Whoever says that science and religion cannot function together needs to read this book. There are no bells and whistles,
no glossy paper and two-page foldout posters of stars. Yet the ideas presented are so beautifully crafted and efficiently explained that this book could almost serve as a textbook to modern physics.
The author, who is also a theoretical physicist, strikes out to show how modern physics and eastern mysticism run parallel in thought. He does this by first introducing the main ideas of the Eastern philosophies--Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Zen, so that the reader can understand the backdrop upon which the physics will be explained.
Next, the readers are introduced to the parallels created when looking at 'new physics' in comparison to these ancient philosophies. The polarity of the yin-yang is compared to the wave-particle duality of light, for example. Einstein's relativity theory is likened to the Eastern belief in the perception of time being based on perspective rather than solid fact. The oftentimes incomprehensible quark is explained by looking at the idea of symmetry.
The last chapter of the book is an after word created by Capra himself, specific to the third edition. In it he basically catches the reader up on what has happened since the publishing of the first edition in 1975. He also introduces the reader to his criteria of new-paradigm thinking in science. Here we see the author as a philosopher instead of a scientist, as he delves into the need for a changing world-view, one that throws away the old vision of solid, separate objects that just happen to interact with one another, to a universe that is interconnected and needs to share energy.
We exist in a strange and beautiful time in science, one in which the concrete, stoic universe is being replaced by an almost life-like entity that begs to be understood. Capra is one of the first of a new breed of scientists who will show us how to begin this process of understanding.