The Elegant Universe
 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | Brian Greene |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Sherry Love |
| Language | English |
| Subject | String theory |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
Publication date | 1999/2003 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp. (2003 edition) |
| ISBN | 0-393-05858-1 (2003 edition) |
| Followed by | The Fabric of the Cosmos |
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory is a book by Brian Greene published in 1999, which introduces string and superstring theory, and provides a comprehensive though non-technical assessment of the theory and some of its shortcomings. In 2000, it won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. A new edition was released in 2003, with an updated preface.
Summary
[edit]Part I: The Edge of Knowledge
[edit]Chapter 1, "Tied Up With String", briefly introduces the conflicts between our current theories, and how they may be resolved. He introduces the building blocks of matter, electrons and quarks, and the forces that govern them.
Part II: The Dilemma of Space, Time, and the Quantum
[edit]Chapter 2, "Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder" explains Albert Einstein's special relativity, which united James Clerk Maxwell's electrodynamics with Galileo's principle of relativity. Einstein established that speed of light is a universal constant, and that the laws of physics are the same for all observers in relative motion. As a consequence, Isaac Newton's absolute time and space were replaced by a dynamic spacetime.
Chapter 3, "Of Warps and Ripples", introduces Einstein's general relativity, which resolved the conflict between Newton's theory of gravity and special relativity. General relativity explains gravity as the curvature of spacetime.
Chapter 4, "Microscopic Weirdness", introduces quantum mechanics. Greene begins with Max Planck's 1900 proposal that energy is absorbed and emitted in discrete units, or quanta. In 1905, Einstein used quantum theory to explain the photoelectric effect, the extraction of electrons from a metal by light. Greene uses the double-slit experiment to illustrate wave-particle duality of light. Louis de Broglie extended this to include matter. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says that we cannot simultaneously know the position and velocity of a particle, and the more we know about one, the less we know about the other.
Chapter 5, "The Need For a New Theory: General Relativity vs. Quantum Mechanics" explains the conflict between the two pillars of modern physics.
Part III: The Cosmic Symphony
[edit]Chapter 6, "Nothing But Music: The Essentials of String Theory" offers a brief history of string theory, starting with Gabriele Veneziano's work on the strong nuclear force. String theory replaces the conception of electrons and quarks as point particles with tiny, vibrating loops of string. One such vibration describes the properties predicted for the graviton, the postulated quantum of gravity.
Chapter 7, "The 'Super' in Superstrings discusses the importance of symmetry in physics, and the possibility of supersymmetry.
Chapter 8, "More Dimensions than Meets the Eye" discusses Theodor Kaluza's proposed unification of general relativity and electromagnetism, which required an extra dimension of space. The idea was elaborated on by the mathematician Oskar Klein.
Chapter 9, "The Smoking Gun: Experimental Signatures" discusses criticisms of string theory, namely that it has not yet yielded testable predictions. Greene explains how this may change in the near future.
Part IV: String Theory and the Fabric of Spacetime
[edit]Chapter 10, "Quantum Geometry" discusses Calabi-Yau spaces and their applications.
Chapter 11, "Tearing the Fabric of Space" discusses Greene's own work in string theory, and how strings could repair tears in the fabric of space
Chapter 12, "Beyond Strings: In Search of M-Theory" discusses the different versions of string theory, and how they might be pointing towards a single theory, mysteriously called M-Theory.
Chapter 13, "Black Holes: A String/ M-Theory Perspective" looks at mysteries of black holes and how they might be resolved by string theory. Greene discusses Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bekenstein's discovery of black hole thermodynamics and Hawking's discovery of Hawking radiation.
Chapter 14, "Reflections on Cosmology" gives an overview of the standard big bang model and the refinements of inflationary cosmology. String theory could answer questions such as whether the universe began with a singularity.
Part V: Unification in the Twenty-First Century
[edit]Chapter 15,"Prospects" looks at questions string theory might answer, such as the nature of space and time. He speculates about the future of the theory.
Reception
[edit]George Johson wrote in The New York Times:
Writing about this area of physics, as Greene does, without assuming that the reader has any mathematical background is the hardest challenge of popular science writing. Michio Kaku, a physicist at City College in New York, provided a very nice introduction to superstrings in Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe. But Greene goes beyond Kaku's book, exploring the ideas and recent developments with a depth and clarity I wouldn't have thought possible. Like Simon Singh in Fermat's Enigma, he has a rare ability to explain even the most evanescent ideas in a way that gives at least the illusion of understanding, enough of a mental toehold to get on with the climb.[1]
John H. Schwarz wrote:
Since he is an expert in the subject, Greene's description of the current state of understanding of string theory is reliable. I am not aware of any errors in his depiction of the subject. He writes with a flair that is rare in the scientific world, and which should make the book very appealing to the lay reader. Indeed, following the publication of this book, he has become something of a media celebrity.[2]
Adaptations
[edit]The Elegant Universe was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning[3] three-hour program in three parts for television broadcast by David Hickman in late 2003 on the PBS series NOVA.[4]
- Einstein's Dream
- String's The Thing
- Welcome To The 11th Dimension
The Elegant Universe was also interpreted by choreographer Karole Armitage, of Armitage Gone! Dance, in New York City. A performance of the work-in-progress formed part of the inaugural World Science Festival.
See also
[edit]- The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004)
- The Road to Reality (2004)
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ Johnson, George (February 21, 1999). "Space-Time: The Final Frontier (Review of The Elegant Universe by Briane Greene)". The New York Times.
- ^ Schwarz, J. H. (2000). "Review of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene". American Journal of Physics. 68 (2): 199–200. doi:10.1119/1.19379. ISSN 0002-9505.
- ^ "PBS wins eight news and documentary Emmys - 2005 Emmy Awards". Today.com. 14 September 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
- ^ WGBH Educational Foundation (2003). "The Elegant Universe". PBS NOVA. Retrieved 2006-06-04.
References
[edit]- Brian Greene, "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory", Vintage Series, Random House Inc., February 2000 ISBN 0-375-70811-1
External links
[edit]- "The Elegant Universe". PBS.
- Perkowitz, Sidney (11 June 1999). "The Seductive Melody of the Strings". Science. 284 (5421): 1780. doi:10.1126/science.284.5421.1780a. JSTOR 2898035. S2CID 119020033.
- Brown, Laurie M. (June 2004). "Reviewed Work: The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene". Isis. 95 (2): 327. doi:10.1086/426259. JSTOR 10.1086/426259.
- Santiago, Luis E. Ibáñez (November 2000). "Un viaje hacia la teoría final". Revista de Libros de la Fundación Caja Madrid (in Spanish) (47): 28. JSTOR 30229390.
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