The Universe is anyway. But we all knew that already didn't we?
But did you know
- Everything is traveling through spacetime at the speed of light?
- Quantum interactions mean that particles are affected by events regardless of time and space?
- We're all swimming in a glorious Higgs ocean?
- The Universe is actually ridiculously huge, way huger than anyone imagined?
- Black Holes could be the starting points of new Universes?
- How to use a worm-hole to travel through time?
Crazy stuff that's for sure, and it's all covered in this book. I'm a pretty big physics nut and spent a lot of time in my younger years reading the mainstream physics books. It's been a while since then so this book was a fantastic way for me to rekindle my interest in the field, as well as getting refreshed on a lot of the facts, as well as introduce a ton of new material.
What made me really enjoy this book was the unique perspective that Greene uses and applies every new tidbit of knowledge to his central theme of trying to figure out what the hell space and time actually are. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself here.
After reading this book I spent a while thinking about how to write this review, and in particular who I should recommend this book to. There are quite a few aspects to how the material is presented that I greatly appreciated, but this may not be true with people who aren't already familiar with a lot of these concepts. I mean, I read The Elegant Universe before it got popular, physics was my highest mark in highschool, and I took astrophysics in University for fun; that's the kind of guy I am. And there's not many of us. The people who are like me have already read this book, or at the very least is on their to-read list. To them, I say: read it. You will not be disappointed as Brian Greene's writing is always fresh and interesting, and while he repeats himself occasionally, he never dumbs down the material and provides very extensive notes for people that want to do further research.
Now what about the people that barely passed their high school physics courses, and have only seen the word quantum in that endearing television show of the early 90s starting Scott Bakula. To those people, I still say: read it, with a but. Read it, but don't read it by yourself. Get a group of friends together, hopefully at least one of them will be a physics-nerd and move through the book slowly all the while discussing the concepts with one another. I think this would be a very rewarding experience and greatly enhance people's understanding of the underlying physical processes of the Universe, and thus their appreciation of the Universe in general, as well as giving them something to do outside of watching 24.
Greene uses the central questions of "What is Space?" and "What is Time?" to guide the readers through the evolution of scientific thought of the greatest minds the world has seen, all the way to the latest cutting edge theories. As these two fundamental questions have occupied the minds of everybody on Earth at some point as they lie in their beds trying to fall asleep it's a bonding experience to see you're not alone in getting overwhelmed. It's great to see how each sucessive discovery and revelation builds upon, and expands the knowledge and theories that have come before. Greene constantly reinforces the point that new knowledge doesn't replace the old, it instead refines our understanding of the underlying reality in more extreme situations. Einstein's theories don't make Newton's laws obsolete, only when travelling close to the speed of light or looking at large cosmological phenomenon.
The reason why I recommend reading through this book with at least one person familiar with physical theories is that even with Greene's total use of analogies to illustrate his points, some of the concepts are just difficult to understand. Period. I mean it's only now that I've realized just how friggin crazy and weird probability waves actually are. I used to take it for granted before, but with the newfound understanding I've gained from the book, it just blows my mind thinking about it. But that's awesome. And that's why I strongly recommend this book to people who are unfamiliar with how crazy our Universe actually is. I mean, once I start thinking about it, I just want to talk about all the cool things that are covered in the book, the questions I posed at the beginning of this review are just a small sample of what's covered. But that's also why it's a difficult book, you can spend hours poring over one page trying to grasp the meaning of the words in your head, visualizing the event he's describing and trying to make sense of it.
Furthermore, the material covered in this book while answering a lot of questions, also opens up a host of new and more sophisticated ones. Not all of these questions are scientific either, as the observations and theories discussed open new perspectives for viewing spritual and philosophical concepts. As an example Greene demonstrates how the present is a flexible concept, depending on certain conditions, what one person sees as now is different than another across the Universe. In fact the now that the person across the Universe sees as now, is actually 200 years into the person here's location. So what does that mean? Greene states that our experiences through time are solid and unchanging. If we are doing a certain thing at 12PM May 5th, 2000 we will always be doing that throughout eternity, and also for 12PM May 5th, 2010. Now what does that mean for things like free will, destiny, etc? Big questions indeed and definitely ones that should be fun to discuss in light of these observations.
I guess this review isn't so much an endorcement of the book as a very emphatic plea to study physics and the underlying nature of reality. Ok, fine, but this book is a great way to do that! It's pretty much the only book you need to get a very good understanding of all the current physics knowledge of the world. And it's written in a fun and engaging style that should keep you interested throughout. I don't think I can give a better endorcement than that.
