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"[Greene] develops one fresh new insight after another...In the great tradition of physicists writing for the masses, The Elegant Universe sets a standard that will be hard to beat." --George Johnson, The New York Times Book Review In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy. Green uses everything from an amusement park ride to ants on a garden hose to illustrate the beautiful yet bizarre realities that modern physics is unveiling. Dazzling in its brilliance, unprecedented in its ability to both illuminate and entertain, The Elegant Universe is a tour de force of science writing-a delightful, lucid voyage through modern physics that brings us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works.… (more)
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I never took physics in school, though I'm fascinated by the subject and have read a handful of popular science books on the topic. That being said, I probably would not have managed to finish this book if it hadn't been for a tutored read with help from fellow LTer Jim (drneutron). In the first few chapters, Greene details what has gone on in physics before, from our changing understanding of gravity, to special and general relativity. In chapter 5, he switches gears and lays out the basics of string theory. Chapter 7 on gets more and more speculative as Greene explores how 10 dimensions could exist, supersymmetry, black holes, and more. He is a definite proponent of the theory, and is not always clear about what is a core part of string theory or what is a fun mathematical possibility within the theory. Still, it was entertaining to read and a mind-stretching experience. I will be very interested in seeing what the next decade brings to the search for a theory of everything.
The discussion is, for the
The problem is, physics at this level is primarily mathematics, as we don't have the means to experiment/experience reality at string level at present (as Greene is careful to point out).
If you are comfortable with theoretical physics and/or mathematics, you will find this book informative and somewhat entertaining; otherwise, you probably just wasted a bunch of money.
Greene's storytelling is certainly seductive, but a lot of String Theory's appeal is getting the same results as other theories, but in a more elegant fashion. This is a good thing because it means the theory avoids being outright wrong, but makes it difficult to find results that'll uniquely support strings, and not just the mass of other popular theories.
More troublingly, the experimental evidence that might support strings or these other theories simply isn't showing up. The Large Hadron Collider found the Higgs Boson, but has yet to uncover ANY signs of supersymmetry—the linchpin of string theory and other popular proposals. Oops. Of course, there are always other variants that hold out the hope that supersymmetric partners are just higher mass and harder to reach, but constant tweaking and adjustment kinda undermines the original claims to elegance!
When the book is standing on firmer ground, it's marvelous; Greene is a fantastic writer and explainer. But as an argument for String Theory? Reader beware.
If the standard model of the 20th century is hard to comprehend, string theory with it's curled up dimensions is even harder. Most of string theory is unproven, and the latter section of the book deals with its more speculative aspects (and I found that the weakest part of the book). But I found this to be a good introduction to difficult concepts without too much advanced math.
Although the book barely touched upon Black Holes it did introduce new information that further peaked my interest in this sector of science in easy to read for laymen terms.
The last half of the book focuses on Super String Theory, which at first begins with wonderfully entertaining explanations of quantum mechanics. The examples used here are most memorable from the book, and occupy the majority of the Nova special based onthe book. With a firm footing on quantum, however, Greene does not seem equally well versed in his ability to explain String Theory. I felt that I got a basic understanding of S-theory from the book, but became lost within the last 100 pages.