Superstrings: and the Search for the Theory of Everything
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Bump it!Superstrings: and the Search for the Theory of Everything
Since Einstein, physicists have been pursuing a holy grail – a single theory that would order all the subatomic particles in the universe and unify the forces of nature. Such a theory would answer questions like: How did the universe begin? What is the origin of time? What is matter? What is the ultimate meaning of physical laws? F. David Peat explains the development and meaning of the theory they came up with – the Superstrings Theory – in a thoroughly readable, dramatic manner accessible to lay readers, even those with no knowledge of maths. The theory states that everything in the universe – matter, forces, even space itself – consists of minuscule strings of ten dimensions, six of which are so tightly curled up that only four are visible to us. The consequences of this theory are nothing less than astonishing.
List Price: $ 9.00
Price: $ 9.00
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Customer Reviews 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful For neither the scientist or the layman, June 15, 2000 By A Customer This review is from: Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything (Paperback) As a scientist familiar with quantum theory, but not a physicist, this book was very frustrating to read. I felt satisfied neither as a layman or a physical chemist. The book quoted several key concepts of superstring theory but did not really explain them in a way that I felt gave me more than a very superficial overview of the field. The digression into twistors was made at a point where more space could have fruitfully been spent adding flesh to the concepts presented early in the book.  Exposes frontier issues & jargon in particle physics, August 2, 1999 By A Customer This review is from: Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything (Paperback) This book is non-technical — it has almost no equations, but is well-illustrated. Just having finished it, I feel it gave a good sense of the major issues involved in this still highly speculative and uncertain field. Readable summary of the state-of-the-art in 1988. Author condescends nicely to the reader: he takes pains to repeat over and over, in slightly varying words, the technical points; this made book wordy; but it was a good strategy since, w/o equations, these esoteric ideas come across vaguely at best. Repetition allows at least "ear knowledge" of the jargon. Please don’t expect much more at this level. Like another reviewer, I was not happy with one-third of the book being devoted to twistors, since these strike this outsider as higher on mathematical elegance than on physical content. I will not fault Peat, however, for doing this since: A) due to his friendship with the Penrose Twistor group he is specially qualified to popularise this subject, and B) the Twistor program, a child of Penrose’s brain, is rich in guiding principles, and provides therefore a healthy antidote to the superstrings, which grew up higgeldy-piggeldy by a sequence of "accidental" discoveries — "It seems to work, but, heck, we don’t really know why." Twistors have been less a matter of trial and error. At least they work well for massless particles. (Sidelight: In a blackboard discussion w/ Penrose at Cal Tech that I chanced to overhear about 25 yrs. ago, Feynman told Penrose that no one had succeeded in making massless fields cohere together so as to act like massive fields.)  Cogent and comprehensive., December 16, 1998 By A Customer This review is from: Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything (Paperback) Though at times, the historical overview of superstring theory devolpment (about the first third of the book)gets a little…boring, the overall level of understanding for the average lay reader of this potentially revolutionary theory is high. Obviously written for the non physicist, this book gives necassarily short treatment to some of the more arcane aspects of superstring theory. However, even without the more involved mathametics, this theory is explained with both depth and accuracy. Overall, a first class treatment of a complex theory. |
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