The Elegant Universe

I just finished Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe – Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.” This is a great read for a “non-scientist.” The book is the right mix of basics on Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory, plus a good dose of information that requires stretching your comprehension skills. I don’t pretend to understand most of it to the point that I could re-explain it to someone else, but Mr. Greene’s descriptions do pull you in and give you some insight into the type of work top physicists and mathematicians are involved with.

The primary subject of the book is Superstring theory and it’s potential for finally uniting the theories both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics into a Unified Theory.

“According to sting theory, the elementary ingredients of the universe are not point particles. Rather, they are tiny, one-dimensional filaments somewhat like infinitely thing rubber bands, vibrating to and fro.”

One of the most challenging aspects of the book (and in String Theory in general) is the need to think in more than the four dimensions we are so familiar with (length, width, height, and time). Different versions of string theory actually propose that our universe is made up of ten and eleven dimensions. Many of the diagrams in this book are particularly useful in helping your mind “stretch” to imagine what this might be like. In addition, I found many of the descriptions and diagrams in the book explaining “just” relativity and quantum mechanics to be better than those found in some other popular physics books I’ve read. I found the picture showing how the sun “warps” the fabric of space time through gravity was particularly useful.