trade paperback

To be Read (page 236 of 387, 448 including endnotes and index)

Popular explanation of String Theory. From the back blurb:

"In a rare blend of scientific insight as writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theoriests [...] peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of eleven 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."

Adding my own slight clarification to the blurb, "microscopic" is too grand a term, as strings are far smaller than any microscope or particle accelerator can manage to glimpse. :-)

Um.

Wow.

This is an amazing book. It takes the reader on a journey into strange realms, where (among other things) a dimension of space and spontaneously rip apart, be covered by a zero-mass mebrane and turned into a tiny back hole, then repair itself. Where universes may be as common as soap bubbles in a bath. Where we can catch a glimpse at a possible universe *before* the big bang. All this, within the strange world of string theory.

The book builds it's way through Newtonian phsics through Einstein's relativity and on to quantum theory as a basic for the exploration of string theory. The book would be valuable if it stopped at that point. Greene writes clearly and uses many examples and metaphors to lead the non-scientist through the pitfalls and non-intuitive tenets of relativity and quantum mechanics. I cannot say, even having tried my best, to understand *everything* here, but I got enough of relativity and quantum to be able to move forward.

The same can be said of string theory (and M-theory, what is a possible over-theory for strings.) Strings are tiny beyond anything we have seen with even the most powerful microscopes. They are smaller than quarks, the tiny particles which make up electrons, protons, neutrons and other sub-atomic particles. By vibration patterns (and other things that would take the book itself to explain) they comprise all we see in the universe. If they exist. Certainly there are mathematical indications they do exist, but there is no *proof*. Still, the theory itself has proven valuable in showing how we can view the universe, from the very small to the very large.

This is a good but difficult book. Because string theory itself is unfinished, we are left with more questions than answers. And even some answers leave doubts in the reader (in this reader, anyway!) This is probably because of the nature of words versus mathematics. Words can only approximate what is described in equations, just as words cannot express the nature of music, but only personal impressions of it. Even with that limitation, Greene does a good job, at least so far as this layman can judge.

Released on Monday, April 05, 2004 at Browns Mills Post Office in Browns Mills, New Jersey USA.

Mailed to gwendy on the first leg of the Bookray.

i never really enjoyed physics all that much, although i really think my teachers had something to do with that. i only wish i could have known about string theory then,, i would have paid more attention! i knew i wouldn't be able to finish a technical book of this size in a timely fashion.. i felt like i should be taking notes, and taking my time. and so i wanted to know if it was something i should invest in.. (yes!). passing along-

Received by mail from gwendy. Will get to it soon (probably next week).

5/26/04 - Started this morning and have discovered that this is not a good book to read on the bus - I almost missed my stop on the way home last night, because I was pretending to be Gracie (you'll meet her when you read this), floating out in space with my blinking light and fancy watch. This will be a home book from now on; a chunk a night. Cross my heart - I'll send it on when my month is up, even if I haven't finished reading.

6/5/04 - Mailed to rmg - I made it about 3/4 of the way through, but I know I won't get back to it this week (grant deadlines coming up), so I shipped it off rather than be mocked by it all week :-) I really liked what I got through, although I wanted to scream every time he talked about "microscopic" particles; pet peeve of mine - I'm a microcscopy geek and have this "thing" about that word - if it is too small to see with a 'scope, it isn't "microscopic". And I know he knows that, but I always think that a science writer who is somewhat sloppy about that kind of glaring thing might be leading us astray in other ways, too.

Arrived safely!

I thought I should probably make another entry, just to let everyone know that the book is still safe. I *am* reading and even enjoying it, but I'm a bit behind schedule. I'm about half way through at present. Having come this far, I'd really like to finish it before passing it on.

Sorry for the delay!

This was a difficult book, but worth the effort. Despite spending 4 years of my youth getting a physics degree, we never covered string theory, so it was exciting to find out about it. It was even better not to have to do any maths! Even without maths, there are many sections of this book that I needed to read twice, have a good think about and then read a third time.

I was pleased that the author took pains to point out that there is still no experimental evidence in favour of string theory. I hate it when authors try to remove uncertainties and paper over discrepancies in a bid to make science more "understandable", and this book didn't commit those crimes.

Sending this book off to Kernow8 today.

The Elegant Universe has arrived in Southampton. I'm looking forward, with some trepidation, to reading it. It will be on its way back to America within the next two months. Thanks!

Currently reading (sorry about the delay) - I'm particularly motivated to read this at the moment as I've recently settled on teaching science (chemistry, to be more exact) as my future career and this book will fill in some major gaps since I left school in the 80s!

By the way, inquirer (the reader supposedly after me) has had PMs turned off for the last 2 months and I had no response from a forum post asking after them, so if you have no objections, tom-m, I'll be sending this to caligula03 instead when I've finished it.

I finished this mind-blowing book yesterday. It was hard-going, but worth it. There are some concepts that I still just can't visualise, like the extra spatial dimensions, but I think on the whole that I have gained considerable understanding of the universe from this book. I'm thinking of buying my own copy for future reference. Greene's way of explaining things using everyday images is fantastic.

Off to caligula03 tomorrow (still no sign of inquirer). Thanks tom-m!

On its way to California.

The book has arrived. I've seen the PBS documentary that compliments the book. I'm looking forward to reading the book.

I'm still reading this book but I've put it on the back burner so I can get through the rings and rays where I am not the last on the list. I want to have the time to fully enjoy the book and not need to rush. Once I am done I will announce a new ray for this book to make sure it continues on its travels.

List of participants

• gypsysmom, Canada, Domestic
  
• titihood, Canada, Canada, USA, Europe
  
• GrannyAnn, USA, USA or Canada
  
• sqdancer, Canada, International
  
• Redbank, Australia, International
  
• puppymummy, Australia, International
  
• RonOren, UK, Europe only
  
• DJgib, UK, Europe only
  
• blaisezabini12, Romania, Europe only
  
• Sirannon, Spain, International
  
• i-spy, Illinois, USA
  
• Irishcoda, New Jersey, USA
  
• Erishkigal, Utah, International
  

RELEASE NOTES:

I enjoyed reading the book and I've kept it much too long. I'm sending it on its way. It's going next to gypsysmom.

Lovely surprise when I got home from work tonight to find a package from caligula03 with this book inside. It's my first bookray as a BCer. Good timing too as I just finished reading Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson which talked about string theory quite a bit in one section. Now maybe I'll be able to figure out what he was talking about.

At long last I have finished this book. It took me a long time to read it, not because I didn't find it interesting, but because I needed to have periods of uninterrupted time to read and absorb the information. Uninterrupted time seemed to be at a premium this spring.

However, having read it, I believe I can say I understand string theory a little bit whereas, before I read it, I had barely even heard of string theory. Dr. Greene's illustrations and examples helped a lot to make a rather arcane subject comprehensible. One example, though, really jarred me. On page 264 he is talking about wormholes and uses the idea of a bridge between the World Trade Centre Towers to illustrate the concept. Of course, this was written before 9/11 but it occurred to me that the terrorists really chose their target well when it is used even in a scientific text to illustrate something of massive size.

Dr. Greene is obviously that rarest of scientists i.e. someone who can explain their specialty in terms a novice can easily understand.

Having said all this, a part of me still wonders if string theory isn't some giant hoax foisted on us by physicists who sit around and laugh uproariously at how gullible we are. I work in biochemistry research and I'm used to not seeing the particles I work with (enzymes) but at least we can perform experiments which show reactions in the presence of and in the absence of the particles and thereby demonstrate that there is a difference. String theorists seem mostly to manipulate equations and then say they prove what they set out to prove. It's a little too esoteric for my liking. I'll stick to biochemistry.

I'll mail this off to titihood who I think is still on holiday so she hasn't been pining away for it.

Mailed to titihood on July 13/05 from Winnipeg. It should make to Montreal in a week to 10 days.

This was waiting for me on my return from the UK with some other books (thanks gypsysmom!), will begin reading it in tandem with my boyfriend who is very interested in quantum phsyics etc. - will have to have completely different bookmarks!!
7th Aug 2005: Boyfriend has reached Ch. 5 and I have only just started it. He loves it, keeps telling me all about it so he'll probably finish it before me, then I'll send it on to the next BCer. I've never read something this scientifc before so am hoping it won't take me too long.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is very good but is taking me a lot of time, so decided to buy my own copy. Sent to GrannyAnn :)

Received in the mail today. I enjoyed the Nova presentation and I hope Brian Greene is as good a writer as he is a speaker.

Sending off to sqdancer.

I started the book and knew I wouldn't finish in a timely manner. I'll get a copy for myself. There's a lot of great information in here and written in an easy to read way. But it's not material to be read quickly.

Arrived safe and sound. It looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing, caligula03.

Thanks for the lovely postcard, GrannyAnn.

Very interesting book, but not one that can be raced through. I think I may get a copy to re-read. Thanks for sharing!


I'm not having any luck contacting Redbank via PM, so I am going to post an ISO in the Ring/Ray Forum.


Update May 27/06:
Still no luck, so I'm moving on to puppymummy.

Finally made it to the post office (I've been working too much overtime!) Sorry!

Sent by air mail to puppymummy in Australia, yesterday.

Safely received in Australia, I don't think that this will be a quick read based on previous journal entries, but I do look forward to finding out about string theory.

I really, really apologise for holding onto this book so long. I have been literally carrying it in my workbag for several months, trying to read it - but I realised (finally) last night that even the sections I've read are just not sticking with me at all. I can either read it and not actually take in more than a few words, or else I can try to understand it all and take years.
So I give up :(

In my defence, happy to discuss anything biological at any time, just can't do physics!
Will be posting to RonOren first thing Monday.

Yay, it finally arrived! (That was not meant as a slight to you, puppymummy). I've been looking forward to this for quite a while. It seems that the consensus is it's interesting, but quite difficulty too. Well, nothing I enjoy more than a good challenge...

Having said that, I do expect it'll take me a while (not least because I'm in the middle of three books at the time), so the next journal entry could be a while.

I quite enjoyed this! Went through it a bit quicker than I expected based on other people's experiences (somewhat helped by the fact that I've got a scientific background, I guess).

Overall, I did like it. I'm very impressed with the way that Brian Greene can explain this highly complicated matter (what kind of book starts with relativity and proceeds to make it all more difficult?) in a way that is understandable to laymen. Admittedly, the mind still boggles at the idea of a 10-dimensional universe and at everything being made up of possibly three-dimensional, not-quite-point-like particles, but I guess that comes with the territory (in fact, I wonder how often these particle physicists feel their minds boggle? I should hope very often, or they have indeed relinquished any connection with everyday life).
The important point is that I now understand (more or less) how string theory (or part of it) works and why it describes the world better (or somewhat better at least) than most other theories.

Much as I'm impressed with Dr. Greene, though, I felt there were quite a few moments where he contradicted himself or succumbed to flawed reasoning. To use one example: one of the strongest arguments (at least, in the beginning) why string theory might be right, is the fact that it accurately describes the graviton, the particle that would convey the force gravitational. But if relativity teaches us that gravity is no more than objects moving in a straight line through curved spacetime, there is no need for a graviton, is there?
I'm sure a lot of these contradictions come from the fact that Greene needs to "dumb down" the science so that us laymen understand it as well; maybe these "contradictions" are in fact paradoxes that evaporate when one considers the full theory: to go back to my example, maybe the graviton is what causes spacetime to curve, i.e. it's the particle that "tells" spacetime it is curved. (While besides my point here, why couldn't he explain this paradox? I'm sure it can't be more difficult than some of the endnotes "for the mathematically inclined reader")

Yet, I can't shake the feeling that sometimes the flawed reasoning comes from a need to "prove" string theory. For example, Greene claims that a unified theory would be inevitable if it's internally consistent; while an inevitable theory needs to be internally consistent, an internally consistent theory isn't necessarily inevitable: there might be several internally consistent theories that describe the same phenomenon (his reasoning here is akin to "a chair has four legs, thus anything with four legs must be a chair"). To me, that feels as rationalising why he (or rather, the community he's part of) is right, even though there is no real evidence for that.

Having said that, I will happily give Greene the benefit of the doubt and say that all those discrepancies lie in my lack of understanding (after all, he's the expert, isn't he?). I certainly did enjoy the book, which taught me a lot about string theory. Thanks for sharing this with us, tom-m and Caligula03!
I'll pass the book onto DJgib (who's sitting behind me now) in a moment's time.

Yes, you'd think that I would have been able to catch it quicker than this if I was sitting right behind RonOren, but just as I was about to do it my computer conked out and then I went on holiday (that's not a cause and affect thing), but I really have it now and I'm just about to start it.

Phew, that was hard work! I suppose the whole idea of relativity and stuff that's even harder is that you can't get your head round it but even so...

I must hand it to the author though, he was very good at explaining things through every day analogies, a talent much to be admired. I thought the way he set up the book was good too, everything was in a logical order and the story flowed very well.

I don't really have a lot to add to what Ron said (lack of originalty alert) so I'll just keep it short and say I thought this was a great look into the deep dark world pf physics, which as a chemist I generally try to steer clear of :-)

Thanks for letting me bump into the ring caligula03! Also a quick hello to my mate Sirannon who's only a bit further down the line!

I'll pm blaisezabini12 (who I believe I've met in rings before) and aim to get the book on its way very soon. Cheers, DJ.

Update 27th July: I haven't heard yet from blaisezabini12; I'm going to pm again and if I haven't had a reply by the time I get back from Italy, which will be August 13th, I will move on to Sirannon.

Right, sorry about the delay but we're getting there in the end. I have now got an address for Sirannon and I'll be taking the book to the post office later today.

Thanks caligula03 for letting me break into this ring, I enjoyed the opportunity to read this book.

I'm sorry it took me so long to post this journal entry. This semester is crazy and I have barely had the time to open a book.
I found it in my TBR pile today, as I was looking for some notes and started it. I hope I can finish it soon and send it on its way once more