 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Martin Gardner |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | John Mackey |
| Cover artist | Germano Facetti |
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Symmetry, Science, Mathematics |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 276 (1st edition) 401 (3rd edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-486-44244-0 |
| OCLC | 57373717 |
| 539.7/2 22 | |
| LC Class | QC793.3.S9 G37 2005 |
The Ambidextrous Universe is a popular science book by Martin Gardner, covering aspects of symmetry and asymmetry in human culture, science and the wider universe. It culminates in a discussion of whether nature's conservation of parity (the symmetry of mirrored quantum systems) is ever violated, which had been proven experimentally in 1956.
The book was originally published in 1964 with the subtitle Left, Right, and the Fall of Parity, with a revised version following in 1969. A second edition was released in 1979 with the new subtitle Mirror Asymmetry and Time-Reversed Worlds. The third edition was released in 1990 under the title The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings; this was re-released with minor revisions in 2005.