"Music lovers are at high risk of being inspired by this exploration of the connections between music and physics. Alexander elegantly charts the progress of science from the ancients through Copernicus and Kepler to Einstein (a piano-player) and beyond, making it clear that what we call genius has a lot to do with convention-challenging courage, a trait shared by each age's great musicians as well." -Keith Blanchard, Wall Street Journal "In the most engaging chapters of this book - part memoir, part history of science, part physics popularization and part jazz lesson - Dr. Alexander ventures far out onto the cutting edge of modern cosmology, presenting a compelling case for vibration and resonance being at the heart of the physical structure we find around us, from the smallest particle of matter to the largest clusters of galaxies. His report on the state of research into the structure and history of the universe - his own academic field - makes for compelling reading, as does his life story." -Dan Tepfer, New York Times "Music and physics might seem like polar opposites, one having great emotional potency and the other being a cerebral subject of equations, theories and deductions. Both, however, benefit from improvisers - people who stand on the shoulders of giants, taking earlier triumphs and building on them to create something new. For me, analogies like these, which draw parallels between physicists and jazz musicians, are the most fascinating revelations in Stephon Alexander's book The Jazz of Physics .

The book's attempt to bring together modern jazz and modern physics strikes me as admirable. It is an intriguing comparison, and it certainly seems fresher than drawing analogies between classical music and classical physics. Time to put on some Coltrane and riff some new research ideas?" -Trevor Cox, Physics World.