Review by Choice Review
Greene provides a qualitative and accessible introduction to string theory for the layperson. String theory is a promising new approach to a field theory capability of handling gravity along with the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces. Greene weaves an interesting "string" story with many intuitive diagrams, helpful analogies, and interesting historical vignettes. The story lines tend to put everything into spatial-like images, a helpful pedagogical device but one which can be misleading in terms of the basic physics. String theory is clearly labeled as work in progress along with recognition that it has no experimental verification to date. Because of the extremely small scales and high energies involved, such verification is understandably very difficult. The Elegant Universe will be useful for college science courses in addition to its primary layperson audience. The subtitle is appropriate and descriptive, but the title is misleading since there is almost no discussion about the visible universe: stars, galaxies, clusters, etc. Nevertheless, an excellent popularization of string theory and recent efforts towards a unified field theory. General readers; undergraduates. T. Eastman formerly, University of Maryland
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made up of strings. And it's not science fiction, it's string theory." With this statement, NOVA host Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, where he is one of the world's foremost string theorists, takes the viewer on an intriguing journey called The Elegant Universe. String theory is a unified theory of the universe postulating that fundamental ingredients of nature are not zero-dimensional point particles but tiny one-dimensional filaments called strings. String theory harmoniously unites quantum mechanics and general relativity, the previously known laws of the small and the large that are otherwise incompatible. Using humor, graphics, and familiar images to explain the current thoughts of laws of the universe, along with guest speakers to clarify the concepts, the program presents its theories via visuals. Linking Einstein's theories of the laws of the universe with those of Isaac Newton's laws of gravity, Greene develops the theory of strings and connects it to Einstein's thinking on relativity. Pure science buffs and even courses on physics or astronomy would find this program beneficial as a supplemental aid. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.--LaRoi Lawton, Library & Learning Resources, Bronx Community Coll., CUNY (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
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Review by Library Journal Review
Scientific advances, the domains of researchers and subject specialists, for the most part elude the general public. Greene illuminates here superstring theory, one of the most exciting developments of modern physics. The twin pillars of modern physicsquantum mechanics and relativityappear to be at odds with each other. Uniting these two divergent theories has been the holy grail of physicists for more than 50 years. Many researchers see string theory as the grand unification theory they have been seeking. They believe these tiny vibrating strings, a billionth of a billionth the size of an atom, are the fundamental building blocks of nature. Greene (mathematics and physics, Columbia and Cornell universities) should be commended for his lucid account of this development. Excellent notes as well as a glossary and list of further reading are included. Recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/98.]James Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Superstring theory may provide the long-sought unification of physics for which Einstein sought in vain. Here is a look at the current state of the quest. Greene (a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia and Cornell) begins by pointing out the central problem of modern physics. Quantum mechanics and general relativity both work perfectly, and they cannot both be right. Relativity works for large, massive objects; quantum theory for tiny ones. Normally, the two realms can be kept separate. Yet increasingly, physics deals with phenomena such as black holes, where the conflicts are impossible to avoid. Out of the search for a more complete explanation came string theory. Its foundations were laid down some 30 years ago by Gabriele Venizano, who found that a two-century-old formula by Leonard Euler described subatomic particles more elegantly than existing theory. The relationships would make sense if elementary particles were not pointlike, but elongated and vibrating, like tiny musical strings'in one sense, a modern version of the ancient metaphor of the music of the spheres. It took a while for physicists to embrace string theory; for one thing, it seemed to predict things nobody had ever seen. And despite its formidable explanatory power, its mathematical expressions were often even more formidable'Greene describes some of the equations as nearly impossible to understand, let alone solve. Still, it has the right look about it, and two waves of enthusiasm (one in the mid-1980s, the other ten years later) have convinced many physicists of the theory's probable validity. Greene deftly summarizes these findings, in areas from subatomic-particle theory to cosmology, with occasional forays into deeper waters such as the ten-dimensional structure of the universe, with several dimensions folded undetectably back into themselves. A final chapter forecasts that string theory will become the standard physical model in the next century. Entertaining and well-written'possibly the clearest popular treatment to date of this complex subject.
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