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The Fabric of the Cosmos

Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

By Greene Brian

(30)

| Hardcover | 9780375412882

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Book Description

From Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading physicists, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.

Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why doContinue

From Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading physicists, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.

Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past?

Greene uses these questions to guide us toward modern science’s new and deeper understanding of the universe. From Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’ entangled arena where vastly distant objects can bridge their spatial separation to instantaneously coordinate their behavior or even undergo teleportation, Greene reveals our world to be very different from what common experience leads us to believe. Focusing on the enigma of time, Greene establishes that nothing in the laws of physics insists that it run in any particular direction and that “time’s arrow” is a relic of the universe’s condition at the moment of the big bang. And in explaining the big bang itself, Greene shows how recent cutting-edge developments in superstring and M-theory may reconcile the behavior of everything from the smallest particle to the largest black hole. This startling vision culminates in a vibrant eleven-dimensional “multiverse,” pulsating with ever-changing textures, where space and time themselves may dissolve into subtler, more fundamental entities.

Sparked by the trademark wit, humor, and brilliant use of analogy that have made The Elegant Universe a modern classic, Brian Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.

With 146 illustrations

Jacket photograph by DB Image/Brand X Pictures

3 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

    Picked this book from the shelve last evening -- wanted to know a thing or two about String Theory. Interested in this concept after reading Jiang's (江) comics from Sunday Ming Pao a couple of months ago. Basically, string theory delves into the smallest part that lie in an atom -- strings are ene ... (continue)

    Picked this book from the shelve last evening -- wanted to know a thing or two about String Theory. Interested in this concept after reading Jiang's (江) comics from Sunday Ming Pao a couple of months ago. Basically, string theory delves into the smallest part that lie in an atom -- strings are energy strands that vibrate in different frequencies. This theory lies the promise in uniting quantum mechanics and general relativity -- becoming a "Theory of Everything" -- describing matters of small and big. Those strings are infinitesimally small -- which can't be seen directly and empirically. I think one of the footnotes on String Theory is quite gripping -- claiming someone should not reject a theory on the basis that the premise/object being discussed cannot be directly observable or refutable. For example, Greene says the proof of atoms exists is shown in Brownian motion, or the proof of black holes exists is through observing gas being sucked into black holes -- but not seeing atoms or black holes themselves.

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    Search Serg said on May 7, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    I have NEVER seen a mistake in a book like in this one. Oh, it was no fault of the author, but rather the printer. Pages 17-48 are missing. Really. Not torn out, just never there to begin with. No wonder I was having trouble understanding it.

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    KyotoCutie said on Mar 29, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Greene's books never fail to entertain and educate all audiences. His popular level books take readers with no scientific training into the frontier world of string theory.

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    audioreader said on Aug 15, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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