The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
Book Review: Physics class redefined
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply brilliant. How can a physics book be a page-turner? This definitely is. Read a second time recently after first reading after publication. Brian Greene definiely has a knack for getting the knowledge to stick!Book Review: Fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
`The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene is a truly remarkable work of science writing. It covers incredibly interesting topics, is beautifully written, and, most importantly, Greene really has the ability to teach, rather than just tell.
Brief breakdown:
The book begins with a tour of classical physics and special and general relativity, centring on a discussion of space and spacetime and whether these are absolute entities or not, using the classic thought experiment of Newton's bucket. This in an interesting way to approach the relativity theories, but I think they are better described in Greene's `The Elegant Universe'.
Next, Greene takes us into quantum mechanics, beginning with descriptions of interference and double slit experiments then centring on the EPR paradox. He describes Bell's theorem with a brilliant analogy, and really walks the reader through some of the difficult concepts of quantum entanglement. At the end of this section, I really began to appreciate the strangeness of our quantum universe.
Next, he turns his attention to time, and argues that if all of space exists somewhere, then so does all of time. I found this very intriguing. His discussions of the arrow of time, and how physical laws apply in reverse, were very interesting. He introduces us to the concept of entropy and the problems we face if we assume entropy increases in the future and the past. The Big Bang, and its thermodynamic legacy, pull us out of this particular `quagmire'.
Inflationary cosmology then takes over and we learn about the Higgs Field, quantum fluctuations in the early universe and expansion. He also discusses the origin of times arrow in terms of the low entropy of the early universe.
String theory and M-theory dominate the latter part of the book. There isn't really anything here that wasn't discussed in 'The Elegant Universe', but FOTC does discuss this topic in a more focussed manner.
Summary:
Overall, Greene's book is stunning and left me with a sense of wonder. I was equally impressed with the material and the ability of Greene to teach it to me. By example, I often found myself asking questions as I read, and I almost always found that he had anticipated the questions, and answered them within the next paragraph or section.
A mammoth achievement that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn about what theoretical physics has to say about the workings of the Universe.