At an interdisciplinary gathering of academics discussing the concept of time, I once heard a scientist tell the assembled humanities scholars that physics can now replace all their woolly notions of time with one that is unique, precise and true. Such scientism is rightly undermined by theoretical physicist Lee Smolin in "Time Reborn," which shows that the scientific view of time is up for grabs more than ever before.
TIME REBORN: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe, by Lee Smolin. Allen Lane, 2013, 352 pp., $28 (hardcover)
FAREWELL TO REALITY: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth, by Jim Baggott. Constable, 2013, 336 pp., $26.95 (hardcover)