Is this a good book preface?

 I have never written a book before. Hence, I have never written a preface. For what it is worth, according an article on Masterclass.com, Writing 101: How to Write a Preface for a Book, 

In one or two pages, an author’s preface is meant to:

• Explain why the author chose to write about this topic
• Reveal their motivation and inspiration for writing the book
• Describe the process of researching the topic of the book
• Outline the process of writing the book, including any challenges and how long it took.

Based on this I wrote the following draft of a Preface to Condensed Matter Physics: A Very Short Introduction. 

Preface

I love learning new things. I find joy in understanding, particularly if it is profound and important.  I love trying to communicate that understanding, particularly in ways that may appeal and inspire. I find beauty in ideas, images, and stories. I am a “big picture” person. I love seeing connections, whether deep or anecdotal, between different pieces of knowledge. Hence, it is not surprising that I was excited when I discovered the Very Short Introductions series. My eclectic interests are reflected in some of the VSI titles on my bookshelf including Marx, Depression, Complexity, Adam Smith, Water, Corruption, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Epidemology.

Condensed matter physics is one of the largest and most vibrant sub-fields of physics. It is a rich source of ideas, concepts, and techniques that have cross-fertilised with not just other sub-fields of physics, such as elementary particles, but also other scientific disciplines (chemistry, biology, computer science, sociology, economics) and engineering (electrical, materials, chemical). In the past thirty years, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded thirteen times for work on condensed matter. In the past twenty years, eight condensed matter physicists have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 

The last thirty-five years I have worked in condensed matter physics: learning, teaching, and researching. I have come to love the discipline and to appreciate its’ importance, intellectual richness, beauty, and coherence. Given there are now more than 500 titles in the VSI series I was surprised and disappointed that there was no title on condensed matter. There were titles on subjects such as Magnetism, Superconductivity, Crystallography, and now Soft Matter, that are related to condensed matter, but they miss the unity of the whole discipline. Hence, I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the series.

Condensed matter physics is all about emergence; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A system composed of many interacting parts (atoms) has properties (a state of matter) that are qualitatively different from the properties of the individual parts. This commonality is why condensed matter physics has had such a fruitful cross-fertilisation with other sciences. It is arguably the field with the greatest success at understanding emergent phenomena in complex systems, particularly at the quantitative level. This is not because condensed matter physicists are smarter than sociologists, economists, or neuroscientists. It is because the materials we study are much “simpler” than societies, economies, and brains. 

Even after I finished a undergraduate degree in physics in Australia in 1982, I would not have been able to answer the question, “what is condensed matter physics?” There was no such course at my university. The only related one was in “solid state physics” and I did not take that course because the lecturer was boring and incompetent. I then went to Princeton University in the USA to pursue a Ph.D. in physics and ended up working in theoretical condensed matter physics. But, even then I don’t think I was clear what the field is really about. In hindsight, I think this failing arose due to my own lack of attention to broader intellectual issues.

In the past two decades several circumstances have shaped the emergence of the shape and content of this book. One of the best ways to learn and understand a subject is to try and teach it, particularly to novices. In 2000, I started working at the University of Queensland and I was assigned to teach a course for second year science undergraduates entitled, “Thermodynamics and Condensed Matter Physics.” As is too often the case in universities the curriculum for this course did not arise from of a grand and coherent educational vision but rather from historical circumstances involving politics and personnel. Nevertheless, serendipity is a powerful means of discovery. Order can emerge from chaos, and beauty can rise from ashes. In most undergraduate programs, condensed matter physics is only taught in the third or fourth year, if at all, and usually as an elective for physics majors. This is because courses build on advanced subjects such as quantum theory and statistical mechanics, and the associated mathematical machinery. However, many of the most important ideas in condensed matter can be understood without reference to these advanced subjects. This is the approach I take here, with some of the material drawing from the experience of teaching that course. 

In 2009, I started writing a blog, Condensed Concepts: Ruminations on Emergent Phenomena in Condensed Phases of Matter. A great beauty of blogging is that you can write about whatever you like and in whatever format you choose. I have now written more than two thousand posts on diverse topics, including technical commentary on specific scientific papers, presentations to school students, history, university politics, job advice, philosophy of science, and the relation of condensed matter to other sciences, from biology to economics. Blogging improved my ability to write for a broad audience and clarified my thinking about condensed matter physics in a broad intellectual context. Some of the material presented in this book is loosely based on my blog posts.

Over the past decade I have had significant and fruitful intellectual interactions with colleagues in a range of disciplines including law, economics, sociology, history, engineering, anthropology and biology. This has been facilitated and stimulated by being part of several informal networks (local, national, and international) of academics, with a particular interest in the relationship between our academic disciplines, Christian theology, and human flourishing. This has clarified my understanding of my own discipline and how to discuss it with those outside.

Condensed matter physics as a research field is not just defined by the objects that it studies (states of matter in materials), but rather by a particular approach to the study of these objects. The aim is to address fundamental questions and to find unifying concepts that can be used to describe and understand a wide range of phenomena in materials that are chemically and structurally diverse. My aim has not been to write a popular summary of the main topics covered in a textbook. Rather it is an essay that I hope brings joy and appreciation and a desire to learn more. I have chosen to emphasise concepts rather than trying to explain technical details. 

To make the book more interesting and engaging in most of the chapters I have consciously included several elements. A key concept, some connection to everyday experience, an interesting anecdote, a technological application, and a connection to another discipline. There are no mathematical equations and many figures.

This VSI is shaped by an important intellectual legacy that should be acknowledged and only became apparent to me when much of it was written. In his wonderful recent biography, Mind over Matter: Philip Anderson and the Physics of the Very Many, Andrew Zangwill states “more than any other twentieth-century physicist, he [Anderson] transformed the patchwork of ideas and techniques formerly called solid-state physics into the deep, subtle, and intellectually coherent discipline known today as condensed matter physics.” I hope that what I have written does honour this rich legacy of Phil Anderson (1923-2020).

I have really enjoyed writing this book. I hope I can convince you that condensed matter physics is fascinating, significant, exciting, beautiful, and profound.  

What do you think? Is this a good Preface? Would this motivate your aunt or your colleague in law to start reading the book?