The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

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Type: Book
Studio: Vintage
Release Date: 2000-02-29
"[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.

An uncanny ability to explain
This is a tour de force of explaining the great effort to unified all fields of physics through the superstring theory. Needless to say, it is an extremely difficult subject and requires a great deal of technical knowledge and imagination to understand. Compounding that difficulty is the fact that this effort has not yet succeeded. Therefore, the theories are a work in progress and could take many different forms. However, Brian Greene has an uncanny ability to boil down the physics into pieces that are individually digestable by the average layman reader. Not only that, he manages to not use equations so the mathematically challenged can still try and understand the essential train of thought. It was extremely enjoyable for me to read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in physics and do not have a training in math or sciences.

Elegant Book
Nutshell review - This is a comprehensive review of the development of various theories that try to explain and understand the universe at its most fundamental level. From Newtons laws to quantum physics and beyond, the book covers a lot of material in an accessible and interesting way which keeps the reader fascinated. It is an excellent book for us layman and is similar to books like In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin, and Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav.

The Elegant Universe - Highly recommended, highly readable
In this age of rapidly changing theories of cosmology and physics The Elegant Universe explores the shortcomings of quantum physics and classical theory and the emergence of Super String Theory as the possible Great Unified Theory.

This is a very well written book; eminently readable. I enjoyed it immensely and was highly impressed by the analogies used to explain the most difficult of concepts which are being tackled by today's theoretical physicists.

This book discusses multiverses of 11 dimensions and more in terms even a layman such as myself can understand and visualize and presents theories which explain the possible origin of our universe, the Big Bang, and why it was inevitable and perhaps why it was not the only one.

Enjoy.

The Elegant Universe
A good read i would recommend for anyone who is interested in science or astronomy.

The Final Universe
This is a fine book but the Real Universe is only HERE: Schroedinger's Universe and the Origin of the Natural Laws