Precision Colour Printing Ltd
and distributed by
Marketforce UK Ltd
+44 (0)20 3148 3333
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EDITOR
Richard Webb
DESIGN
Craig Mackie
SUBEDITOR
Chris Simms
GRAPHICS
Dave Johnston
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Alan Blagrove
APP
Mike Holderness
PUBLISHER
Nina Wright
NEW SCIENTIST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Emily Wilson
ADDITIONAL
CONTRIBUTORS
Robert Adler, Anil Ananthaswamy,
Philip Ball, Stephen Battersby,
Michael Brooks, Matthew Chalmers,
Marcus Chown, Stuart Clark,
Daniel Cossins, Amanda Gefter,
Alison George, Joshua Howgego,
Layal Liverpool
New Scientist Essential Guide | The Nature of Reality |
1
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
WHAT
IS
REALITY?
We humans have a bit of a problem
with reality. We experience it all
the time, but struggle to define it,
let alone understand it. In this
introductory chapter, renowned
physicist and cosmologist Roger
Penrose sets the scene, with his
take on how mathematics, physical
theories and our own perceptions
might come together to construct
our reality.
THE
MATHEMATICAL
UNIVERSE
The fact that we live in an intelligible
universe is itself a huge mystery.
At its heart lies the power of physical
laws, rooted in mathematics, to
characterise and predict its workings,
as cosmologist Brian Greene sets out.
ELEMENTS
OF
REALITY
Every civilisation has its creation
story – and our scientifically rooted one
starts in the big bang 13.8 billion years
ago. The material universe started as
quantum fluctuations in the event’s
immediate aftermath, as the late
cosmologist Stephen Hawking writes,
and the aim of our physical theories is
to explain the evolution of reality since,
and the elements that construct it.
PLUS
p. 16
When mathematics
predicts reality
p. 19
Is everything just numbers?
PLUS
p. 26
What the universe is made of
p. 30
Particles, forces and fields
p. 34
The principles of reality
p. 38
Why is there something
rather than nothing?
p. 39
The mystery of matter
p. 41
What are space and time?
p. 43
Into the multiverse
p. 48
Can we find better theories
of reality?
2
| New Scientist Essential Guide | The Nature of Reality
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
THE
QUANTUM
WORLD
Our basic picture of material reality
today is underpinned by quantum
theory – but the portrait it reveals is
so strange that it leaves us wondering
whether matter is even real, as
philosopher Jan Westerhoff explains.
REALITY
AND
US
Attempts to get a grip on external
reality through mathematically based
physical laws leave a big factor out
of the equation: ourselves. Everything
we see is filtered through our
perceptions, leading to the question,
says cognitive scientist Donald
Hoffman, of whether anything
we perceive is real at all.
IS
ANYTHING
ACTUALLY
R E A L?
Implicit in most discussions about
reality is the idea that it is somehow
a “natural” construct, with laws set
elsewhere that are ours to uncover.
Philosopher Nick Bostrom has a
rather different idea – reality is made
by us, or people like us. Welcome to
reality: it’s all a huge simulation.
PLUS
p. 60
What is quantum reality
made of?
p. 62
Wave, particle... or neither?
p. 65
Who killed Schrödinger’s cat?
p. 68
Reality, causality and free will
PLUS
p. 79
What is consciousness?
p. 81
Perception vs reality
p. 83
Shared realities
p. 84
Do we make reality?
p. 86
Is there more than one me?
p. 88
The mystery of agency
p. 90
Does free will exist?
New Scientist Essential Guide | The Nature of Reality |
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