Doug Brackman
PHY 311
Book Review on Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos
After reading The Fabric of the Cosmos, I found this book to be a very complete and thought-provoking account of how space-time affects the universe. The most difficult part about this book is was not actually how the book was written, but the topics discussed created some confusion for me. However, I thought that Greene actually did a fantastic job relating the material to everyday situations. For example, his illustration of slicing space-time as you would a loaf of bread was pretty unique in its own right. He also uses a little dose of humor, i.e. his discussion on the high/low-entropy arrangement of the pages of War & Peace. His simple, appropriate explanations and digressions such as these make the difficult topics much more palatable to readers, me included.
I found it very helpful the way the first chapter delved us into the historical theories about the universe and how they compare to the idea of special relativity. Wisely, Greene sets the stage for the reader and allows those of all scientific backgrounds to essentially start on the same page.
The first part of the book discusses the historical and current theories on relativity and time but I feel the most interesting part of this book for me was the discussion on the String Theory. I had heard of this, but never actually knew the logic or principles behind the theory. It essentially states that there is a lower level of composition than quarks; that tiny, string-like filaments of energy compose everything. I suppose thinking about a string or line logically, my guess would be that there are some other things that are apart of these filaments. In geometry many points can be components of a line, so why should this principle not apply to the scientific areas of composition as well? This specific topic, including the actual scale of the discussion, left me in sheer amazement of the possibilities that could be. To even comprehend, let alone be able to make predictions about the fundamental composition of matter requires a higher understanding that may be out of my skill set and many others’.
This book, however, was not without its faults. A few of the conclusions that Greene arrives at come across as gut feelings. This doesn’t seem very scientific. Although, his gut feelings shows that these theories have not advances very far in our understanding of them. Albeit a primitive state of these new theories doesn’t permit us to get very specific, it does breed a little excitement into us the readers. I also thought that the book could have done a little better with diagrams and pictures, with such concepts being so abstract, illustrations are often a very important signpost to the more novice readers.
This book asks some difficult questions that challenge the whole way we think about our environment. Questions such as, “What is reality” or “Does time have a direction” can sometimes leaving us scratching our head in sheer amazement. I am genuinely interested as to what the future holds for the String Theory. Finding a theory that combines different areas of science could truly be the key of great things to come. In reading this book also, I can see the author’s enthusiasm for the subject through the analogies and thoughtful stories being told.