The most useful detail on Q’s desk in No Time To Die is a small one: the book at the top of the pile under the camera is After Physics. It is not a prop chosen for its colour. It is a real, demanding book, and it says something about the man who keeps it within reach.
After Physics is by David Z. Albert, who is Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. It gathers eight essays on the points where physics turns into metaphysics: why the past differs from the future, how quantum mechanics can be made to square with relativity, and what the measurement problem does to our picture of space and particles. It is published by Harvard University Press.
Reading it now
This is a book for slow evenings rather than flights. The publisher’s own readers describe it as written for serious students of both philosophy and physics, and we would take that at its word: it rewards a pencil and a second reading. If you have never read Albert, the Harvard list also carries his earlier Quantum Mechanics and Experience and Time and Chance. Other desk-side pieces from the film are in books and media.
Specifications
| Author | David Z. Albert |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| Length | 192 pages, 10 halftones |
| Size | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches |
Details and purchase are on Harvard University Press.
