[Tex_GOP_Cruz]

I recently read Greene's THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE. I was very impressed with the clarity of his explanations for non-physicists like me. I bought his arguments about the "elegance" of including additional dimensions to reconcile quantum mechanics with special relativity in a grand unification of forces. I even understood that I was not supposed to be able to fathom the other dimensions, even after because in the model they would have to be too small in scope to probe.

Greene did a wonderful job explaining the "standard model" theories and their limitations. However, I was a bit disappointed about some of the later chapters on string theory. I felt queasy everytime he mentioned Calabi-Yau shapes or certain paradoxes like this, "According to the light string modes, the universe is large and expanding; according to the heavy modes it is tiny and contracting." (p. 251) At certain points the physics almost became a dissertation on topology and I lost grasp of why the details of a theory about strings too small perhaps to be detected would be relevant to any laymen except the very most interested. Black holes, and space-time relativity (an example he gives about extending the life of particles called muons by accelerating them was trippy), as counterexamples, seem inherently cool to many people. (There is also a fascinating example about walking through walls undisturbed, something that could, but VERY unlikely, happen b/c of uncertainty principles.)

Having stated what I thought were the books shortcomings, I have to say that I enjoyed it tremendously on the whole, appreciated Greene's effort to explain something very complex to non-physicists, and took on faith that the mathematics he alludes to do make string theories worthy endeavors for physicists to pursue.

[hunter112]

Your excerpts above don't impress me with their simplicity. I gave up on Hawking's "Brief History of Time" after only about a page and a half (not including the acknowledgements).

When physicists can explain the universe as simply as understanding a computer, then I'll be ready for them!

[Gid_29]

I picked up a copy of The Elegant Universe about a week back, and it looks like it should be a good read - and explain alot of this. Once i finish with the other books that I have started buying sporadically, I will have to get on to reading it.

[Ronzo]

I recently read Greene's THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE. I was very impressed with the clarity of his explanations for non-physicists like me.

Thanks for the quick book review Tex! I was thinking of getting a copy of this myself. I'm fascinated by physics, but am put-off by the math, which I don't really understand all that well, if at all!