Kevin Isenbarger

April 07, 2008

Fabric of the Cosmos Book Review

The Fabric of the Cosmos was a book written to explain the universe with relation to space and time. When I first picked up The Fabric of The Cosmos I would have been willing to bet that the book was going to be an eye closer. Wrong I was and would have lost that bet. Brian Greene’s novel was enthralling. Granted there was a bunch of inormation but it was enjoyable because it all related into one big story. Brian Greene touched on material that Albert Einstein first discovered many years ago, a lot of times referring to him throughout the novel; attempting to explain how things occupy space at different times. Fabric of the Cosmos was more interesting to read than Looking for Earths, because Greene gave his own explanations to space theories. It was not a dull novel where Greene gathered everyone elses information and then stated the work they have done. Greene explained his theories and equations along with other physisist scientists. He also was able to analyze and break down the most intricate theories and physics equations down to laymen’s terms so the average reader would not be closing the book after the first page. I especially enjoyed the novel because Greene broke the book down into five different parts that were almost in a sense different novels in themselves, but all relating to eachother. He also started the chapter of with an objective which he would build on throughout the chapter and explain, for example does time have a direction? At the end of the chapter you would have insight in that question, that is, if you were paying attention.

Greene did an excellent job in explaining hundreds of years of science and theories for the every day reader. He did this by simplifying the process to relate to what the reader actually knows. For example, the reader does not know much about the cosmology and shape of space but he explained it by relating it to a video game. He first related the video game dimensions, like a pacman screen: no curves and flatm to the space that a human being occupies. He then related these dimensions to the geometric curvetures that explain many theories. After this he expanded on the concepts as explanations into Einsteins theories to relate to space. He almost oversimplified some of the theories to where a freshman in high school with any understanding of physics would be able to read the novel. The graphs that accommodate the explanations would help tremendously. Through all this the reader was relate to something he or she knows and apply it to the concepts that Greene used in his novel. Greene knew that it was not only going to be expert physists reading his novel, and if it were they still know the processes he is explaining even with the laymen’s terms.

I also was delighted that Greene gave way to how far we’ve come with space, time, and quantum physics and all the progress that has been made. I enjoy reading novels that explain the attempts in science that didn’t make it but became evolutionary modules for later scientists. Throughout the novel he gave way to the theories that have been disapproved and the equations that disapproved them. Not only did he explain how far we have come in part III, spacetime and cosmology, but he also gave predictions into the world of space for the future. Although I thought Greene hit on many good points, I thought he got a little abstract when he introduces in chapter fifteen about the possibility to travel back in time. I do not see how this is at all plausible and think he needed more explanation than briefly touching on wormholes.

Overall The Fabric of the Cosmos would be enjoyable to any reader looking to expand their knowledge on space and time, without having any.